| | |

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…

|

Framework for fiction editorial query

ByJennifer Lawler

A good rule of thumb for a fiction editorial query is to make statements, not ask questions. By focusing on making statements, rather than questions, in your editorial queries, you begin to unpack your assumptions about what literature is, what makes a story good, and so on. I often recommend using the three-party query template…

|

Turning an editorial question into an editorial query

ByJennifer Lawler

It’s very common for newer dev editors to write editorial queries that say things like, “What is Joe’s motivation?” but that does not give the author sufficient guidance to do the revision so it is not an effective editorial query. But it is a perfectly fine place to start. The first thing to do is…

| |

3 Main Types of Editorial Queries

ByJennifer Lawler

As developmental editors, we use three main types of queries, and it’s important to distinguish among them so that the author isn’t confused about what needs to be done. What we don’t want to do is just write reaction queries: “John seems disappointed here.” Well, so what? What does the author need to do about…

|

Making Defensible Edits

ByJennifer Lawler

What does defensible mean? In copyediting, an edit can be defensible because it is correct: that is, because Merriam-Webster dictionary says that a word is spelled a certain way or because the Chicago Manual of Style recommends that a sentence be punctuated in a certain way or because a publisher’s house style requires a certain…

|

The Process for Developmental Edits

ByJennifer Lawler

The 3-Step Process for Developmental Edits The process for developmental edits is very straightforward and easy to follow. It includes these three basic steps: Step 1: First Read-Through The first step in the process for developmental edits is doing a first read-through. During the first read-through, I recommend just reading the ms for content. You…

|

Writing and editing are two different skills

ByJennifer Lawler

I’m an editor who is also a writer, but I would caution you to be careful of hiring an editor whose main experience is their own writing and revising process. Being a writer has certainly helped me understand what the writing and revision process is like (at least for me) and how it feels to…

|

Setting Expectations for an Edit

ByJennifer Lawler

A question I’m often asked is, “Authors can be confused by what kind of editing their manuscript needs. How do you handle that? Whenever an author reaches out to me, I ask them a bit about their past experience – have they published before, and if so, did they have a traditional publisher or did…