Note: Some people spell “copy editing” and “copy editor” as two words, which is more correct, and some people make them one word, which some dictionaries say is acceptable. I’ve used both spellings in this post so that people searching for information can find it.
In writing forums, I’ve seen many writers who intend to self-publish ask questions like:
What does a copyeditor do?
What is the difference between copyediting and proofreading?
Do I really need an editor for my novel or story?
My first two novels were traditionally published, and they were both taken through the usual two rounds of editing: developmental edits (aka story edits) and copy edits (or line edits… some people distinguish between the two terms, and others, like me, are philistines who use them interchangeably.)
If you are aiming for a traditional publishing contract, I would not recommend paying for professional editing before sending out your manuscript. I feel like that’s the publisher’s expense, and one of the reasons they get their cut of the profits. An agent or publisher is likely to recommend changes to your story, which may mean that some of the edited writing will get tossed out anyway.
However, if you’re a self-publisher, I recommend paying for publishing. A while back when I was reviewing self-publishing costs, I noted that while it’s ideal to have both a developmental editor and a copy editor, the copy editor is the one place I wouldn’t skimp.
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Of course, there are many indie authors who don’t use editors. I do realize that what other writers do is none of my business. I’m just hoping this post gives people more information to make their own decision.
I have an MFA in Creative Writing, and I’m a voracious reader, so you might think that I wouldn’t need a lot of copyediting. And you’d be wrong! Here’s my re-enactment of what the copy edits looked like on my first published novel… just a wall of changes in the margin.
These days, I don’t get nearly so many fixes! Even still, good copy editing takes the prose in my novel to a new level and helps me become a better writer for future projects. Personally, I would never release anything without hiring a copy editor.
As humbling as it is, I’m going to show you real examples of copyediting from my novel The Phoenix Codex. My editor, Rhonda, is fantastic (she did the developmental edits on this book, too).
Here are some of the ways she makes my writing smoother, clearer, and just plain better.
She points out when it’s unclear who or what is being talked about.
Here I did mean Mayan history and so on, not Spanish history.
She gives me feedback on how much information and “reminding” the reader needs.
I was worried that readers wouldn’t remember who Ana and Sam were, because they never actually appear in the story. She suggested that I didn’t have to remind everyone that they are my main character’s friend and sister.
She suggests different paragraph breaks that improve the flow of the story.
She identifies breaks in point of view.
Remember when I said I re-wrote this book from first person to third person? This phrase was a carryover from the first person version.
She notes when I fall out of deep point of view.
I use deep point of view, which means the internal monologue isn’t set off by phrases like “she thought” or “he realized.” But in this instance, I slipped up, and she cut out “she told herself.”
She notes inconsistent handling of elements.
I have two long flashback scenes, and I didn’t realize that I’d dealt with one in a somewhat different way than the other. I wound up getting into both by doing past perfect tense for a paragraph, switching to regular past tense, and switching back to past perfect tense for a few sentences at the end, which is one pretty common way to deal with those.
She makes my handling of past perfect tense consistent.
Always using contractions for “he had” and “she had” smooths out the read, but I don’t always remember to do it. She made tons of these corrections.
She flags poor word choices…
This was actually the only one she flagged. I changed it.
And wordy or awkward sentences.
And this was the only wordy sentence. Most of my sentences are pretty straightforward.
She warns me about the over-use of similes.
I’ll admit that my first thought was, “Hey, I like my similes!” My writing background is in poetry, so they seem natural to me. But then I went through and cut some of them that didn’t contribute as much, and the story is better for it.
She highlights repeated words.
It seems like I should catch things like this, but it’s a 95,000-word novel, and sometimes I’ll miss even something basic. And she will even highlight repetition across the manuscript—using the same adjective twice to describe something, for instance, when there’s no artistic reason to do so. That’s much harder to catch!
She identifies crutch words.
Why did she mark this? Because I use “some” too much. I did a universal search for this one (and also “just”) across the manuscript, eliminating it where it wasn’t needed.
Do I do everything she says?
No. I do almost everything she says, but in the end, it’s my story. For instance, here…
She changed the two instances of “I am” to “I’m,” because that’s the way most of us talk and think. In this instance, I thought Cassie would be saying I am going to die instead of I’m going to die in her head, because her situation is dire. I kept it as is, although it would have been fine the other way, too.
Hopefully from these examples, you can see that copy editing goes beyond proofreading to polish up the prose.
If you have any questions about copy editing, or you want to share your own experiences and opinions, please do so in the comments below! And be sure to sign up for my newsletter on writing and living a creative life. Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
Thank you for this informative post. It’s really helpful. I read it on my phone and couldn’t see the line edits clearly enough. I’m going to try printing it so I can hopefully see it. ( :
Actually, I can see them now. Not sure why my phone was showing them blurry at first. ) :
Yeah, I’m struggling with these screencaps — I may try to re-do them this weekend! 🙂
Thank you for this post! It’s comforting to see that even experienced, awesome writers still have a lot of editing to do. A good reminder that great stories don’t come out of the gate perfectly. Now I’m curious to see what story edits look like. 🙂
Aw thanks! I would love to the share story edits, too, but it might be a little to tell what’s going on with the comments if you don’t read the story…. I’m going to think about that. 🙂
Above getting paid, some independent editors – as well as some publishing editors – expect co-authorship. I consider this a red flag, but I am curious if sharing writing credit is becoming the industry norm.
What?! NO. I have never heard of this, and NO, NO, NO. I can’t imagine a legit editor asking for this! Yikes.
Since I’m in the middle of my first round of edits, it helped to be reminded of what I need to look for and take out…It’s difficult to catch everything. Well, actually, it’s impossible for one person to find every little mistake. Even books that have gone through several edits still have glaring mistakes sometimes, so TY for this great post.
Hi, Connie! Glad this was timely! I feel like I get smarter with every round of edits, but yeah, I agree with you… I am never going to get to a point where I catch everything! This is going to go through 2 rounds of proofreading, so hopefully it will be pretty clean by the time it gets to print… fingers crossed. 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
Okay, So to make sure I understand you correctly, it is best to only pay for an editor yourself if you are doing self-publishing. Otherwise, send it to the editor, agent, ext and let them foot the bill since this is rather expensive. Correct?
Correct! The story should go through the editing process before it goes to market. With trad publishing, they handle that; with self-publishing, you handle it.
The trouble is that these days publishers, agents etc. may not even look at a manuscript that hasn’t been edited. Then their own will still go to town, but that is after the first hurdle.
Thank you so much for this great information!
Excellent post! Sharing…
Some excellent advice, here. As a writer and editor both, I find that I cannot do without an edit myself no matter how many times I go over a document. I like the fact that options for acceptance/rejection of changes are offered. Another example is that your original ‘knelt’ is possibly better than ‘kneeled’. The words are interchangeable, but the first is snappier. I would have queried ‘natural hair’ with the comment ‘as opposed to a wig?’ and suggested a reference to length and colour if you decided to go beyond the ponytail. So it has to be accepted that no two editors will highlight all the same things.
As you show, though, editors do a great deal more than simply correcting spelling, punctuation and grammar.
A great post with excellent advice. Nothing is worse than reading a book that obviously was not edited.
Great information. The examples are so useful.
Editors/editing, at every level of writing, are a must in my opinion. I write to get my story told, and fully believe that one should write, write, write and edit later. It’s nice to have fresh eyes review the work, make suggestions and find errors. The things that as a writer, we sometimes ignore just to get the words on the paper. Thank you for sharing.
Every time I beta read for someone, I end up copy editing. I can’t help it. I’m a copy editor at heart. My commentaries look almost exactly like those you posted here. Some writers get excited and want me to keep working with them on their project. Some take offense and I lose a friend. I tell them I’m only giving the type of response I wish someone would give me on my writing. Any advice?
I have a small press who has accepted my novel but am curious if I can get a bigger publishing house – is it worth paying a copy editor to polish my book before sending it out to agents?