What is development editing?
You have established your plot, sewn seeds, nurtured new life and now you want to cultivate that plot into the perfect story. Just as no produce makes it to our table without tending, no book goes to publication in the traditional path of publishing without an editor.
Things a development edit can do:
Writing, for some, is the easy part and really counts for only a small portion of the work – a quarter, lets say – the gathering of your ingredients to potentially make a good story. A raw, unedited manuscript, to a reader, can be just as unappealing as consuming raw ingredients. That’s where Editing comes in. The Editing stage is, realistically, the greater part of the process – about half the work – the method which brings all those ingredients together, shapes, tests and proves your story is ready to be baked into that gorgeous product that will fly off shelves easily. The marketing element (putting out query letters or seeking self-publishing options from which you can promote your product) is, again, a smaller portion – around another quarter of the process. At this point, your book requires time to find it’s place on bookshelves and the right temperature for it to rise within the book marketplace. Editing and Marketing can be a daunting but with a good Editor on your side, to guide you through these steps, your book will have the best chance of finding its way to readers.