All The Types of Editing Your Book Needs (With Examples)

When we think of the great authors we love, it’s sometimes easy to imagine them sitting at their writing desks, producing line upon line of pure artistic genius. However, the truth is, when you pick up your favorite novel, what you’re reading is usually the result of many written drafts of imperfection, marked up in red by the author’s editors. 

In the world of book publishing, an editor can be your fiercest critic—and also your greatest supporter. But who are those mysterious people working behind the scenes? And what exactly does a standard book editing process look like? 

In this article—itself a product of careful editing—we will walk you through the different types of book editing, and why each type has something different to offer your work. 

Why You Need Different Types of Editing

At first glance, you might think that one round/type of editing for your books is more than enough. But it would be a shame to put so much time and effort into writing your book, only to find out after publishing (especially if you’re taking the self-publishing route) that it has some typos or plotholes.

In fact, having your manuscript go through the different editing stages can have more benefits than you think. This includes:

1. Improving the clarity of the text.
2. Ensuring consistency of the tone and style.
3. Structuring the ideas in a logical way.
4. Eliminating any typos or grammatical mistakes.
5. Removing any residencies or inaccurate information.

What Are the Different Types of Editing?

In order to transform your manuscript from a rough draft to a finished work, it must go through a process of editing. This process is typically divided into three stages, each stage offering specialized kinds of editing. 

Let’s look at each stage in detail below, using excerpts from a novel as an example of a work to be edited. 

1. The Vision Stage

At this stage, you aren’t concerned with the text itself but rather with the idea behind it and how it is conveyed. And since the idea of your book is the most important factor, it takes two types of editing to perfect it, and these are:

A. Editorial Assessment

An editorial assessment is the first type of editorial feedback your manuscript should receive. It is usually performed by the commissioning editor, whose main job is to acquire books for a publishing house, or a freelance editor. At this early stage in the editorial process, the editor is not concerned with grammar or syntax, but rather with the bigger picture.

An editorial assessment looks at the general ideas of your work, the way your narrative flows (or doesn’t in certain places), as well as your overall characterization, themes, and plot. In other words, think of this stage as the general report on your book; you’ll find out what works, and what needs changing.

• Main focus: To provide an initial evaluation of the manuscript, including the clarity of the argument, organization of content, factual accuracy, and overall structure.
• Direction: The editor offers advice on improving the logical flow and making the content more compelling and informative.

Example of an Editorial Assessment

Let’s say you submitted a romance novel set in both Egypt and the UK. Your main character, Hana, who is an old woman, recounts—through the use of flashbacks—a love story she had with a British man, Peter, over forty years ago. Below is an example of a response the author might get from the commissioning editor: 

The framing of the narrative is delicate but confident. The story is beautifully paced, as is the final shocking revelation of Hana’s mother’s role in Peter’s death. However, there are a few places where the novel could be tightened. 

For example, it is relatively late in the narrative before we are introduced to Hana’s mother, who is an integral part of the story. Moreover, the early days of Hana and Peter’s relationship should be expanded upon to give readers more insight into the couple’s story. There is also inconsistency in the story’s timeline; Peter is said to have joined the war after leaving Egypt, but the dates don’t work (he left Egypt in 1946, a year after WWII ended). 

B. Developmental/Structural Editing

The developmental editor also looks at the big picture; however, they’ll start marking up what needs changing, often giving their own suggestions.

For example, if there is something about a particular character that just doesn’t add up, or if there’s a plot hole somewhere, a good developmental editor will pick up on it right away. Trained to spot the big inconsistencies, they will suggest changes that they think will work better with your plot and characterization. Sometimes they might ask you to rewrite a scene, place it somewhere else in the novel, or take it out entirely. 

• Main focus: To improve the main elements of the manuscript, including plot, structure, character development, themes, and pacing.
• Direction: The editor provides detailed feedback and recommendations for rewriting and restructuring to improve the story’s coherence, depth, and engagement.

Example of Developmental/Structural Editing

Let’s look at an example of developmental editing using a scene from our same made-up romance novel:

A sea of black. I feel like I am suffocating. What am I doing here? I am insignificant on this day. Everybody is insignificant on this day.

I clench my fists, nails digging into my sweaty palms. Climbing the marble staircase, I try to avoid eye contact with the black figures I am squeezing past. My legs feel weak; I shouldn’t have skipped lunch.

I finally make it to the elaborate wooden door, halfway open and leading to the room I am supposed to be in.

I shuffle in a fast-moving queue of young and old women. When it is my turn, I bend down and hold the frail hands of a loosely veiled lady dressed in black.

“I’m so sorry.” 

---

[Note from the editor]: This scene of Peter’s funeral should be placed at the start of Chapter 14 in order to drive home the shocking revelation of Peter’s death. Its current placement at the end of Chapter 15 is not as effective because by this point we already know that Peter has died in the war. 

2. The Refinement Stage

Now that you’ve perfected the big-picture elements, it’s time to focus on the smaller, yet equally significant details. After all, no matter how brilliant the idea, structure, and flow of your book are, if it’s poorly written, probably no one would want to read it. That’s why at this stage the editor looks at things like diction, syntax, grammar, and spelling, and that’s done through two types of editing:

A. Line Editing

Line editing, also known as stylistic editing, is the kind of editing that takes your manuscript from the “big-picture” level to the “line-by-line” level. In this type, the editor is not focused on scenes and plots, but rather on your writing style. 

Note, however, that this is not the kind of editing that looks at mechanical errors (i.e. errors in spelling, grammar, and capitalization), but rather the kind that considers diction and syntax. The main purpose of a line edit is to look at how each line flows to the next. In other words, it focuses on how to make your work read in the best way, pointing out any sentences that need tightening, or any vocabulary that needs replacing.    

• Main focus: To refine sentence structure, word choice, and overall writing style to ensure clarity, consistency, and a strong authorial voice.
• Direction: The feedback provided here is on improving the flow of sentences, enhancing the tone and style, and ensuring the language is engaging and effective.

Example of Line Editing

Let’s look at this scene in which our protagonist Hana is describing the setting outside her apartment. 

I unhook the shutters and shove them forward. It’s the third week of Ramadan and just below me I can see everything and that [1] Abou El Feda Street is wailing. The shutters and glass never entirely mute the clamor, but they do turn the music and shouts into a sort of [2] white noise that now, ironically, I can’t sleep without. It’s true that nowadays everyone who can afford to is fleeing their Cairo flats to get a piece of the trendy suburban compounds, but I could never see the appeal in trading my Zamalek apartment for a villa surrounded by desert and nothingness.

---

 [1] Delete the underlined portion to tighten the sentence and therefore make it more effective: “It’s the third week of Ramadan and just below me Abou el Feda Street is wailing.”

 [2]These ‘sort ofs’ and ‘kind ofs’ can usually be taken out to make the lines flow better.

B. Copyediting

Copyediting is the “nitty gritty” aspect of editing. You know that one friend who gets on people’s nerves because they’re always fixing everyone’s grammar? Well, that’s exactly what you want in a copyeditor! A good copyeditor will go through your manuscript with a fine-tooth comb and flag every single mechanical error there is. 

They will add or remove commas, ensure your spelling is consistent (either American or British), and correct any grammatical errors you’ve made. They will also look at capitalization, speech tags, and inconsistent tenses. Basically, they will work on making your manuscript free of any errors or typos. After all, it would be such a shame if your readers are put off because you keep misspelling a particular word, or because your narrative accidentally slips into the past tense when it’s mostly written in the present. 

• Main focus: To ensure the manuscript is free from grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors while maintaining consistency in style and formatting.
• Direction: The editor corrects language errors, verifies factual accuracy, and ensures adherence to style guides, resulting in a polished and professionally presented manuscript.

Example of Copyediting

Now let’s look at an example of a paragraph from our novel that has been copyedited, with the errors and changes marked in red.

Hana shrugged, gracefully lifted [lifting] herself onto the railing[,] her back to the water below. Facing him in this way, she forced Peter to take note of everything he [was] trying so hard not to sea. Resigned, his eyes swam [as] they drank her in; her gentle curves so subtle underneath the soft fabric of a blue pale [pale blue] dress, the olive skin of her neck only partly visible between [the] folds of a crimson scarf. Peter helplessly turned his gaze to her face, and marveling as he always had at how comfortably it housed such prominent features, how it embraced the intensity of each of them[—]from the unforgiving straightness of the thick brows, to the strange searching look constantly lingering in the oversized, dark–night eyes.

“Glad to see I still do it for you[,]” she smirked.

[“]I love you,[”] Peter blurted before he could stop himself.

Hana laughed. “Now is not the time. But, yes, ten years later and I love you too.”

3. The Polishing Stage 

Here comes the final stage of perfecting your manuscript, and that includes ensuring that the text is error-free and that the layout of your book is consistent. Unlike the other stages, this one includes only one type of editing, and that is:

Proofreading 

Now that your manuscript has been editorially assessed, examined for plot holes and inconsistencies, edited stylistically, and checked for any mechanical errors, what’s there left to do? Well, that’s where the final editing stage comes in: proofreading. 

Proofreading offers the final pair of eyes that will go over your manuscript before it goes to press. A proofreader will look for any mechanical errors that have been missed during the copyediting process, or perhaps even accidentally introduced by previous editors. It’s not uncommon for a copy editor to fix hundreds of errors and end up accidentally introducing a few along the way. That’s what the proofreading stage is for: to clean up any outstanding mistakes. 

In addition to that, however, a proofreader is also in charge of the page layout of your book. This means they will go over the formatting of your pages, checking your front matter, headers/footers, pagination, line spacing, paragraph breaks, etc. In fact, a proofreader will also be the final pair of eyes to check the blurb on your back cover, as well as your title, author name, and even the placement of your cover art. 

• Main focus: To provide a final check for any mechanical errors that have been missed during the copyediting process, and to ensure the correct layout and formatting of the manuscript.
• Direction: The editor corrects any overlooked mistakes and verifies the proper formatting of pages, including front matter, headers/footers, pagination, line spacing, paragraph breaks, and the blurb on the back cover.

Example of Proofreading

Now let’s look at how a proofreader would handle the same scene that was copyedited above. You will note that the layout of the text has changed, with the introduction of paragraph indents as well as the correction of one minor (but glaring!) typo that was missed by the copyeditor. 

Hana shrugged, gracefully lifting herself onto the railing, her back to the water below. Facing him in this way, she forced Peter to take note of everything he was trying so hard not to sea see. Resigned, his eyes swam as they drank her in; her gentle curves so subtle underneath the soft fabric of a pale blue dress, the olive skin of her neck only partly visible between the folds of a crimson scarf. 

Peter helplessly turned his gaze to her face, marveling as he always had at how comfortably it housed such prominent features, how it embraced the intensity of each of them—from the unforgiving straightness of the thick brows, to the strange searching look constantly lingering in the oversized, dark-night eyes.

“Glad to see I still do it for you,” she smirked.

“I love you,” Peter blurted before he could stop himself.

Hana laughed. “Now is not the time. But, yes, ten years later and I love you too.”

Type of Editing	Main Focus	Direction
Editorial Assessment	Evaluate ideas, structure, and flow of the manuscript.	Offer feedback to improve clarity and organization.
Developmental Editing	Refine plot, characters, pacing, and themes.	Suggest rewrites to enhance story coherence.
Line Editing	Improve sentence structure, word choice, and style.	Ensure smooth flow, consistency, and engaging tone.
Copy Editing	Fix grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.	Ensure accuracy, consistency, and professional polish.
Proofreading	Final check for errors and formatting issues.	Verify correctness and ensure proper layout.

Where Can You Find Great Editors?

Before telling you where you can find great editors, we want to make it clear that you don’t actually need to hire an editor for each one of the types of editing covered in this article. You will find that many editors wear different editorial hats and are competent in doing different types of editing. In fact, it’s common for authors to hire only two editors: one in charge of the “big-picture” developmental and structural editing, and the other in charge of copyediting and proofreading. 

So, where can you find your perfect editorial match? Here are a few options:

1. The Editorial Freelancers Association, is one of the most renowned collectives of professional freelance editors. 
2. You should also check out the ACES Society of Editing, which has an impressive international editors directory, as well as popular platforms such as NY Book Editors. 
3. Aside from that, we have a cheeky little tip: Pick up one of your favorite books that you think is particularly well-written, and flip to the Acknowledgements Page—chances are your author has thanked their editor by name right there. And a quick Google search on your part could lead you right to them! 
4. Last but not least, if you are on a budget, you can always find editors who have great potential on freelance websites, such as Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer.

Concluding Thoughts

As an author, being aware of all the different types of editing for books gives you a greater understanding of what to expect from the editorial process. This, in turn, helps you prepare your manuscript in a way that allows you to gain the most from your editors. By knowing what they’re looking out for, you’ll be more conscious as you write. 

And while it may be scary to think of your manuscript being marked up with so many scribbles and crossings and requests to add or take out text, always bear in mind that a good editorial team just wants your work to be the best it can be. 

And to that, we leave you with the poetic words of editor and author Arthur Plotnik: “You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you, and we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”

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