What Types of Editing Does My Manuscript Need?

The following includes an excerpt from Untangling the Self-Publishing Process: A Practical Guide to Creating and Marketing a Professional-Quality Book by Julia Soplop, Hill Press founder.

No matter how skilled a writer you are, your manuscript will require numerous rounds and types of editing to elevate it to its full potential. It’s ideal to hire a professional editor to assist you with each round of editing. But if budget is a concern, you may have to try to find family or friends who are willing to help with some of these aspects. Even if you can hire a professional, you’ll still want as many eyes on the manuscript as possible for additional suggestions.

Editors often assess the state of a manuscript before estimating their editing costs, so the tighter the manuscript is by the time it gets in their hands, the less expensive their fees will be. Asking people in your life whose opinions you respect to read your manuscript before it goes to a professional editor is always a good idea.

Standard Types of Editing

Below are the four standard types of editing your manuscript requires, all of which Hill Press provides. We can help you determine the phase your manuscript is in at the time you reach out to us. Sometimes, you’ll need multiple rounds of one type of editing or another to polish it. And the more proofreaders and rounds of proofreading the better! No single editor, regardless of talent and experience, will find every error in a long manuscript.

• Developmental Editing: You’ve completed a full or partial draft of your manuscript. Now it’s time for developmental editing, which tackles the big picture: organization, structure, plot, pacing, and character development. These high-level suggestions can help you focus your rewrites to transform your draft into a finished book.
  
  

• Line Editing: After you’ve gotten the bones of your manuscript in place based on developmental editing suggestions, you’re ready for line editing. Line editing focuses on how the manuscript flows by examining sentence- and paragraph-level structural issues, word choice, and grammatical and spelling errors. Line editing also looks for inconsistencies in writing style and plot.
  
  

• Copyediting: Once you’ve updated your manuscript based on line editing suggestions and you feel the content of your manuscript is complete, it’s copyediting time. Any major round of editing likely introduces new errors, so copyediting is essential. Copyediting focuses exclusively on identifying and fixing mechanical issues, such as grammatical, spelling, usage, and punctuation errors.
  
  

• Proofreading: Yes, you still need proofreading after copyediting. Proofreading is examining a manuscript word by word in search of typos. It takes a meticulous eye. Proofreading should happen before a manuscript goes to layout and again after layout is complete, because the design process can introduce new typos and spacing issues. Proofreading should follow any additional rounds of changes.

Specialized Editing

While any manuscript should go through the types of editing listed above, you may need to seek additional assistance depending on the genre of your book.

• Technical editing: If your book covers technical material, such as engineering, scientific research, or law, it’s a good idea to hire a technical editor with experience working in your genre to help ensure content accuracy and adherence to your industry’s style standards.
  
  

• Sensitivity reading and editing: If your manuscript discusses race, sexuality, disabilities, or any vulnerable or marginalized populations, it’s wise to hire a sensitivity reader or editor to help you determine whether—despite your intentions—your writing could be offensive to those about whom you’re writing. You’ll need to hire someone who specializes specifically in the populations covered in your book. They can help you identify bias, misrepresentation, or inadvertent disrespect and suggest how to adjust your language to be more inclusive. Listen to their input and pay them for it! But remember that no one speaks for everyone in any population, so it’s always a possibility that your word choice may not sit well with all readers. Be open to continued conversations and editing if readers identify insensitivities in your work.
  
  Looking for an editor or self-publishing consultant? Drop us a line.
  
  To learn more about self-publishing, check out Untangling the Self-Publishing Process.

Self-Publishing is Like Wedding Planning

The following is an excerpt from Untangling the Self-Publishing Process: A Practical Guide to Creating and Marketing a Professional-Quality Book by Julia Soplop, Hill Press founder.

Assembling a high-quality book is like planning a wedding. Ideally, you have a large budget to hire out all the services necessary to host an elegant wedding: a fancy venue, high-end linens, gourmet catering, a unique florist, a professional photographer, live musical entertainment. You identify your preferred vendors, write them checks, and show up on your wedding day ready to celebrate.

But if your actual budget doesn’t allow you to hire professionals to provide every service, you need to prioritize. You think about which elements you and your family and friends might realistically be able to contribute—looking at both time and talents—without impacting the quality of the event. You also think about which services you most want professionals to provide. Maybe your parents can cut and arrange flowers from their wildflower garden to avoid hiring a florist. Perhaps you can set up an iPod in lieu of hiring an expensive band. Maybe your best friend, a professional chef, offers to donate the catering as a wedding gift. If you have a clear vision for the venue, and photography is an important part of your life, you might spend your budget booking a chic venue and hiring a professional photographer. The event may not be the fanciest wedding people have ever attended, but that doesn’t prevent it from being a sophisticated and meaningful celebration of your marriage.

When you’re self-publishing your work, it’s ideal to hire professionals to handle most of the steps required to transform your manuscript into the highest-quality book possible. If you have a large budget, you can finish your draft manuscript, identify the best editorial and publishing support vendors available, write them checks to handle much of the publishing process, and set a launch date.

But if you don’t have the budget to hire professionals to manage every detail of the publishing process, you need to prioritize. You look at the skills and time you have. You identify people in your life who might have the time and talents to help, either for free or as trades for services you could provide for them, such as reading their manuscript drafts in the future. You think about which aspects—editing, book interior design, cover design, ebook conversion, marketing support—you don’t have the skills or time to handle or that you most want to appear professional, and you hire out what your budget allows.

If you want to put your book into the world, you should do so regardless of the level of professional publishing services you can afford to hire. I won’t pretend the polish and packaging of a book doesn’t matter. It does. But your budget shouldn’t preclude you from publishing the highest-quality book you can.

Untangling the Self-Publishing Process discusses the steps required to elevate your book to its full potential. It also gives the ideal scenarios of the professional services you could hire if you had the budget to hire everything out. But you’ll need to prioritize the services you’re able to hire.

When you’re making these decisions, it’s important to remember you might not make the money back through book sales. (But you might!) If you never see that cash again, what can you afford—and what do you feel is worth spending—to create a professional-quality book?

To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish: Comparing Book Publishing Options

The following is an excerpt from Untangling the Self-Publishing Process: A Practical Guide to Creating and Marketing a Professional-Quality Book by Julia Soplop, Hill Press founder. Check out the ebook for further discussion on the pros and cons of traditional publishing vs. self-publishing, as well as an overview of the entire self-publishing process. 

One of the first questions we often receive from authors is, “What are the publishing options for my book?” The answer is that there are numerous paths to consider, all with advantages and disadvantages, and it can take some time to determine the best one for you and your book. To help you get started, this post will define different publishing options (traditional, hybrid, vanity, and self-publishing); list distinguishing characteristics of each option; and offer a comparison chart.

Questions to Ask When Comparing Publishing Options

When determining which publishing avenue might work best for you, some of the most important questions to consider are:

• Who decides what to publish?

• Who pays publications costs?

• Who offers an advance?

• Who retains the publishing rights?

• Who is listed as the publisher?

• Is sales support for in-store placement provided?

• Is marketing support provided?

• Who controls and gets a slice of the royalties?

Book Publishing Options

Traditional Publisher

Traditional publishers have long acted as the gatekeepers of the literary world. They mostly include the Big Five: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. They all publish under many imprints, which are basically independent, themed brands. For example, Penguin Random House owns numerous imprints, such as Bantam, Ballantine, Three Rivers Press, Penguin Books, and Penguin Classics. The Big Five make up about 80 percent of the U.S. market for general interest trade books, like novels and nonfiction literature. Smaller, independent presses—meaning companies not associated with the Big Five—and independent, self-publishing authors make up the rest of the market.

Traditional publishers select the books they publish. They typically offer an author an advance of some level—usually a larger advance for an established author and/or a book expected to be hugely commercially successful. They cover production costs. They retain publishing rights to the book. They distribute the book and typically help to position it in brick-and-mortar stores. They may or may not provide some limited marketing support. (Unless the author is quite famous, splashy marketing campaigns are often the product of the author hiring a separate marketing firm.) Traditional publishers offer a percentage of the royalties to authors, but usually only once book sales cover the production costs of the book and the advance. Many authors never sell enough books to receive royalties. Traditional publishers used to employ offset printing—that is, the process in which inked images are transferred from metal plates onto rubber “blankets,” then onto paper—which can produce a higher quality print product. These days, however, many are turning to print-on-demand (POD), just like everyone else.

Hybrid Press 

A hybrid press is just what it sounds like: a combination of traditional publishing and self-publishing. They select which books to publish, but their standards are likely much lower than a traditional publisher’s. You pay the production costs. You do not receive an advance. You may lose some editorial control. They retain publishing rights. They are listed as the publisher. A true hybrid press should offer you some level of distribution support, meaning they have a dedicated sales team positioning your book in brick-and-mortar stores. They offer you some level of royalties, keeping a percentage for themselves to cover their sales support. They may use offset printing or POD. They are unlikely to offer much marketing support.

Vanity Press

A vanity press is a configuration that many industry professionals caution against using. It can be difficult to distinguish between a vanity press and a hybrid press without reading the fine print. When a vanity press publishes your book, you pay the publishing costs. You do not receive an advance. You may or may not lose some editorial control. They retain the publishing rights. They are listed as the publisher. They upload your book to a wholesale distribution service (which you can do yourself), but they don’t have a sales team to position it in brick-and-mortar stores. They typically use POD. They often take a hefty portion of the royalties despite not doing distribution work themselves. They don’t usually offer marketing support.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing means you control the entire publication process for your book. Authors who want to self-publish their work to retain editorial control and publishing rights but still produce high-quality books can hire professional publishing support services, such as editors, artists, book designers, and marketing professionals. These authors can then make their own choices about the self-publishing and distribution platforms they use and set their own list prices and wholesale prices. They can buy their own ISBNs and can create their own imprints.

Authors who want to put their work into the world but don’t have funds to hire professional publishing support services handle the entire editorial and design process, perhaps with the free assistance of family and friends. These authors can then make their own choices about the self-publishing and distribution platforms they use and set their own list prices and wholesale prices. They can buy their own ISBNs and can create their own imprints.

Hill Press

Hill Press is a mixed model. We offer editorial and publishing support services for independent authors, including a full range of editorial services, design referrals, and publishing consulting. These author clients retain their publishing rights and self-publish their books.

Separately, we have our own publishing arm. When we do publish books through our Hill Press imprint—our publishing brand or trade name—we pay the publishing costs, retain publication rights, and offer authors generous royalties. (We are not a vanity press!)

Publishing Comparison Chart

Below you’ll find a chart comparing types of publishing companies based on whether they decide what to publish, pay publications costs, offer an advance, keep publishing rights, list themselves as the publisher, provide sales support for in-store placement, offer strong marketing support, and control royalties. The offerings of individual companies and the ways those companies support individual authors may vary. For example, a traditional publishing company may offer some marketing support to celebrity authors but not much at all to non-celebrities. This chart depicts the trends.

There is no need to include self-publishing in the chart, because when you self-publish, regardless of whether you hire publishing support services or DIY, you incur all costs but also control the entire publishing process.

Want to learn more about what it takes to self-publish your book? Check out Untangling the Self-Publishing Process.

Meet the Editors: An Interview with Julia Soplop

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello, I’m Julia Soplop. I’m the founder of Hill Press and the author of three books: Untangling the Self-Publishing Process, Equus Rising: How the Horse Shaped U.S. History, and Documenting Your World Through Photography.

I joke that I’m a branding expert’s worst nightmare, because I’ve never been able to box myself into just one field or subject. Curiosity has been the primary driver of my academic and professional life. Along the way, I’ve collected a bachelor’s in French, a master’s in medical journalism, and a plethora of coursework in documentary and fine arts photography as well as biology and public health. Whether working for a nonprofit, a publication, or as a freelancer, I’ve always loved delving into just about any subject and figuring out how to bring it to life through writing or photography. (You can read a few of my favorite pieces here.)

I grew up in Minneapolis, which I still consider home. But over the years, I’ve set up shop in a lot of places, including a tiny apartment in NYC, a little place with a big mountain view in the Colorado Rockies, and a tent in a nature reserve on the other side of the world. It occurred to me recently, though, that I’ve now spent about half my life in North Carolina, where my husband and I decided to raise our three daughters. It’s a good life here.

What interests you in working with self-publishing authors?

In recent years, I’ve become a vocal advocate for self-publishing. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a documentarian is that everyone has an interesting story to tell and deserves to tell it. But the reality is that traditional publishers will never publish most of our stories. I no longer see that fact as an obstacle, because the advantages of traditional publishing are waning.

My own publishing journey taught me that authors don’t have to wait around for gatekeepers to determine the inherent value of their work; technological innovations and new distribution platforms allow us to create professional-quality books and publish them without the approval of traditional publishers. I want to scream this from the rooftops! There is no need to wait around for traditional publishers to seek more diverse voices or books based solely on quality rather than commercial viability or stories that should be told. We can tell our stories ourselves, and we can do it quite well.

That said, there is a lot that goes into creating a high-quality book product aside from writing a solid manuscript. I get so much joy from helping authors learn how to transform their stories into finished books. There’s a steep learning curve in self-publishing, and I launched Hill Press and wrote Untangling the Self-Publishing Process to help empower independent authors to overcome the challenges of publishing, so they can put their work into the world on their own terms.

Tell us what you’re like as an editor.

I never want clients to be surprised, so I tell them up front: I’m vicious with a red pen! They always thank me later, though. Writing and editing go hand-in-hand, and I’ve been an editor as long as I’ve been a writer. Some of the most helpful editorial insights I’ve accumulated over the years grew out of the most annoying experiences of my career: writing print newspaper and magazine articles and proposals with length requirements down to the exact word count. When you’re forced to present the same information in many fewer words, you realize quickly how much of your language is extraneous. My journalism background also instilled in me the concept that the best way to explain something is always simplest way. I’m a stickler for clear, concise language. Strong verbs, people! Strong verbs.

When I edit someone’s work, I don’t try to make their writing sound like mine; my goal is to make it sound consistently like theirs—to help them identify and strengthen their own voice. I want a client to look at their finished book and think, “This is my story. This is my voice. And it is good.” (And yes, we now use “theirs” and “them” in the singular form, and I’m here for it.)

Describe your perfect day.

I’m an active and outdoorsy person through and through, so my perfect day would be a sunny one spent outside. It would start quietly, with my kids still asleep (this is too much of a stretch, I know), sitting on my back porch with coffee and a book, watching the sun rise and listening to the woods awaken. Once my family emerged, we’d pack up and head out for a hike that culminated in a fantastic view. Or perhaps a kayaking session on the river down the road. Or maybe some mountain biking on a nearby trail. We’d come home, take a swim, and read the afternoon away on the porch. Then a babysitter would arrive, and my husband and I would dress up and go out on an actual date to an actual restaurant. A girl can dream!

What projects are you working on right now?

One of my main interests in writing is translating scientific research into digestible language for a lay audience. Before the pandemic hit, I started researching and outlining a book to help non-scientists make better sense of health and science news. The book will generally be about what science is and is not, which is a way more complex discussion than you’d think. It will also discuss how messaging about science can become distorted—both innocently and nefariously. I had no idea at the time that the subject would become so personal and emotional.

Needless to say, the last year has laid bare how crucial it is for non-scientists to understand how the process of science works and what it offers us. It’s also shown us that we have a problem in this country with scientific illiteracy, even among otherwise educated people, which has deeply impacted our pandemic response. Even though the pandemic will only be one section of the book, I spend a lot of time each day reading and collecting scientific literature about different aspects of the pandemic and keeping tabs on messaging and misinformation. It’s exhausting. I think I need to stop waiting around to find out how this story will end before I start writing!

I hear you have some interesting pets at home.

We do! We have a hedgehog named Thistle, who has become my kids’ muse. They’re constantly drawing pictures of her, writing elaborate books about her imagined adventures, and setting up little obstacle courses for her to explore for mental stimulation. And they even perform little behavioral observation studies on her for science class. Do you know how many inches a hedgehog will push an empty paper towel roll across a driveway before stopping? They sure do.

We had a few dogless months early last year, and they were not a good look for our family. So we adopted an 8-week-old rescue pup, knowing nothing about him except that he was pudgy and adorable. It turns out Simon is a mix of many breeds, but mostly shepherd. He’s whip-smart, and the girls have spent the pandemic teaching him tricks. They accidentally taught him to jump so high through a hoop that we had to upgrade the backyard fence we were installing from four feet to five feet.

You can read Julia’s official bio here.

New Edition Available: Documenting Your World Through Photography

We’re pleased to announce the publication of the 2nd edition of Documenting Your World Through Photography: An Introductory Course for Elementary and Middle Schoolers by Hill Press founder Julia Soplop. Aside from a bright new cover, the content of this beloved curriculum remains the same. However, changes we’re making to broaden the distribution of the book have allowed us to reduce the price! We feel passionately about making this resource accessible to more students. You can purchase the ebook (digital download) here and the paperback here.

We’re working to make the paperback available for wholesale purchase soon for schools, libraries, and book stores. In the meantime, please contact us directly for wholesale inquiries.

About the New Cover

When Julia and her family traveled to Costa Rica early last year, they found themselves in a magical garden where hummingbirds zoomed around their heads and landed on their hands. It was their last trip before the pandemic shut the world down just a few weeks later. Julia selected an image of one of the hummingbirds in flight for the cover of the new edition to remind her of this enchanting moment—when she and her family were still naive to the difficult year ahead.

Book Description

To quiet your body and mind, to observe what is in front of you, to learn how to find the thread of a story, to document it from a unique perspective, to transform it into something extraordinary—these are some of the most essential life skills we can teach our children. Why? Because effective storytelling is what propels us through life. It doesn’t matter what particular careers we pursue; college essays, job applications, grant proposals, social media marketing—they all force us to weave engaging stories to convince our audience to feel a certain way. The basic photography skills your children will gain from working through this course are the building blocks of an artist, but they are also transferrable to other forms of storytelling the world will expect them to master along the way.

Kids don’t have to wait to learn photography fundamentals until they can handle a high school or college photography class that requires thousands of dollars of equipment and the ability to understand the relationships between shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. With Documenting Your World Through Photography, they can begin to build their foundational skills now. All they need is access to a mobile phone or inexpensive point-and-shoot camera. Packed with large, high-quality images from photographer and author Julia Soplop’s stunning portfolio to illustrate concepts, this book introduces students to the basics of light, composition, and perspective. It then walks them through experimenting with different genres of photography, including still life, motion, nature, and storytelling. Students will wrap up the course by creating their own photo series.

 Course Details

• Nine lessons, each comprised of one lecture and four related activities

• High-quality photo examples from author Julia Soplop’s personal portfolio to illustrate concepts

• Tips for teaching the course, whether you're a non-photographer or a professional

• Pacing guide to help you set a lesson schedule regardless of whether your kids are on a traditional or year-round calendar

• Course hashtags to share work on social media and create a photography community

• Appropriate curriculum for homeschools, co-ops, classrooms, families looking to supplement traditional education, and self-starting kids

• While written at a level accessible to elementary and middle school kids, high schoolers and adults with little photography training may also find it valuable

About the Author

 Click here to read about Julia Soplop.