Editing is the Secret to Success
Working Title: Book coaches ensure your story is the best it can be by offering a variety of editorial services.
Welcome to another post designed to help writers of all genres craft stories that help readers make sense of the world—or escape it if the writer’s chosen genre is romantasy. Great writing is great writing, and at the end of the day, that’s what I’m here to promote. And now I’m revealing the number one secret to success:
A fantastic book coach or editor.
A novel is a complex entity. All those moving parts—external plot, internal arc, worldbuilding, foreshadowing—must come across as realistic. It’s a difficult balance to achieve, especially since you as the author have access to all the backstory and research inside your head. In other words, you may be blind to the problems in your story because your words must traverse your mind before winding up on the page. We cannot see our own biases, just like the fish isn’t aware of the water.
That’s where the book coach and/or editor comes into play.
While many newer authors are often hesitant to purchase professional services, I’d argue these services are an investment. That begs the question, “Why would I pay for something I get for free from my writing group?”
True. Writing groups and beta-readers can and do offer decent feedback. However, you get what you pay for.
A quick scroll through the #amwriting hashtag brings up countless posts from frustrated authors who are waiting on input to move forward with their revision. Worse are the posts from writers who received feedback in the form of cruel comments and no path forward. How many people never realize their dream because someone’s uneducated opinion fed into that insidious beast called fear?
I could have been one of those authors. Writing the first drafts of Rowena’s Song taxed my brain more than my master’s thesis. I struggled to put all the pieces together, until I realized I had two choices: Put the draft in a drawer and take up a new hobby, or invest in a story that meant as much to me as my kids.
Obviously, there was only one real choice. I hired a fantastic developmental editor. Her skill and understanding of story craft was so impressive, I decided to learn as much about fiction as possible so I could help others like Chersti Nieveen of Writer Therapy helped me.
If you’re ready to take action and get the feedback you’re craving, read on! The follow list describes the different type of services coaches and editors provide depending on where you are at in the writing process.
Developmental Editing and Manuscript Evaluations
This is a service that looks at a story in the early phases to ensure it is structurally sound. If your story was a house, this corresponds to the foundation. Your coach or editor will makes sure there aren’t any cracks. Issues they address include:
Ensuring the overall plot proceeds in a logical fashion.
Identifying gaps in the current plot or worldbuilding.
Providing feedback on the main characters’ development over the course of the narrative.
Assessing if you’ve chosen the best point of view for the story.
Determining if you are meeting genre expectations.
Offering insight into the current market and target audience.
If you are at still at the outlining stage, this work takes place in the form of a developmental edit. If you have completed a rough draft, this work is called a manuscript evaluation.
Content Editing
Once the coach or editor has ensured your story has a strong foundation, it’s time to build it up! Content editing is akin to putting up the walls and roof in the house metaphor. This stage can only be completed once you have a rough draft. You will receive feedback on things such as :
Chapter by chapter pacing issues, whether too slow or too rushed.
Character development beyond the protagonist and antagonist.
Dialogue. Is it effective and natural?
The underlying themes and messages.
Conflict and its resolution.
A main focus of a content editor is helping the author hone their “voice”. They should help you refine your word choices so that your finished work is appropriate for your intended audience. This process is sometimes called a low-level line edit, but I personally find that confusing. If you are in the process of hiring someone for this service, do your due diligence and find out exactly how detailed their editorial input will be.
Line Editing
As you might have guessed, line editing includes everything included in a content edit, but at the line-by-line level. The point of a line edit is improve the language and style of the writing, enhancing the clarity and flow of ideas. In our house metaphor, we are installing the appliances and bringing in the furniture.
As a line editor reads your work, they are:
Ensuring each sentence flows in to the next.
Checking that each verb is the strongest it can be.
Clarifying any remaining unclear paragraphs or minor errors in blocking or POV.
Reviewing the use of dialogue tags.
Addressing minor grammatical errors and punctuation issues.
Copy Editing
Congratulations! If you need a copy editor, that means you have a completed manuscript. In our house metaphor, we are hanging up art and putting out the knick-knacks. The copy editor has one job and one job only:
Correcting all of the spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes in your manuscript.
“Oh, but I have an AI program to do that,” you say. My honest response to this statement is this. If you are planning to query, a program like ProWriting Aid will clean up your work well enough to land an agent.
But that manuscript still has errors. As such, the publishing house is going to copy edit that story prior to publication.
Anyone who wants to be taken seriously in the self-publishing space really should hire a copy editor. You don’t know what you don’t know when it comes to developing the story. The same is true of crazy grammatical rules.
Proofreading
Unfortunately some folks use the terms copy editing and proofreading interchangeably. No wonder so many people are afraid to hire an editor! However, proofreading includes two things.
First, it identifies any overlooked spelling errors.
It ensures that the layout of the actual book is visually appealing. For example, you wouldn’t want the last word of a chapter to appear floating at the top of a page all by itself. No, the proofreader would instruct the layout artist to rescue that poor word from its lonely exile.
To go back to our metaphor, it’s now the holidays. We are dusting the floorboards and fluffing the pillows prior to company coming over.
Here is a final tip on copy editing and proofreading. Don’t think you can cheat and skip the early editorial stages in this process. The copy editor or proofreader will not care if your house is crumbling at the foundation. They will only ensure your sentences are grammatically correct.
Investing in Editorial Input
If you are ready to level up your writing, hiring a professional is a must. If you are looking for a relationship and someone to provide continuous feedback as you write, look for a book coach. If you would prefer to have a one-time assessment of your story, or are only in need of copy edits or proofreading, you will be best served by an editor.
Before signing any contracts, do your due diligence! There are a lot of self-proclaimed book coaches and editors out there. Ask them for their educational background and accreditation status. Ask for referrals. Ask to see a sample of their work. Some coaches and editors may do a free sample of work if they are newer. They may be amazing at their work, but don’t yet have the portfolio to prove it.
If you write genre fiction, I provide developmental edits on outlines, manuscript evaluations, and coaching feedback that is akin to weekly content editing. Head over to Book Bound Coaching and book a free first session! I also provide a free mini-edit to show you my process. I currently have openings in my calendar.
Great breakdown of all the different stages of editing! I feel like many new writers don't realize how many phases a book goes through before it's ready to show off. It just goes to show that patience is key, as well as developing our own sense of style.