Developmental Editing

Developmental editing is about finding the best form of a story. That means it’s useful at any stage of a manuscript’s life, from the first draft to the twentieth.

Of course, the earlier you get in contact the easier advice will be to implement. It also helps to begin a developmental edit early because the narrative is less ‘fixed’ and a wider range of possibilities can be considered.

Yes. Please submit your manuscript as a single Word file (.doc or .docx). Do not submit your manuscript as individual chapters. The font should be size 12 with double line spacing, and it should be formatted as Times New Roman, Courier, or Sans Serif.

Please note that if submission guidelines are not followed, a nominal formatting fee may be necessary to prepare your manuscript for editing.

Copyright protection is a common worry for authors, which is why we’re happy to guarantee that your work won’t be shared with any third parties. Your editor will use your work solely for editorial purposes, and is bound by a Non-Disclosure Agreement which is available to all clients prior to the commencement of any work.

Based on the information you provide about your story and goals, we’ll suggest an editor with the best combination of skills and experience for you. If, however, you’d like to work with a Standoutbooks editor you already know, whether from a previous service or through our blog, then we’ll be happy to organize the developmental edit with that in mind.

Both the manuscript notes and the report provide supplementary advice on your manuscript, adding to your options rather than making choices on your behalf.
Your editor won’t make any lasting changes to content or structure without your permission, and any slight changes they do make can be accepted, rejected or altered afterwards using Microsoft Word’s ‘Track Changes’ feature.

Our developmental editing service is intended to provide an overview of your manuscript and offer paths for improvement, meaning there will be minimal alterations to the manuscript itself. Your editor will highlight any overarching issues with presentation – grammar, spelling, typography, etc. – but won’t adjust such things on an instance-by-instance basis.

Minor changes such as rephrasing problem passages or correcting errors in punctuation will be carried out to some degree, but as examples of suggested author behavior rather than as an exhaustive proofread of the document.

Every point your editor makes will include examples from the text and the reasoning behind their advice. The intent is to give you everything you need to make your own informed choices, and editors will never pressure you to follow their advice.

Your report will be a Word document of approximately 10-13 pages, depending on the story. It will be broken down into easy-reference sections such as ‘Plot’, ‘Characterization’ and ‘Writing Style’, with further sub-headings to ensure clarity and ease of use.

If there’s a form of presentation that you’d find especially helpful then just let your editor know and they’ll be happy to oblige.

Below is a snippet from an editor’s report for a fiction novel.

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Dear (Author),

I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to work on (title). This NA urban fantasy novel … is engaging, exciting, and an enjoyable read. Your writing is strong and concise, and the subject matter is unique and riveting. This is a strong start to a new NA series that you plan to self-publish, and I’m excited for you.

In the following pages I will breakdown my overall thoughts on the characters, the structure and different aspects or sections of the story, as well as the novel in big picture. Some comments are to show how a reader may portray a piece of the story, and some provide suggestions for improvement or expansion.

Genre/Audience

This book has a focus on a small town with specific characters and happenings in the city that are all, we find out, connected. This is a plot driven story; there are many different things at work in this story and it’s interesting to see each set of events unfold and connect to other events.

Part of the appeal for YA and NA books is typically the character’s journey, growth, over the course of the novel. The character is facing a transition in their life; a life that is beyond high school, but before becoming a full-fledged adult. It’s about discovering a person’s self deep down and how that person fits in the world of responsibility; living on their own, paying bills, determining a career path, and more. How the character come to terms with this life transition and who they are by the end of the novel is what many readers connect with in this genre. These books are usually more character driven in result.

Currently this story feels more plot driven than character driven. (name) is our main character in the novel, and as such I would like to see this story have a stronger focus on her and her journey of acceptance of becoming a demon. It’s parallel to accepting becoming an adult and all that entails. At this time, I think the focus could go deeper and be with (name) more than it is. I want to deeply connect with (name), feel her struggles, and understand her motivations and actions. Seeing her change throughout this novel would be ideal for the NA audience. I will dive into this more in the character section and POV sections below.

Another thing to consider for a NA audience is the subject matter. Although there’s not much that is off-limits in NA and we can be a bit more promiscuous, there is still an unspoken requirement that there must be reason and understanding behind scenes that are above the usual amount of sex or violence found in novels for young adults.
The few instances that I believe are not in the best tone for this audience were …

Theme & Plot

The town is full of murder and they relate to … This is a great story line, and you execute the plot of the story very well. I was interested in how everything related and how it would all connect by the end. I did not see the twist of (name) coming, and so I enjoyed that a lot.

For the most part, this plot is intact and doesn’t require too much development, as I think the plot points are strong and engaging. However, I do have some observations and suggestions that may help in tightening up this plot.

Characters

There is a fairly large cast of characters in this book. I’m going to list each person and provide some notes, insight, and suggestions about each.

A detailed discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each character follows.

Big-picture character notes

I enjoy all of the characters and I want to get to know them more because they each have a story to tell. However, one of my struggles with some of the characters is that I feel distant to them.

Some of the characters in this story are two-dimensional, and a lot of that in my opinion is because we don’t get to know anyone too deep. The focus on each character is pretty above the surface, with a few peeks below, but never deep enough that it’s something we couldn’t have seen while out of water.

I mentioned this early on, but the more I connect with these characters, the more I will accept anything they do. Motivation is the most important part of characters- without it what do we have? … I’d like this to be applied to all of the main characters in this book. It will help connect us and move us forward in the story.

Writing mechanics: Adjectives

The more adjectives you use, the more you’re commandeering the reader’s visualization of the noun being described. Sometimes that’s necessary or beneficial, and the general rule is that … At the moment, (title) uses more adjectives than this as a matter of course.
Examples of this are …

Writing mechanics: Details
The other form of overwriting in (title) is the inclusion of too many details. This again stems from you wanting to paint an exact picture for the reader, and the answer is just to cut down. The problem here is that too much information extends a sentence, making it clumsy and losing the reader’s immediate interest. I think this is best illustrated with a couple of examples:

Reader distance
One of (title) main strengths is its emotional content. Every character is given motivations and reasons for their behavior, no matter how destructive to themselves or others. I think this is key to (title) narrative, and it’s something I think can be strengthened by a few slight changes to the narrative voice of the story.
The key change I’d suggest …

Showing and telling
‘Show don’t tell’ is an old writing rule that says it’s better to demonstrate something than directly state it to be true. You do great with this throughout (title), but there are a few moments where events that would be powerful to witness are instead described. These include:

To sum up
In conclusion, this story is a strong and entertaining read! I enjoyed it and was kept on the edge of my seat. Writing about demons is a very interesting idea, and I look forward to seeing the series unfold.

My suggestions and comments are to help you create the strongest version of this story, and I truly hope they’ve done that for you here. My goal is to help spark ideas that you may have that feels right for your story and your characters.

I will be on hand to discuss the edit in more detail, to answer any questions you may have, and to workshop any ideas that may result from the edit itself.

Many authors wish to keep in contact with their editors after a developmental edit, whether it’s for in-depth consultation on the changes they make, or just to troubleshoot smaller issues involved in the writing, publication, and marketing of a book.
Ongoing consultation is treated as a separate service to the developmental edit. Your editor will be able to give you more information on the various services available, as well as the deadlines and charges for your particular needs.

Deadlines vary according to the length and complexity of each manuscript, but on average it will take 3-4 weeks to perform a developmental edit on a manuscript of around 70,000 words.

Developmental editing is charged on a per-word basis, and minimum fees apply. The per-word charge is judged according to the needs of the manuscript and the level of development required. Total charges are agreed prior to the beginning of the edit.
50% of the total fee will be due at the beginning of the editing process, with the remainder due upon completion of the edit.

Of course you can. A trial edit is a great way for you to see the kind of feedback you can expect during a developmental edit. It will also help you understand what the editing process involves and how your manuscript can benefit from it. For more information, please get in touch with us.

To get things moving you can contact us via our contact form. This will begin the discussion about what you want from the service, and will start the process of finding the right editor for you. Once you have an editor, and price and deadline have been agreed, you’ll be asked to sign our standard client contract, clarifying what you can expect from the edit and from us as a company.
After that, all you have to do is wait while an editor begins the process of providing unbeatable advice on your manuscript.

If you want direct changes made to your manuscript, including your choice of light to heavy error correction and sentence restructuring, then our other editing services are for you.

We’re happy for potential clients to find out more about us from those with prior experience. Just let us know this is something you’d like and we’ll pass on the details of authors willing to discuss their own edits.