Your Book Is Currently Being Edited!

Your manuscript is now in the hands of your editors. In addition to the publisher (Chris Olsen) who oversees all aspects of editing, your book has been assigned a team of editors who review your book in phases.

A. Developmental Editing

The focus of developmental editing is strengthening the bigger-picture content and structure of a manuscript. Some manuscripts do not require developmental editing; however, these instances are the exception and not the rule.

A manuscript’s readability is the guiding force during developmental editing. Your editing team will approach your manuscript like a reader, paying attention to whether its opening chapters work to effectively set up the book and make a reader want to keep reading; whether its chapters flow logically from one to the next; and whether your book’s ending feels complete and delivers the promised “payoff.” This applies whether the purpose of your book is to tell a story, as in fiction or memoir, or to convey specialized knowledge or researched information about a given topic.

Publish Her approaches developmental editing as a collaboration with the author. Your editing team will endeavor to honor and maintain your unique voice and style. You will receive editing notes (on your manuscript and in a separate document) and weigh in on the changes suggested for your book. You will also receive a copy of Publish Her’s style guide so you know what style changes you can expect to see in your book.

B. Copy Editing

Once the book is of publishable quality, it will move on to the copy editing phase, which involves polishing the final draft of the manuscript. At this phase of the process, the copy editing team will evaluate the technical aspects of writing such as grammar, as well as more subjective aspects such as word choice. Copy editors will also look for any internal inconsistencies and make edits to ensure a cohesive tone across the entirety of the book.

Although this phase comes before the book files are forwarded to your designer for layout (also known as typesetting), authors do not review copy edits or make changes to the content or structure of the book.

C. Proofreading

Once the book has been typeset by your designer, you will receive digital page proofs (galleys) to review and approve. The last phase of editing happens when you receive these page proofs (hence the term “proofreading”). Simultaneously, you and your editing team will undertake a careful review of the entire text, looking for typos and errors. Please give yourself the time and space needed to review proofs with the utmost care and attention. Rather than marking the proofs, you will develop a document with a list of edits by page number and paragraph.

At this point, changes are limited to typographical errors. This final stage of the publishing process provides the opportunity to confirm that the final manuscript has been converted with accuracy to the typeset page. Revising or rewriting text is not allowed during the proofreading stage.

D. Proof Corrections

After we receive your document with proofreading edits listed, your publisher will review it and advise your designer on proof corrections. You will receive a final set of galleys, which you will review and sign off on to confirm the final changes.

*Some parts of the publishing process (design, editing and marketing) occur simultaneously