What is developmental editing?

Development editing, books as building blocks

I always advocate starting with developmental editing as your first stage of working with a professional editor. In my earlier article, ‘Types of editing: what are the three core levels?’, I distil numerous types of editing into three core levels. This is in recognition of the fact that most self-publishing authors don’t have the resources available to pursue edit upon edit upon edit, which in traditional publishing (via a publishing house) would be taken care of by staff editors as part of the package. Although, even with that route, cuts are being made to editorial processes.

Developmental editing works best when you engage your editor early on in the manuscript’s life. You have a draft that you’ve revised yourself, perhaps after some trusted colleagues or friends have read it, and you’ve been working towards goals outlined in your book proposal. If you don’t have a book proposal, your development editor will help you pull this together and it becomes the guiding light for the development of the book.

Developmental editing ultimately aims to craft a very marketable book that answers the intended audience’s needs in a unique or different way to your competition. It involves significant structuring, or restructuring, of a manuscript. Your development editor liaises closely with you during the writing phase and will take a deep dive into each chapter to ensure that the book’s mission is successfully executed. The development editor essentially looks for completeness.

Let’s look at what’s involved and, more importantly, how it will help your book become a success.

What’s involved in developmental editing?

  • Developing the book’s proposal in collaboration with you
  • Refining your unique concept and arguments throughout
  • Identifying and enhancing your unique selling points
  • Ensuring the level and tone match the readers’ knowledge and expectations
  • Reorganising to improve structure and the reader experience
  • Writing new material or rewriting existing passages, but not at the sentence level
  • Editing for balance and pace
  • Finalising the outline and heading hierarchies
  • Identifying where information would be better presented in a different structure (e.g. a table or diagram)

How does developmental editing make books successful?

Developmental editing aims to make a very marketable book that answers the intended audience’s needs. It does this by searching out completeness: of concept, of arguments, of structure and organisation, of evidence, of transitions. If by the end of your book the reader doesn’t feel their needs have been met (that the book didn’t deliver on its promises), then your development editor hasn’t done their job in helping you meet the mission and vision set out in the book’s proposal. As the book proposal is based on solid research of audience needs and competitive publications, it’s really important to meet the aims set out in it.

Developmental editing is hard for writers but worth it

Handing over your manuscript to a developmental editor can be hard because the feedback and critique will be honest and direct. Experienced development editors know that your manuscript has been lovingly prepared over weeks, months, years of thinking, researching, planning and writing, so they approach the edit with tact. Afterall, the critique is constructive and there to help the book be the best it can be. After the development editing process your manuscript may look very different, but you can rest assured it will be much closer to the book you set out to publish.

Contact me for more information about developmental editing and to discuss whether your manuscript is ready for the first exciting step toward publication.

Sources:
Norton, S. (2009) Developmental Editing: A Handbook for Freelancers, Authors, and Publishers. University of Chicago Press.
Waddingham, A. (2014) New Hart’s Rules. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press.
Reedsy. Developmental Editing [online]. Available at: https://reedsy.com/editing/developmental-editing [Accessed: 6 May 2020].