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Additional services for a book editing business

ByJennifer Lawler

Need ideas for additional services for a book editing business? Freelance editors often want to expand their services to meet client needs or just to add some variety to their day. I sympathize completely! I started out as a copy editor and while I enjoyed applying a specific style guide consistently across 80,000 words, it…

Copyediting vs Line Editing – What’s the difference?
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Copyediting vs Line Editing – What’s the difference?

ByJennifer Lawler

Copyediting vs line editing: Let’s talk about the basic difference. Copyediting and line editing both focus on the sentence level, but they are not the same thing. Copyediting is about ensuring consistency across a manuscript, correcting egregious errors, making sure the manuscript conforms to a specific style guide, and otherwise smoothing the prose so the…

Editorial Distinctions: Different Types of Editing
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Editorial Distinctions: Different Types of Editing

ByJennifer Lawler

Knowing the different types of editing will help you understand how they can often be fused together in a freelance editor’s project. The 3 Different Types of Editing Developmental editing (abbreviated DE or dev) looks at the big-picture concerns of a manuscript (ms). For nonfiction, we would ask: Is the structure logical? Is the argument…

Avoiding “Here’s How I Would Write it” as an Editor
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Avoiding “Here’s How I Would Write it” as an Editor

ByJennifer Lawler

Have you used the “here’s how I would write it” editorial query? In making editorial suggestions, editors sometimes drift into “here’s how I would write it” territory, which is something I discourage. Authors don’t care what you would have done. They want to learn what they can do that will make their manuscript better. What…

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Freelance Book Editing

ByJennifer Lawler

If you’re interested in being a book editor, you’d probably like to have a clear idea of what a book editor does! Freelance book editing covers several different types of editing, which are covered below. What does a book editor do? Since I’m a freelance book editor and I teach freelance book editing, I’m going…

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Let the manuscript teach you how to edit it

ByJennifer Lawler

One of the lessons I’ve learned over many years of editing is that you have to let the manuscript teach you how to edit it. Every manuscript is different and every manuscript needs a different touch. Even when an author does something I’ve seen many times before, I have to edit for that particular manuscript,…

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How to use basic editing resources

ByJennifer Lawler

If you’re interested in editing – whether copyediting or developmental editing – it pays to become used to a few basic editing resouces. What’s Your Style? Most of my clients have wanted me to follow The Chicago Manual of Style with some variations, and that is standard for book publishing, so it pays to become…

The fine art of copyediting fiction

ByJennifer Lawler

Some years ago, I taught copyediting for the University of California San Diego (long before I ever moved to sunny California myself) and often I would get students who asked, “So, does this apply to copyediting fiction, too?” And the answer was, “Yes, but no.” Yes, you need to apply consistent standards throughout the manuscript….