There is a diverse landscape of editorial services and roles in the publishing industry, and it can get pretty darn confusing for authors trying to sort through what the different titles mean and what services each type of editor provides.
That said, a nuanced understanding of the different types of editors available to you as an author will empower you to make better and more informed decisions about what sort of editorial support you might need, and what is going to work best for you in your publishing situation.
In this week’s episode of The Writing Coach, we look at six different types of editors and break down exactly how and when they can support your writing and book production process.
Listen now or read the transcript below!
The Writing Coach Episode #190 Show Notes
Registration for the March 2024 edition of Story Plan Intensive is now open!
The Writing Coach Episode #190 Transcript
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Hello, beloved listeners. And welcome back to the writing coach podcast. It is your host, as always writing coach, Kevin T. John’s here.
Hello, beloved listeners and welcome back to the writing coach podcast. It is your host, as always writing coach, Kevin T. John’s here.
I was talking to an American writing coach the other day, my friend Doug Kurtz—shout out to Doug—and he was talking about how it’s wintertime, so it’s time to really buckle down and get some work done. I was saying to him, I don’t know if it works that way in Canada…
I mean, it is so cold here that we tend to go into bear hibernation mode. I don’t think January, February, and March is really the most effective time for us; it gets dark so early, and everyone is so cold all the time. I think things really do slow down here through these cold winter nights.
I know you guys in America have March Break, and people go to the beach and whatnot. Right? Whereas here, March is still the dead of winter for us. Everything is kind of reversed. I think we get a lot of work done during the summer. It’s finally nice out. The weather’s finally decent; we’re finally not taking our lives into our own hands every time we get into a car.
Maybe I’m crazy. All the Canadian listeners, let me know: are you able to get a lot of work done in the winter? Or do you tend to slow down, hibernate a bit, and then rev up for the summer? Let me know.
I’m encouraging you folks to write me more often. You can reach me at Kevin (at) kevintjohns.com. I’d love to hear from you listeners, so reach out and let me know what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, and what you’d like to hear me talk about on the show.
I mentioned March, and this is going to be a very exciting March because the latest round of Story Plan Intensive will take place over the month of March. I really think this is going to be the best and biggest version of Story Plan yet. I think this will be the eighth time we’ve run people through the program—or maybe the seventh? I shouldn’t really check, but we’ve been through it quite a few times now. I really know the parts where people need extra help, and I know the types of results people get when they do the work. I brought in some affiliate partners this time, so you might see other coaches promoting the program, and I just think we’re going to have a really nice, big, fun cohort this March.
So, if you’ve been thinking about Story Plan, if you took it in the past but didn’t upgrade to coaching, now is the time. It’s free. Story Plan is a four-week email course where I send you training videos that help you brainstorm, and on Fridays, you get your imaginative, inspiring homework assignments. And all of this training and work feeds into you developing an amazing outline for your book, by the end of the month.
As I said, we’ve done it a ton of times now, and it works. The people who watch the videos and do the homework have a rock-solid outline for their book before the end of the month. It’s always so exciting to see the amazing progress that people make in such a short period of time. You can get signed up here.
Regardless of where you end up publishing a book, whether you’re traditional, whether you’re hybrid, or whether you independently publish, ideally, there’s going to be at least one person who gets in there and works out your book before you hit publish and send it out into the world.
That person, if it’s not a coach like me, it’s normally an editor.
But here’s the thing: in the publishing world, there are all different types of editors, and it’s really confusing for authors, especially beginner authors or first-time authors. So, in this episode, I want to talk about some of the different types of editors out there and their roles.
One of the reasons I need an episode like this is because there is a real mystery to the publishing industry. I always compare it to the movies, where every person who ever sets foot on set gets their name at the end of the movie in the credits at the end. Whereas the publishing industry creates this veil of mystery that makes it look like the authors do everything themselves and that there isn’t this giant team of people supporting them. As a result, it becomes difficult to know what type of editor you might require and when you should be reaching out to them for assistance.
One of the reasons why there’s so much lack of clarity in terms of the roles different types of editors play is that there’s a lot of fluidity and overlap of roles. In the publishing industry, people are rarely just one thing. Let’s look at Shawn Coyne, for example. I believe he was an acquisition editor for a traditional publishing company and a developmental editor. He’s now the publisher of Black Irish Books. He’s also a literary agent, as well as an author. I think he might do some ghostwriting, too, and he’s a writing instructor. You can see why people get confused when one person with a long career in publishing can play so many roles, some of them all at the same time.
To make things even more confusing, multiple roles, positions, or jobs in the publishing industry all use the title “Editor.” That’s why differentiating the different types of editors is what we’re going to try to do in today’s episode.
But before we dig into the different types of editors, let’s just kind of talk about the role editors play in the writing process. They’re really the unsung heroes behind every great book; they polish and refine manuscripts to ensure clarity, coherence, and overall excellence. Their entire job, like literally their job, their livelihood, is to make you and your writing look good and sell more to readers. Not a bad person to have in your corner, right? Someone whose career is making you look good!
We’re going to try to break this down into six different types of editors. Again, there’s going to be some overlap. And what I call one type of editor, someone might argue, is actually the other type, but in my experience in this industry for a little over a decade, this is my understanding of the different types of editors.
The Acquisition Editor
The ironic thing about the acquisition editor is they don’t actually do much editing. (See, I told you this was going to be pretty confusing stuff!)
If this person is named editor, but they’re not editing, what are they doing? Well, it’s an acquisition editor’s job to acquire promising new manuscripts for a publishing house. It’s the acquisition editor’s job to stay attuned to the latest trends in publishing, and, usually, to be an expert in a certain genre, or a handful of genres, and the reader expectations that come along with those subgenres.
When an acquisition editor is choosing books, they’re really looking for talented authors with well-written books that have sales potential. They’re not just looking for great writers; they’re looking for a book that they can sell.
They usually work very closely with literary agents who they know and trust. It’s unlikely you’re going to be able to pitch an acquisition editor for your manuscript. You’re first going to have to query literary agents, and then that literary agent is going to pick up the phone and call all the acquisition editors that they know over at the different publishing houses.
The Developmental Editor
The developmental editor is the manuscript’s best friend during the early stages to mid-stages of the writing process. The developmental editor focuses on the big picture, what I often call the macro-level structure of the book. Developmental editors can help shape your ideas, structure your narrative, and ensure the overall flow and pacing of the story works.
A developmental editor is often somewhat akin to a project manager in that they oversee the birth and development of a book for the developmental editors working within publishing companies. You can kind of think of them as comparable to the executive producer role in the film industry in that they’re kind of the project manager of the whole project. Their responsibilities include editing, but they also encompass other aspects of the book production process and the overall publication journey.
Developmental editing is what I do as a writing coach. A lot of the time, I’m working with authors to shape their stories and really figure out how to tell them the best they can. Developmental editing is about helping writers find their strengths and ensuring that their stories can be as resonant as possible for their intended audience.
A developmental editor is probably going to work the closest with an author in terms of collaboration, brainstorming, discussion and back and forth feedback.
The Structural Editor
There’s some overlap here between a structural editor and a developmental editor, but the structural editor delves a little deeper into the narrative itself in terms of focusing on those large structural components of a book. They might do something like evaluate the strength of the climax and ensure the all-is-lost moment is coming at that 75% mark.
Similar to the developmental editor, they’re really looking at the book at a structural level, and their job is really to ensure that the narrative and the various elements of the narrative all come together and work harmoniously.
I think we can differentiate the developmental editor from the structural editor because the developmental editor might be there early in the book production process, maybe even at the idea level, at the pitch level, and they’re guiding the book through the entire process. Whereas the structural editor might be used in a situation where you’ve been querying agents, and you’re not landing any interest, and maybe all the agents are saying there are some common issues not working with the book. That’s when you might go to a structural editor and have them do the analysis and give you that macro-level feedback on a completed manuscript.
The Fact Checker
I want to stress how important the fact checker is in the modern world, especially in works of journalism and in works of nonfiction. We live in a world where anyone can lie about anything online( or anywhere else) and get away with it. As such, publishing is really that last realm of accuracy, where truth is still paramount.
Fact checkers take the crucial task of scrutinizing all content for truthfulness and coherence. They do a meticulous examination to ensure that all the information presented in an article, a book, or a piece of journalism is accurate.
The fact checker also plays a pretty significant role in protecting journalists and nonfiction authors from potential legal issues. Things like libel suits can be prevented if all of the facts have been checked and we know that everything in the book is absolutely true.
The Copy Editor
With the copy editor, we are moving more into the domain of the mechanics of writing. A copy editor meticulously polishes your manuscript. They’re looking for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and style. They’re looking to ensure consistency and precision of language throughout your manuscript.
I would say for a new writer, collaborating with a copy editor can be an illuminating and rewarding experience. You can learn how little nuances of language can help refine your writing and improve your manuscript. Copy editors examine finer details, the language, the style, all of those line by line elements.
A metaphor might be fine-tuning an instrument: the copy editors kind of get in there and tune the strings of the instrument that is your novel or your book so that it can sound as beautiful as possible.
It’s a process that requires a keen eye for detail. This is really where the detail-oriented editors get in there and really look at every word, every sentence, line by line.
The Proofreader
The final type of editor that I want to include is the proofreader, who is usually one of the final people to review a manuscript before it’s published. Their goal is just to eliminate errors and typos.
While a copy editor might improve diction or syntax, the proofreader is just on the lookout for typos and errors. They’re the last line of defence before your book hits those shelves or gets published on Amazon.
In the world of nonfiction, the proofreader might also look at things like the placement of photographs or diagrams in a manuscript, just ensuring that the overall visual coherence of the work is solid and that there are no errors again.
Recap
All right, so let’s go back over the different types of editors we’ve covered in this episode.
We started off with the acquisition editor, the those folks who acquire manuscripts from agents and work within big publishing houses to get books published.
The developmental editor is really the executive producer of a book, nursing it through the book production process.
The structural editor is the macro-level editor who looks at the big structural components of your book: the opening scene, the end of Act One, the midpoint shift, the all is lost moment, and those sorts of things.
Next is the fact checker, safeguarding your nonfiction against inaccuracies.
We’ve got the copy editor who’s getting in there and polishing up your language and improving your style.
And you’ve got the proofreader who’s going over your book and making sure that there are no errors in the book.
Now, as you can see, there’s a pretty diverse landscape of editorial services and roles out there, and in the traditional publishing world, a manuscript might go through all of these editors. Conversely, in the independent self-published world, an author might opt to streamline the process and only engage perhaps a copy editor or a proofreader.
The point is that a nuanced understanding of these different roles and the different services that are available to you as an author can help empower you to make better and more informed decisions about what sort of editorial support you might need and what is going to work best for you in your publishing situation.
The Writing Coach
Now, I don’t call myself an editor, even though I obviously am one; instead, I call myself a writing coach.
Where I draw the line between copy editing, structural editing, developmental editing, and coaching—because I do all of those types of editing—is an editor’s job is to get in there and improve your book. Their job is not to teach you how to improve your book. You’re hiring them, or they’re working with you to make a particular project as good as possible. Whereas as a coach, I am making editorial changes at all levels, but my goal is to help you understand why those changes need to be made. I’m not working with you to create a great single book; rather, I’m working with you to build a foundation of craft knowledge and skill sets so you can have an author career.
So, if you’re confused about why I call myself a writing coach and not an editor, that is why.
Yeah, I’m editing, but then I’m sitting down with clients, and I’m explaining why I’m making these editorial changes. I’m talking about the craft and justification behind the changes or revisions that I recommend to my client’s books, so that’s a bonus editor for you. We covered six types of editors, plus a writing coach.
Now, if you want to see the type of information that a writing coach can share and offer you, I encourage you to check out my free Story Plan Intensive program. The next round kicks off the first week of March, so now is a fantastic time to get signed up.
All right, like I said off the top, you can email me at Kevin (at) kevintjohns.com. I’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button, and I will see you on the next episode of The Writing Coach.
