There exists a common misconception that if your manuscript isn’t in great condition, it needs a structural edit; if it is in reasonable condition, it needs a copyedit; and if it’s in pretty good condition, a proofread is all that is required. Well, I […]
Yearly Archives: 2015
People often think that if you can write you can edit – and vice versa. But writing and editing are very different skills, and competency in one doesn’t guarantee ability in the other. The creative impulse that often drives the author should be largely […]
Copyediting
Structural editing (also called developmental editing or substantive editing) is the most complex and time-consuming stage of the editorial process. It can also be the most expensive, and that’s why many publishers are now reluctant to take on books that need structural work. Agents, […]
Structural editing
Whenever I undertake a copyedit, I prepare a style sheet to ensure consistency of spelling, punctuation and other stylistic conventions within a document. Having completed a number of these now, I’ve started to see a pattern in the general editorial changes I’m making to […]
4 Common Editing Corrections
What do these people all have in common – authors Peter Carey, Bryce Courtney, Fay Weldon and Salman Rushdie; publisher of Playboy, Hugh Hefner; documentarian and broadcaster, John Safran; director and animator, Terry Gilliam, and actor, Alec Guinness? Give up? They were all copywriters […]
