What Are the Four Different Types of Editing?

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Every writer needs an editor. But how do you know what kind of editor you need when there are so many different types of editing?

Not every manuscript or document will need to go through all the levels of editing. Some will need help with structure and tone; others can skip that part but will need a thorough copyedit to fix grammar and punctuation issues.

I explained the difference between copyediting and proofreading in this post, but now I want to expand on that and add the other types of editing to give you an understanding of the entire editing process.

Table of Contents

What Types of Editing Are There?

Developmental Editing
Line Editing
Copyediting
Proofreading

There are also other book publishing services you may need depending on what genre your book is, how you intend to publish it, and what your budget is, including book coaching, beta reading, manuscript evaluation, sensitivity reading, formatting/book design, fact-checking, and indexing.

In this article, I break down the four main types of editing in detail and give an overview of the other services you may need.

What Is Editing?

Before we get into the different types of editing, let me explain what editing is.

Editing the process by which a person prepares written material for publication by fixing errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation; condensing the content so it’s more readable; organizing the content so that it flows in a logical order; or aligning it to a particular style guide.

What Does a Developmental Editor Do?

Developmental editing involves looking at the big picture rather than details like grammar and punctuation. It involves looking at plot, flow, tense, structure, characterization, pace, and point of view. Developmental editors will confirm whether the overall argument or story is sound, complete, and structured correctly, and they will explain the problems and give advice on how to improve.

They usually provide an editorial letter of about ten to twenty pages as well as make comments within the document. Their suggestions might include changing the order of chapters, removing particular characters, changing the tone so that it will suit your intended audience, etc. They do not make changes to grammar and punctuation.

Some questions a developmental editor might ask include the following:

Does the structure of the book make sense?
Is this character working? Are they well developed enough? Will readers find the characters boring? Are they believable?
Is there enough tension?
Do the book’s voice, style, and format match what would be expected in the genre?
Is the word count appropriate for the genre?
Is the book complete? Does it have the necessary parts for the genre, e.g., table of contents, foreword, bibliography, etc.?

This level of editing is sometimes called structural editing, substantive editing, or content editing.

Some editors will offer manuscript evaluations where they write up a detailed critique of the book/content, and the author makes the changes themselves.

What Does a Line Editor Do?

Line editing involves smoothing sentences to improve flow, sense, and style. Line editors look at the content at the paragraph and sentence level rather than at the overall story. They fix awkward prose and tighten up sentences. They also check for consistency of viewpoint (who the narrator is), character details, tense, dialogue, etc.

Line editing is sometimes called stylistic editing. It’s less about applying grammar rules and more about making the content sound good and more interesting, so it’s important that line editors and the authors who hire them agree on the overall style and voice of the piece. A good line editor will not change the author’s voice.

The line editor’s job is to make the book/content more interesting. If something is supposed to be funny/tense/etc., they will make sure it’s funny/tense/etc. They assess word choice, sentence structure, and look for repetition or redundancies that takes away from the story.

They edit the file directly and use track changes and make comments to ask questions or provide explanations for some of their changes. The author will then go through the changes and accept or reject them as they see fit.

Some editors do line editing at the same time as copyediting, while others consider it a separate service.

What Does a Copyeditor Do?

Copyediting involves editing the content at a sentence level. A copyeditor edits for correctness, accuracy, consistency, and completeness. Their focus is on fixing mechanical issues like grammar, spelling, and punctuation so readers don’t trip over typos and get pulled out of the story. Clarity and readability are important.

A copyeditor checks for the following:

Check for correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation
Check for correct word usage (e.g., that you didn’t write accept when you meant except)
Provide basic fact-checking for historical details, quotations, URLs, etc.
Check for consistent application of abbreviations, capitalization, and treatment of numbers
Check for consistency and logic of timeline and character details
Fix or flag confusing phrases
Develop a style sheet to track editorial style like whether you used the serial comma or whether you spelled out numbers
Prepare the document for the typesetter by applying styles in Microsoft Word, i.e., how the book should be formatted.

A copyeditor will not make large structural changes to a document, check for age appropriateness, or rewrite large passages. They’re concerned with checking the details at a sentence level.

Different Levels of Copyediting

There are different levels of copyediting: light, medium, and heavy. All copyeditors strive for consistency in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, capitalization, numbering of footnotes and tables, etc. However, when it comes to language editing, some copyeditors will edit with a heavier hand depending on how many changes they feel the document needs.

Light copyediting: Light copyediting involves changing all indisputable errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation but leaving anything that isn’t an outright error. The copyeditor may highlight sections that are particularly wordy but not reword them. They may ignore jargon or highlight something a reader might not understand but not make a suggestion on how to change it. They may query factual inconsistencies.

Medium copyediting: Medium copyediting involves changing all indisputable errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation and pointing out or revising awkward phrasing. The copyeditor may highlight sections that are particularly wordy and suggest ways to revise them. They may highlight something a reader might not understand and make a suggestion on how to change it. They may query factual inconsistencies and do light fact-checking to find the correct answer.

Heavy copyediting: Heavy copyediting involves changing all indisputable errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation and revising awkward phrasing. The copyeditor may reword sentences or paragraphs that are too wordy or convoluted. They may highlight something a reader might not understand and make a suggestion on how to change it. They may verify and revise factual inconsistencies.

What Does a Proofreader Do?

Traditionally, a proofreader works on a document that has been typeset and formatted. However, more and more proofreaders are working in Microsoft Word on documents that haven’t yet been typeset, particularly when working with self-publishing authors.

Typically, the manuscript should have already been edited. Proofreading is the last step in the editorial process—the final quality check.

A proofreader checks for the following:

Any errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation missed by the copyeditor
Correct word usage (e.g., homophones and homonyms)
Formatting issues with font size, style, and layout
Cross-reference errors and broken links

If working on typeset documents, proofreaders check for the following:

Compare the proof against the copyeditor’s copy to ensure all the copyeditor’s changes were made
Check that word breaks are appropriate
Ensure that the design specifications have been carried out
Avoid making unnecessary changes (at this stage in the process, changes cost money!)

So, as you can see, there is some overlap between copyediting and proofreading. Copyediting involves a more detailed look at the structure and clarity of sentences, whereas proofreading focuses on catching those last remaining typos before publication.

Kindlepreneur compares the editing process to building a house where the content editor builds the foundations, the copyeditor builds the walls, and the proofreader does the finishing touches.

In traditional publishing, books go through all levels of editing, sometimes more than once. However, self-publishing authors often don’t have the budget for this and have to make decisions on which levels of editing are most important to their work.

Think you might make a good proofreader? I wrote the Ultimate Guide to Starting a Freelance Proofreading Business to help you start your business the right way.

Other Publishing Services You Might Need

Book Coach

If you’re a novice writer, you can hire a book coach to guide you through the whole publishing process or just through writing the book. The biggest benefit of hiring a book coach is accountability. You will have meetings or calls with them on a regular basis and agree on assignments or set goals to keep you accountable. A book coach does not edit the language or content of the book; they simply guide you through the process.

Beta Reader

A beta reader typically provides feedback on your writing but doesn’t give direction for changes. Beta readers usually work with fiction books, and they may offer this service for free or for an affordable price. It’s best to find people who are in your target audience so you can get an idea of how your book will be received by that audience.

Manuscript Critique/Evaluator

A manuscript evaluator will provide a comprehensive review of the manuscript. They will analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the content and highlight what’s working and not working with regard to content, flow, big picture, plot, dialogue, characters, and whether it’s suitable for your target audience.

They will provide a letter outlining their thoughts rather than making comments within the manuscript. This stage is like a mini developmental edit, but it’s more affordable. It will cost more than a beta reader, but you will get more thoughtful feedback and action items you can work on.

Sensitivity Reader/Diversity Reader

Sensitivity readers and diversity readers read your document and look out for biased, noninclusive language. The kind of issues they will be looking for include cliches and stereotypes. They will be reading closely to make sure that marginalized people won’t be upset by your writing or feel even more marginalized by how you treated issues like race, gender, sexuality, disability, age, religion, victims of abuse, etc.

This is a good step to consider when you want to include a character from a certain demographic, but you don’t have lived experience in this area.

Fact-Checker

No matter how careful you are, factual errors can creep into your content. Many copyeditors will flag factual inconsistencies, but it’s not really their job. So if your book is on a very niche subject like a historical or scientific topic, it may be wise to hire a fact-checker. They’ll comb through your book, taking note of the facts and verifying them.

Indexer

An indexer combs through your book to identify indexable terms and concepts and creates an index so your readers can find what they’re looking for quickly. Indexes are mostly included in nonfiction books, especially school textbooks, legal or medical books, or academic journals.

Book Formatter or Book Designer

Book formatting or layout refers to how your manuscript is going to look when it’s printed/published. A book formatter or designer will make sure that elements like the cover design, typefaces, page layout, table formatting, treatment of titles and headings, etc. are visually appealing and consistent.

If you are self-publishing in e-book format only, you may wish to hire a book formatter. They will prepare your document for upload to Amazon’s KDP program. This service will probably be cheaper than hiring a book designer and may be suitable for you if your book doesn’t include images or tables.

A book designer will use software like Adobe InDesign to layout your book to get it ready for printing and publication. Hiring a book designer may be right for you if your book has a lot of images or tables, you’re publishing a hard copy version as well as an e-book, or you need book cover design as well. This service will be more expensive than just book formatting.

Because making changes at this stage of the process can be very expensive, it’s important that you hire a copyeditor before sending your book to the book designer to limit the number of errors that may need to be changed after the book has been typeset. You can hire a proofreader after the book has been typeset to fix any remaining errors introduced or missed by the copyeditor and designer.

Do I Need to Go Through Every Stage of Editing?

No, it depends on the type of document, the length, the genre, and your level of skill as a writer. However, the more stages of editing the piece goes through, the better and more polished it will be.

If you are traditionally publishing your book, it will likely go through almost all of the stages outlined above at the publisher’s cost.

If you are self-publishing, your document will likely at least need to be copyedited as this is the stage that focuses most on grammar and punctuation errors. Readers tend to be unforgiving about these kinds of errors.

It’s important to note that it’s impossible to get rid of every single error, no matter how many rounds of editing you do. Editors are human too and will sometimes miss things. The final document is likely to contain a small number of errors

How Do I Find the Right Editor for Me?

I hope this article has given you a better understanding of the different types of editing. Now that you have a better idea of what your document needs, you can hire the right person for the job and not waste time and money starting at the wrong stage. For example, if you need help with plot or character development, you need to hire a developmental writer rather than a copyeditor.

As some editors use different definitions for the editing types, make sure you ask them what is included in their service before you hire them so that you can be sure you’re both on the same page.

It’s always better to engage professional editing services rather than ask a friend or family member to edit your content. Your friend may have an eye for grammar, but they probably won’t know all the rules or be familiar with style manuals like the Chicago Manual of Style or the Associated Press Stylebook.

If you’re looking for help with your book, check out my editorial services or read some of the kind words authors have said about working with me.