Decisions, Decisions: Choosing what type of edit you should get

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a blog post, so thanks for giving it a look! Let’s talk about choosing which level of editing you want on your manuscript.

Frequently when a new client contacts me, they are unsure what type of editing they need and they ask for my opinion. I am happy to review their manuscript and let them know what I think. However, that is not necessarily the type of editing they should get because there are several things to consider when making this decision.

Obviously, what the manuscript needs should be high on the list of decision-making inputs, and I will do my best to determine that in my review. It’s not always possible to tell from a brief review if there are story-level issues that need to be addressed, but often there are hints in the first couple of chapters (e.g., a story that is slow to start, immediate point of view problems). Also, the majority of manuscripts could benefit from this type of edit, especially if the author is new to writing. Whether a manuscript needs a line edit is usually pretty evident and can be demonstrated in a sample edit.

So, if it’s typically fairly clear what a manuscript needs, why should we consider anything else? An experience I recently had will help illustrate this. A client hired me to do a manuscript review of her novel, and I provided an editorial letter laying out the main story-level issues holding her book back. When I got the manuscript back for the line edit, she had only made very minor changes and none that addressed the main points of my evaluation. She had strong feelings about how the story should go and wasn’t interested in making significant changes.

It’s her book and that is one-hundred percent her decision to make. But if she knew that going in, then it didn’t make sense to spend the money on a manuscript review. Why pay an editor to tell you how to strengthen your story if it is already saying exactly what you want it to and you aren’t interested in changing it? Could the story have been stronger had she made some changes? Perhaps. But if she knew she wasn’t interested in that, a line edit would have been the better choice. (Side note: If you do hire an editor for story-level feedback, try to be open-minded about their advice. Our goal is not to get you to write your book the way we would write it. It is to help you reach your goals for the book in the best way possible. It’s natural to feel a bit of defensive at first when your hard work is critiqued, but if you can let that pass, you’ll probably find some helpful suggestions to improve the work.)

So, your goals for the edit are a pretty important piece of the puzzle, as this example demonstrates. Two other things to consider are your budget and your skills. If you would love both story-level and sentence-level feedback and it’s within your budget, then by all means, get a developmental edit/manuscript evaluation and then follow that up with a line edit. If you have a more limited budget, as

many authors do, then you may have to choose one or the other. In that case, an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses can help guide you. If you have experience with writing and previous editors have told you the words on the page are really strong but the story had some holes, your limited budget might be best spent on a manuscript evaluation. If they said the opposite, that the story was really great but they had to make a lot of edits to smooth out the prose, then a line edit might be your best move.

The skills of others in your orbit can also be considered. If you have great beta readers that can give you story and character feedback, lean on them for that and then pay for a line edit. If your spouse is an English teacher who can clean up the manuscript for you, save your money for story-level editing.

For most authors, getting both story-level and sentence-level editing would be ideal. But being honest with yourself about your willingness to revise, your budget, and your strengths will help you decide the path that is best for your particular situation.

As a thanks for welcoming me back into your inbox, I am offering 10% off an editing service if you schedule an edit between now and May 31, 2025. I look forward to hearing from you!