Types of Professional Editing (and When You Need It)
I always find it ironic that professional editing—an industry solely devoted to words and language—has so much confusing niche terminology. I say this as someone who edits professionally, both as a freelancer and through Scribble House. One person’s content editing might be another’s structural edits, and whether these are interchangeable or mean slightly different things usually depends on who you’re asking, too.
Part of the problem is that these terms aren’t standardized, and slightly different ones are often used depending on the context. What a fiction editor calls “line editing”, the editor of online news articles might call “copy editing”, and there’s similar overlap between terms like content editing, structural editing, and developmental editing.
Why does any of this even matter? The main time you need to care about the specific definition of different editing terms is if you’re either A) planning to hire a professional editor or B) offering editing services to other people. In these cases, clarifying terminology makes sure you understand exactly what level and type of revision is being offered and paid for.
Understanding these terms can be useful for writers in general, too. Knowing the different types of revision that a piece might need can help you to refine your self-editing process and figure out when it's most helpful to bring other people in on it, either by connecting with a workshop group or by hiring a professional.
A quick glossary of editing terms
Let me first reinforce the caveat that editing language can be oddly squirrely. If you’re hiring an editor it’s always smart to clarify with them exactly what services they provide and how deeply they read and edit work at each level.
With that said, here are some generally agreed-upon definitions for editing terms, arranged by roughly what point in the writing and editing process they’re most often used.
Developmental editing
Best for: Manuscripts-in-progress, Rough drafts, and similarly early-stage work
Also known as: Substantive editing, Content editing, Structural editing, Comprehensive editing
Developmental editing is the “forest not the trees” stage of revision. It's concerned with big-picture building blocks like plot, character, setting, and themes. At times, this means developmental editing is generative, with the editor providing ideas for additional scenes, characters, plot points, etc. that could enhance the work. They also point out common issues like flat characters, plot holes, timeline inconsistencies, and other problems that may require major additions, cuts, or rewriting to address.
Structural editing
Best for: Completed early drafts
Also known as: Developmental editing, Substantive editing
This term is sometimes interchangeable with developmental editing, but it may be used more specifically to refer to an even more high-level form of editing. In this meaning, structural editing is making revisions to the arrangement of scenes, chapters, and plot points, as well as the use of form and narrative time—in other words, the components that give a work its shape. With things like short story, essay, or poetry collections, this often also includes the arrangement of works within the manuscript, as well as the structure of each individual work.
Content editing
Best for: Completed early drafts
Also known as: Developmental editing, Comprehensive editing, Macro editing, Copy editing
Content editing is the most nebulous term on this list. In online web copy world, Content Editor can even be more akin to Managing Editor, the person who assigns, selects, arranges, and/or reviews articles for a blog or magazine. For a down-and-dirty definition, though, it's editing a piece for flow, clarity, readability, and consistency. It balances a wide and tight focus. A content editor will flag issues with the plot, pacing, arc, and character development, like a developmental editor, but they also read for issues with the writing itself, like awkward sentences, overused words and phrases, or weak language and cliches.
Alpha reader
Best for: Completed early drafts
Also known as: First reader, Early reader
This is something you'll rarely see offered as a paid service, and is the de facto function of many workshop groups or feedback partners. Your alpha readers are basically the first people who see the piece and will ideally approach it as both a reader and a writer. Like content editors, they take a mostly big-picture view but may also zoom in on specific points the writing itself needs to be improved. Unlike content editors, they usually won't provide many line-by-line comments, but instead offer general feedback on what's working in the piece, what doesn't make sense, and suggestions for how to improve it.
Beta reader
Best for: Mid-to-late stage drafts
Also known as: Early reader, Pre-reader, Manuscript reviewer
Beta readers are often other writers, but even if so their job is to approach the manuscript like a reader first. They read work at a later stage in its development than alpha readers, after the author is pretty sure they have all the plot holes filled and the right scenes in the right places. Beta readers typically don't suggest major revisions, but instead give feedback on the reading experience like what kept them immersed or where they lost interest or broke their suspension of disbelief.
Copy editing
Best for: Mid-to-late stage drafts
From here on down, we're firmly in “trees not forest” territory. A copy editor reads for the consistency, clarity, and accuracy of the words and sentences, not the story itself. They may catch some broad-lens type issues, like jumps in the timeline or if a character's physical description changes from scene to scene. But they're not concerned with the quality of things like characters, plot, or setting—they only care whether you've written about them in a way that makes sense.
Line editing
Best for: Late-stage drafts
Also known as: Close editing, Style editing, Sentence-level editing
Line editing zooms the focus in another notch over copy editing. It's a close review of each paragraph and sentence to improve the flow, clarity, and overall quality of the writing. This is also when you read for inconsistencies with the tone and voice, adjust the rhythm and punctuation, and remove weak language and cliches, either by cutting them or substituting better words in their place.
Proofreading
Best for: Work about to be published
Proofreading is solely focused on correcting errors. This can get into style, in the sense of ensuring consistency with a style guide, but it's primarily about making sure everything's spelled and punctuated correctly.
When does it make sense to hire a professional?
Where the types of editing you want will depend on how close your piece is to being in its final form, I think there’s a more important question to answer before you pay someone for editing services: what you plan to do with the work once it’s finished.
There are 3 situations where I see it as most worthwhile to pay for editing services:
- If you plan to self-publish. Presses, journals, and other publishers have people on their team (or that they hire) who edit the work before it goes to print. When you self-publish, you’re on your own. Even if you’re a very strong self-editor, you should at least bring a professional in for a line editing and/or proofreading pass. A developmental editor can also be valuable, especially if you don't have a workshop group to give you feedback. They can verify the book actually makes sense, and catch issues that might escape your notice as the author since you’re so close to the work.
- If you’re submitting a book-length manuscript to presses as an unagented author. Presses do employ editors—but you’ll only benefit from their services if your work is accepted. The more polished your manuscript, the higher your odds that someone will want to publish it. A professional line edit can be very beneficial in making the best possible impression and improve your chances of the book making it to shelves.
- If you’re submitting work to top-tier, highly competitive markets. For most short stories, personal essays, or individual poems, I would say there’s no need to pay for professional editing—feedback from a workshop group or beta reader is often the better option. The exception to this is if you’re submitting work to highly prestigious journals like The New Yorker or The Paris Review, places where pieces need to be damn near perfect to clear the slush pile (and that pay enough the expense of professional editing can feel justified to boost your chances of getting a yes).
…this isn’t to say these are the only times a professional is called for, but these are the main situations where I would say their services are most likely to be worth the expense.
There are some other specific circumstances where a professional can be valuable. For instance, if you’re a new writer who’s never received formal training or classroom instruction. In this case, working with a developmental editor who also has experience in book coaching can be a kind of surrogate instructor, helping you to develop your eye for strong storytelling and refine your writing craft while they improve the specific manuscript they’re working on.
Another scenario a professional could be useful is if your manuscript has already been through workshopping or beta reading but you’re still getting lots of rejections, or just generally don’t feel comfortable with how it’s reading. Getting a professional’s perspective can identify lingering issues that your free readers are missing—or, if they don’t spot any issues, can give you confirmation that your work is ready and those “no”s are coming for a different reason, like that your query letter is weak or that you’re not sending the work to the right markets.
Whatever your reason for hiring a professional, you always want to take the time first to figure out exactly what kind of editing you're looking for. Even editors who provide a range of services will need to know what you want them to focus on, and editors often have specializations in certain types of editing, along with certain genres, styles, or categories they tend to work on. Be as specific as possible when you start looking for an editor. If you want someone to tell you if your space opera's secondary universe is effective, for instance, don't just pick someone who works on “fiction”—look for a “developmental sci-fi editor with expertise in worldbuilding” and you'll be much more likely to get the exact kind of editing your manuscript needs.
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