Copyediting Deep Dive: Part I
What to Expect From Your Edit
Welcome to Shelf Life where we never stop thinking about copyediting. Copyediting is the fine art and sweet science of reading a manuscript, correcting the errors therein, perfecting what can be perfected, polishing what cannot, and applying a consistent style throughout.
Some people say copy editing and some people say copyediting. I find this depends upon whether you are publishing books or periodicals. Personally, I think both versions are equally fine.
If you are a developing or new author, copyediting might be an intimidating prospect. You are going to hand your precious manuscript off to a stranger or acquaintance to rip up, tear down, and remake in some other image—and you’ll pay them good money to do it. You may not have a good understanding of what to expect from your copyeditor or their work, or what they will expect from you during the process.
The purpose of today’s Shelf Life and Tuesday’s Part II is to demystify the copyediting process for authors so you understand what to expect from the process and the editor you work with.
First of all, I want to establish that every publisher—and every copyeditor who works for every publisher—does things a little bit differently. There’s no singular formula for the copyediting process. While the basics remain the same, the specifics can vary widely.
During the 20 years I’ve spent in publishing, I’ve worked with easily more than one hundred copyeditors at different companies and I’ve also been a copyeditor for various publishers both as in-house staff and as a freelancer. I can’t cover the specifics of every possible process but I have a good idea of the generalities of what to expect.
What you, as an author, can expect will depend upon whether you’re working with a copyeditor through a publishing company; or through a vendor of copyediting services; or working with an individual on a freelance basis. I’ll explain the differences.
Types of Copyeditors
When you’re working with a traditional publishing house, the publisher will provide someone to copyedit your manuscript. This copyeditor might be someone who is employed by the publishing company (ie, a W2 employee), or they may be an employee of a company that provides editorial services to the publisher, or they may be an individual who provides contract or freelance services to the publishing company. In any case, the publishing company will have rules and guidelines for their editors to follow that ensure all authors have a consistent experience working with the publisher.
A production editor at the publishing company may act as a go-between for the author and copyeditor, or the author and copyeditor may work together directly.
If you are not publishing with a trad house, or if you want to hire a copyeditor to help you polish your manuscript before you submit to an agent or a publisher, then you will work directly with an editor either on a freelance basis or through an editorial services provider.
An editorial services provider is a company like Dragonfly Editorial or iUniverse. Copyeditors work for these companies on a W2 or contract basis and the company brokers services to authors at an agreed-upon rate. The company acts as a middleman to ensure the editor is paid and the author receives the services they pay for.
A freelancer is an individual like the folks you can find in the Editorial Freelancers Association member directory. An author who hires a freelancer will work with (and pay) the editor directly—there’s no middleman in the process.
Single- and Multiple-Round Editing
There are in essence two types of copyediting. These might be called different things by different editors at different publishers, and the specifics may change, but ultimately all copyedits fall under one of these two categories:
Includes one or more rounds of author feedback.
Does not include author feedback.
The methodology can account for the difference in price quotes you may get. To understand what your money is paying for, make sure you inquire about this before you agree to work with an editor.
A “simple” copyedit or “light” copyedit may not involve a round of author feedback. What this means is the copyeditor will receive the manuscript, edit the manuscript using track changes, and return the manuscript—with track changes still on and comments and queries embedded—to the author, which completes the edit. This type of copyediting is a single round and does not have a round of author feedback incorporated in the process.
A “heavy” or “full” copyedit works differently. The copyeditor will circulate edited materials (with track changes on) to the author for the author’s review, comments, feedback, and query answers. The author circulates reviewed files back to the copyeditor, who then cleans up the track changes, incorporates the author’s feedback and returns a clean set to the author.
There are pros and cons to both methods. A copyedit that includes one or more rounds of author review and feedback is likely to be more expensive, and take longer, than a simple copyedit—and is also likely to be more comprehensive.
Sharing Your Manuscript
Most copyeditors work in Microsoft Word. Some will be willing to work in Google Docs if you request it. Copyeditors will probably not agree to work in more specialized word processing and typesetting programs like LaTeX or Scrivener. Whatever program you have used to create your manuscript, you should be prepared to export it and receive your files back from the editor in Microsoft Word.
A major reason that Word remains the industry standard for copyediting is because of the robust track-changes feature. Google Docs will kinda track changes but not as well as Word does. And I say this as a Google Docs enthusiast who uses Google Docs for all my writing. Every time I have submitted work to a manuscript evaluator, copyeditor, magazine, or publisher, I have had to export my Google Doc to Word. As much as I would love to see this industry shake off the chokehold that Microsoft has on us, that’s not happening anytime soon.
So, step one: Have a Word document.
You will likely share files with your copyeditor—and they’ll share back with you—either via email attachment or using a secure filesharing service like Dropbox or SFTP. If your copyeditor prefers not to work from email attachments, they should provide you with instructions to use their preferred filesharing method. The copyeditor is the business owner/provider in this situation and you, the author, are their client. You should not need to provide your own filesharing service.
Is it safe to share your manuscript with a copyeditor? Generally, yes. The folks who are out there stealing intellectual property and selling it as their own are not posing as copyeditors, agents, or publishers to get ahold of that work. They steal finished work from AO3, WattPad, or Amazon, which is much more efficient than stealing unfinished, unedited work. Exercise the same caution with choosing a copyeditor to work with as you would use for selecting any other service provider. Check reviews and testimonials, speak to the person to make sure they’re real, review samples of their work, and so on, before you send them your manuscript.
The Sample Edit
Not every editor provides a sample edit but many will do so upon request if they don’t do so as a matter of course. Note that you should not expect a sample edit to be done for free. “Sample edit” means that the copyeditor will edit some portion of your work at the agreed-upon rate and then stop work while you, the author, review the edit to make sure it matches your expectations.
The size of the sample edit will depend upon the overall length of the work to be edited, but a “sample chapter” is typical. The copyeditor will share the edited sample with the you so you can review their work. This is your opportunity to make sure that:
They are catching everything you expected them to catch.
Their feedback delivery style is acceptable to you.
They’re making good suggestions that you appreciate.
They understand your authorial voice and intent and are editing accordingly.
It’s not usual to have many copyeditors each return a sample chapter and then select your favorite; most copyeditors will provide a sample chapter as the first stage in their edit so that they can adjust their edit according to author feedback, not so that they editor can hire or fire them based on their sample.
If the sample really doesn’t meet your expectations, you should have a direct conversation with the copyeditor and let them know. The copyeditor may be able to adjust their edit accordingly or explain if your expectations are a mismatch for the level of edit you’re paying for.
If you’re dissatisfied with the sample edit, then you should expect to receive a re-edited file of the same chapter after the copyeditor has adjusted their edit according to your feedback. If the re-edited chapter still does not meet your expectations, then a frank discussion about parting ways is in order.
If you get the sense that your copyeditor just doesn’t understand or like your manuscript, or if they deliver feedback in a way that makes you uncomfortable (disrespectful or condescending), it’s best to know before they undertake the full edit so you can move on to a copyeditor who is a better fit.
Don’t forget to come back for Tuesday’s Part II for the back half of the demystification, in which I’ll go over the full edit, the author review phase, cleanup and query integration, and the copyeditor’s style sheet.
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