| There is a difference in developmental editing and | | | | makes sense, that's logical, so the book's content |
| copy editing. | | | | is congruent instead of randomly thrown together. |
| In copy editing spelling, punctuation, and | | | | Even though a poorly written book may contain a |
| mechanical errors are the task at hand. | | | | lot of information, it needs to be cohesive enough |
| Developmental editing comes prior to copyediting. | | | | for people to follow and feel like they learned |
| There's no need to look for a missing comma or | | | | something. |
| semi-colon when you don't have your characters | | | | People not only have very short attention spans, |
| well-developed or when the plot is not moving and | | | | they get discouraged very quickly. How many |
| the scene is not set up. That book will need to be | | | | times have you heard people say, "Well, I started |
| rewritten before it can be sent for a copyedit. | | | | the book but I just couldn't get into it. I never |
| The developmental edit is a huge process | | | | went back to it." That's what happens to a lot of |
| sometimes involving ghostwriting. The | | | | poorly written books. People lose interest very |
| developmental editor may rewrite sections where | | | | quickly and may not bother to finish reading the |
| the author is stuck. He or she may give ideas on | | | | book. You can be sure that book will not get a |
| how the story could move forward, or suggest a | | | | good review or any word-of-mouth promotion |
| new avenue or a new character to be introduced | | | | from the reader. |
| or removed. Of course, we're talking about fiction | | | | When you have your book copy edited, you |
| books in this regard, but non-fiction books have | | | | should expect a thorough line-by-line check for |
| the same problems, maybe not so much with | | | | typos to include spelling, grammar, punctuation, |
| characters, but with transitioning from one point | | | | word usage, and mechanical errors. These will be |
| to the next and overall content and flow. There | | | | highlighted or "red-lined" much like a teacher |
| may be places where the author is talking about a | | | | grades a research paper. |
| subject that hasn't been introduced to the reader. | | | | The author still has final say, but the copy editor |
| The author already has knowledge on it the | | | | knows style guides, front matter, back matter, |
| subject, but the reader doesn't learn about it until | | | | indexing, layout, formatting, and other things your |
| Chapter Fifteen. In such a case, a developmental | | | | English teacher may not know to look for. |
| editor might tell the author, "We need to move | | | | The developmental editor's job is to get the book |
| this description to Chapter Two before you speak | | | | ready for the copy editor. The copy editor's job |
| about it in Chapter Three. | | | | is to get the book ready for a publisher or printer. |
| Developmental editing is a matter of rearranging | | | | That's the difference between developmental and |
| the text and getting it to a flow in a way that | | | | copy editing. |