Craft: What’s a Copyedit?
What is editing?
There are a lot of different definitions of what editing is and does. There are no real standards for editors, so writers often have no good way of knowing if an editor is worthwhile. Even recommendations can be biased. Just because your writer friend liked their editor doesn’t mean it was a good edit or would be a good fit for you. I’ve worked in traditional publishing as a managing editor. I’m a gold member of the Christian Pen: Proofreaders and Editors Network, which requires passing editing tests and being vetted. I’m also an Alliance of Independent Authors approved partner service provider. I’ve edited hundreds of books.
But it’s also important that your editor gets you and your story. It needs to be a good fit. My goal is always to preserve your vision and your voice for your story. You want an editor who also wants that for you, as well as making your story the best it can be.
Previously, I talked about developmental editing. It’s the first step in a comprehensive edit. You want to start with this, because it deals with the structure of the book. Once you have that the way you want it, then it’s time to move to the copyedit, which is a polishing pass.
This is the step most people think of as editing. This is where the editor looks at the sentence and paragraph structure of the book, making it the most clear and readable.
What’s a copyedit?
Whether for fiction or nonfiction, a copyedit edit will look at the these issues:
- grammar and capitalization
- clarity and sentence flow
- spelling and hyphenation
- punctuation
- references and citations
- consistency in tone, style, format, and character throughout the book
Be willing to look past the red ink. It looks like a lot, but everyone’s manuscript looks like that. Be sure to use Track Changes to approve the changes you agree with. If there’s a change you have a question about, use Comments. Be encouraged! Your manuscript is getting better.
This stage is the last time to make any significant changes to the manuscript. After this, we will just be looking for errors, so make sure you have things the way you want them.
Just like with developmental editing, prices for copyedits vary based on word count, where you are on the writing journey, and the expertise of your editor. In general, you get what you pay for, like most things in life. Because a developmental edit does such heavy lifting and gives you the most bang for your buck, you can expect to pay about half of the cost of a developmental edit, on average between $1,000-$3,000.
