#TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT EDITING MANUAL#

Their goal is not to tear your book apart-it’s to make it into something amazing! Not to mention, your copyeditor will always work with you if something needs any major reworks. Their goal is just to fix unintentional mistakes and other aspects that make it more difficult for readers to get to your book’s best aspects. Everything that’s great about your book will stay. But a good copyeditor will always maintain the integrity of your work. It’s scary to hand over a manuscript you’ve spent hours laboring over and perfecting just so someone can go in and start changing things.

#TYPES OF MANUSCRIPT EDITING MANUAL#

Making sure sentences are clear and conciseĮnsuring that your work is compliant with the style guide (most of the publishing world uses the Chicago Manual of Style) A copyeditor is what stands in between you and publishing a book with a major mistake that readers will catch (no pressure!). Copyediting does that and more, checking for things like awkward phrasing, sentence structure, and even fact-checking. Proofreading happens around the same time, as you’re finishing up your manuscript, but it is only a line-by-line check for clear errors. However, copyediting isn’t just line-by-line, a copyeditor will also check to make sure your plot is solid and that no sections repeat (and that there are no plot holes).Ĭopyediting is not the same as proofreading-though there is some overlap. At a glance, the goal of copyediting is to clear your manuscript of typos, unintentional grammar and spelling errors, and to tighten the language up to make sure everything is clear. In fact, if you publish traditionally, your book will go through a copyeditor before it’s published. CopyeditingĬopyediting tends to happen toward the end of your writing process. Plus, I personally learn a lot from editing (or even from having others do the editing), which improves my writing skills in the long run. Once you understand how each type works, you’ll be able to use them to your advantage and make your book the best it can be. Each one shares considerable overlap with the others, but they all ultimately serve a different purpose. There are several different types of editing, but today we’re going to go through copyediting, proofreading, developmental editing, and line editing. However, it’s an essential step in every stage of the writing process from your first draft to your final manuscript. It’s the part of writing that some dread and others live for due to its detailed and regimented nature. By Shelby Hanson, Administrative and Editorial AssistantĮditing.

Types of manuscript editing