To follow up on last week’s blog about Developmental Editing, I’m going to recap the basic thoughts I built it from before I get into copy editing this week. I’m not just trying to explain the terms used so easily by those in this industry, but also [hopefully] explain the best ways to go about editing your own work.
Developmental editing and structural editing are both big-picture focused. Line editing and copy editing are more focused on the specific words used and have a much narrower focus. Typically, line editing is focused on style and how the text sounds or feels. Copy editing is where an editor would chase down spelling and grammatical errors, inconsistencies, or confusing sentence structure. (Copy in this case means the specific letters on the page.) Proofreading comes last, and doesn’t involve making any changes unless there are typos.
The proofreader should absolutely be someone who hasn’t seen the text recently. In the case of a writer’s own work, that writer can not be expected to proofread well, because the words are too familiar. Now, I’m not saying that writers can slap anything on the page and expect the editor to clean it up. Pull that crap and you won’t get editors anymore. By all means, please clean up everything possible. Run the spelling and grammar checker. Read it out loud and make sure your voice doesn’t sound stilted.
And please, for the love of all that’s holy, do not publish or try to hook your readers with un-proofread material! (More on this next week, between some unfortunate things I’ve seen a lot lately and some comments on how to not come off like a jerk.)
Copy Editing
Copy editors are the people who pay attention to every last detail. Sometimes this comes off as overly nit-picky, but believe me, their attention to detail is critical. Typos, missing words, verb tense confusion, and other small errors that might not be caught by everyone make published work seem amateurish and not worth the time spent on reading it. If the reader has paid money for that book, how do you think they feel? Don’t let your readers flee because you missed a period or dropped a word from a sentence. Will every single one notice? No. Will most of them? Absolutely.
I just reached out to an author who had a reader magnet (free ebook to hook readers) for signing up for their mailing list, but when I read it, it was full of errors. Was the story good? Yes. Did I read it anyway? I’m a nut, so yes. Am I likely to pay money for that author’s other books? No. I’m now proofreading a copy of that story to help that author out. I’ve even gone further than basics like missing punctuation because of the extent of the problems. Verb tenses (present and past tense) swapped back and forth at one point, there seems to be some confusion over conditional statements, and I’ve had to restrain the urge to go into more than that. I’m doing this mostly as a favor, and I can’t spend time I would be using for paid projects on something like this. Please do not do this with anything designed to pull in readers. Content like that can make them run for the hills instead, and you don’t get a second chance after you’ve corrected the errors; they’re already long gone.
Spelling and Grammar Checkers
I’ve seen errors in published content that I know both Google Docs and Microsoft Word (or whatever word processing program was used) would have caught if the author had bothered to run the spelling and grammar checker. I myself hesitate to run that, because it feels like a lot of time the suggestions are incorrect. Dumb program, right? It may well be, but that doesn’t excuse the people who don’t run it and miss simple things that would’ve been caught. Missing punctuation gets called out. Typos certainly are. Word choice and shadings of meaning can be, but that’s less straightforward. That takes a bit more doing, and assumes the writer knows all the detailed grammar nonsense that the English language is so full of. I’ve recommended Grammarly to a friend who asked about it, and when they said it seemed to make incorrect suggestions sometimes, I told them that was a possibility with most checkers, but Grammarly seemed pretty good to me. If you struggle with grammar, I’d recommend something like that.
One of the first things I do when I’m editing is run the spelling and grammar check. It can cut down a lot of time if the missing punctuation is inserted quickly, and even if the
Colloquialisms
I can’t urge writers more strongly to look up expressions that they’ve used all their lives but never seen in print. This ranges from people who mix up simple things like “should of” (should’ve) to more involved phrases like “all intensive purposes” (all intents and purposes) or “peaked her interest” (piqued her interest). Don’t assume. Even better, assume you’re wrong and double check. Just yesterday I saw “buck-assed naked” (buck ass naked).
This goes for editors, too, and it’s even more important to check if you’re the one being relied upon to get it right. Google is your friend, even if you have to do a few searches to confirm the proper spelling or word choice. (Also, don’t assume the first search result is correct. Check a couple to make sure. Not everyone online is infallible.)
Beta-Readers
These early readers of the story are especially for glaring holes or problems at the story level (developmental, not copy), but they’re often good for catching weird sentences and missing punctuation, too. They may not catch all of it, they aren’t focused on the text at that level usually, and they often don’t have the kind of time it takes to really go through the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb.
Reading Aloud
This is a trick to make sure that sentences flow, words aren’t missing, and that everything is as it should be. While reading silently—processing meaning as each word is read—our brains can “help out” by skimming past errors because our minds know what it should be. When you stop and read the words aloud, the extra step of speaking words as they are written breaks the brain’s attempts to process meaning without every word in place. If I knew more about the brain I’d cite why this might be, but the best I can do is to say it works.
Proofreading
Much like copy editors, proofreaders need to be attentive and able to read the story without getting completely sucked in. I personally have trouble “just” proofreading, because if I find a sentence that’s incorrect for other reasons, I want to fix it. This isn’t the time. At most I’ll add a comment to it and leave it at that. Having the comments also lets me keep track of how many such errors are in the document, so if the count gets too high I can stop and inform the writer that they should probably send it back to a copy editor. However, that’s not the job of the proofreader.
Unlike copy editing, at this stage, typically the proofreader doesn’t track changes. They have the final say on correct punctuation, and usually the proofreader simply makes the final changes. The writer doesn’t need to confirm or approve changes as they usually do with editors’ markings. This can be a little unnerving for many writers, who feel a loss of autonomy, but a good proofreader doesn’t make changes that make any difference to the text aside from confirming every character is in place.
Read Out of Order
As a writer, I know it can be hard to proofread my own work before sending it to an editor or beta reader, mostly because I’m reading the story, not the specific words and punctuation. One of the easiest ways I’ve found to break this pattern is to start at the end and go paragraph by paragraph. Since the story is being read in broken bits, I don’t get caught up in it. Sure, a paragraph is still going to have some story line to it, but not at the same level as reading the entire manuscript. Other out-of-order methods I’ve tried are reading all the odd chapters and then the even ones, or similar attempts to break focus on story.
This isn’t a good method for a professional proofreader, but for anyone not fully cognizant of the ins and outs of proofreading, it can help. As I mentioned above, the proofreader shouldn’t be someone familiar with the story. This method is more for the writer or any non-professional helpers they may have.
Proofread, Proofread, Proofread!
I can’t say how upsetting it is to me to pay money for a book and then find it full of errors. As a reader, I feel slighted. As an editor and writer, I can’t believe how authors can make such a bad impression and expect to still make money. Yes, they often do continue to sell books, but I’m willing to bet the reviews are less impressed and sales will drop.
I don’t care what kind of publication schedule the writer thinks they need to keep. That is not an excuse for lousy text in published material. I have to bite my tongue when I hear things like that. There are writers who are fully capable of producing large quantities of material and still get everything edited and proofread so the text is as perfect as possible. Don’t make excuses for not doing the work. This is one of the things that separates amateurs from professionals.
I think that’s all the advice I have time for, so I’ll leave this open-ended. Do you have questions about editing? Ask me! I answer all of my email, usually within a business day or two. The contact form linked at the top of the page will also reach me, but you can reach me directly at marie@efromson.com.
I hope everyone’s winters are not too cold or isolated. Stay safe!
~Marie
Marie Efromson 