Guide for Hobbyist Authors, pt. 3
The only thing writers hate more than writing: EDITING!
Hey y’all, it’s KimBoo! I’m an author and a podcaster who is also a librarian, text technology historian, and former I.T. project manager. I write about a lot of interesting things, I hope you agree! Please consider supporting me (and my dog!) so I can keep throwing errata & etcetera into the Scriptorium! Find my fiction at the Bibliotheca!
This is the third post in the Hobbyist Author Guide series; please read the initial overview to see where we’re at and where we’re going!
Editing.
What is it? How is it done? How much does it cost? How long does it take?
The correct answer to every single one of those questions is “it depends,” which is super confusing, I know. Sorry.
Yet, if there's one thing authors love to complain about more than writing, it's editing. And truthfully, editing can be a real slog.
Admittedly, I enjoy some aspects of editing, because it feels great to fix mistakes and see the work becoming recognizably better as you go. A continuity correction here, a typo there, and your work starts to look so much better!
Alas, that enjoyment rarely lasts long, because by the fourth time you've read the story, it starts getting to be more drudgery than enjoyment. By the thirtieth time you've read the story, you hate your work so much you want to throw it and possibly yourself off a tall cliff. That's perfectly normal!
In fact, one of the biggest mistakes that newer authors make is they get deep into the editing process and believe that somehow their work is worse than anyone else's because it had to go through so many edits. Speaking as a professional author, let me assure you that is not true. You’d be surprised at how much of the work of “naturally talented” authors goes through multiple passes of extensive editing.
Part of that mistaken belief is due to a misunderstanding by a lot of newbies about what exactly editing is. They believe that if a draft is good, it will need less editing. And…well, that’s true, but only to a point. What you don’t hear about is how much editing the author did along the way.
I’m known for very clean drafts, for instance. If you look at the story installments I post online, you’ll find that they are pretty good, even if obviously not polished (edited). But I tend to edit as I write, so every chapter has already been edited multiple times by me before anyone else ever reads it. I have a built-in lag time to give me the chance to do those edits before I post, because I know from hard, bitter experience that if I don’t take the time to edit, then I will live to regret it.
And here is the catch 22 of editing: Someone else needs to read your work. It’s the basic requirement for editing something to make it better, but it also means someone else needs to read your work before it’s perfect.
I know that hurts. Believe me, I know.
But the payoff is that a different set of eyes will catch errors that you've blankly read over a hundred times and not seen. For instance, a developmental editor (I'll get into the different types of editing in a moment) looks at the ideas and the overall structure and can tell you when you've made a mess of things. They might suggest moving scenes around, they might suggest expanding a certain character's role or removing a another character completely.
Trust me, you will hate every suggestion they make. With the heat death of a thousand fiery suns, your editor is going to be wrong about everything. Your editor is going to be an idiot who doesn't know or understand your vision. Your editor is going to be incompetent and untrustworthy. You’d be a fool to listen to anything they recommend!!!!
Then the next day, when you've had some time to sleep on it and a chance to walk around and clear your head or drink your favorite version of caffeine, you will realize that most of the time—not all of the time, but most of the time—your editor was right about almost everything. It’s tragic because it’s true.
I'm spending time explaining all of this because the emotional impact of being edited is usually far more intense than people expect, especially if you aren’t used to it. In fact, it can be so upsetting that some people quit writing altogether, or convince themselves that their work is just fine as-is and they don't need no stinkin’ editor!
Trust me, you do.
It’s not that you’re bad at your job, it’s just that all writers everywhere are too close to their work to objectively see all of its problems.
Back to the questions we started with: What is editing? How is it done? How much does it cost? How long does it take?
“Editing” in the publishing industry has worn many hats. It was originally just a verb; no one was “an editor” for a long time after Gutenberg. It was simply part of the publishing process, carried out by the publisher himself (for they were overwhelmingly men), an employee, or the author. An academic or scientific work might be sent out to be read by other experts in the field, but a lot of works were only edited as they were typeset. But times changed and the publishing industry became a massive enterprise, which meant that volume alone required specialists, and thus were “editors” born.
The common popular stereotype of an editor is usually someone who is employed by the publisher and works closely with the author to help shape the book into the best it can possibly be. That’s a little romantic and a lot unrealistic, especially in these days of rapid release and self-publishing.
Editing is actually an umbrella term for a variety of types of “manuscript repair.” The actual question should be: what kind of editing does your manuscript need?
From there, you can do research on how much it might cost you and how long it might take, but that is the place to start. Here are the different kinds of editing as described by my friend and professional editor,
. Not every manuscript is going to need every single kind listed here, but generally, every written work needs at least a couple:In-Progress Editing: Involves assessment of whether the manuscript is staying true to the author’s original vision and intent. These are high-level edits, with a focus on structure, organization, consistency, and clarity. Aspects considered are point of view, character development and arc, plot development and arc, voice, tone, theme, conflict and tension, pacing, setting, and dialogue.
Developmental Edit: Done during the early stages before the draft is complete. For nonfiction, the developmental editor also may serve as a project manager of sorts, guiding the author through the project from conception to publication.
Content Edit: Sometimes called structural or substantive edit, this is done with a completed but early draft.
Manuscript Editing: You, like me, might wonder if the terms “line editing” and “copy editing” mean the same thing. Spoiler: they don’t! But they are similar and sometimes overlapping, with each having a different primary focus. However, they look at the following issues and usually require one or more passes through the manuscript: Bland language, redundancies and digressions, passive voice, ambiguities, extraneous or overused words or phrases, run-on sentences/sentence fragments.
Line Edit: Paragraph- and line-level assessment of transitions between chapters and scenes, repetitive paragraph structure, and tonal or point-of-view shifts. A skilled line editor may also point out substantive issues and can flag things at the copy edit level.
Copy Edit: Word-by-word assessment looking for things such as repetitive sentence structure, corrections of errors introduced in the revision stage after the line edit, continuity and consistency (spelling of unique character or place names, capitalization, hyphenation, numbers). They might include a review of your author bio, book cover, query letter, or submission package to an agent or publisher. A skilled copy editor may also point out line edit issues and flag things at the proofreading level.
Pre-press editing: This is the stage where it all comes together and the manuscript gets a last-pass or two to catch egregious errors before “going to press.”
Proofread: Not editing, but a final pre-press check to correct errors introduced in the revision stage after the copy edit or overlooked in earlier edits (remember this when you see typos in a published book—it often went through multiple edits and several different people missed it anyway! No one is perfect!). It might also review the pre-print proof (called an Advanced Reader’s Copy or ARC) to catch any errors that were introduced in the formatting stage.
A word on style guides:
A style guide is a personalized reference document that helps writers maintain consistency in their writing, from grammar and punctuation choices to character details and world-building specifics. Unlike traditional style guides used by journalists or academics (like The Chicago Manual of Style or AP Style), a fiction writer’s style guide is tailored to your own story (or stories!). It includes things like preferred spellings, character names and descriptions, setting details, recurring terminology, and even decisions about formatting (e.g., how you handle italics for thoughts, or flashback scenes).
For hobbyist authors, a style guide might sound unnecessary, but it can be incredibly useful, especially in later drafts or when writing a series. It ensures you don’t accidentally change a side character’s eye color halfway through the book or use inconsistent hyphenation for a made-up fantasy term. A simple style guide can make editing smoother and help create a polished, professional final draft. Some editors, especially at the developmental stage, include creating a style guide for you as part of their editing package, but not all. Be sure to ask if you want one made for you.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, the editing you need will vary depending on your skill set, your intentions, your end goals, and (yes, alas) your budget.
Some authors pay thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, for a full sweep of edits. They might hire one person to do all of them, but it’s more common to hire different specialists for different stages. For instance, I’m a pretty decent developmental editor because I’m a “big picture” person. I am good at helping authors figure out plots and character arcs, and offering advice on how to fix them if they are broken. I am, however, a terrible, awful no-good line editor. I suck at spelling, I forget style guide rules, and I get my grammar mixed up. Use me as your line editor at your peril!
There are a lot of people of various skill levels selling their services as editors, so always ask for examples or references for their work. A word of caution: do not “test” editors by sending them your work and demanding that they do a sample edit of it for free. They won’t, and they will also blacklist you. Most professional editors will ask to see your work anyway, and will want to talk to you personally about your goals before agreeing to work with you. An editor is a partner in your work more than a hired gun, so always treat them with respect.
The reverse is true, though: if an editor talks down to you, is disrespectful, or trashes your writing, you don’t have to work with them. The old myth that “mean editors are good editors” is just flat out not true and if your editor is in any way unsupportive or abusive, fire them immediately.
When you are talking to a potential editor, keep your ask of them clear. One editor may do several types of editing, but be clear about that before you hire them. Ask how many passes they’ll make through your manuscript as well (most stick to one or two; no one will agree to “unlimited”). Don’t expect developmental editors to fix typos unless you want to pay extra for it, for instance. Hiring someone to do line edits means you are not going to get back an analysis of problems with the plot or characterizations. Proof readers usually want the print-ready version, formatted and all, and will only correct typos and mispellings—they will not fix grammar issues or problems with sentence structure, for instance.
Finally, to answer the question I get asked the most: Yes, you need an editor (at least one!).
Trust me, as much as you love your first draft now, next week you'll look back and see all the mistakes that you made. And six weeks after that, you'll see all the mistakes you missed.
There are some authors who are gifted with the instincts, the talent, and the skill-set to push out first drafts that are nearly perfect. You probably won't be that lucky. I know I’m not! It takes years to get to that level, honestly, and even the most precocious newer writers make critical errors in character or plot development that they can't see until someone else points it out for them.
We all love to complain about editing, but we all love it when it’s done!
Next Up: Pre-Press!
Getting a manuscript ready for publishing is not glamorous, but it is a critical part of the publishing process. I know you think you just need a lovingly formatted MS Word document but…uh, no. That’s literally just step one of getting your manuscript ready to distribute. Remember, a “book” is not just a book, it can be an ebook files, a paperback, a hardback, large print, and even audiobook. You ready for that?
Don’t worry, you will be!
If you have any questions please leave a comment!
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