Do you need a developmental editor?

Hi Manuscript Workers,

This week I’m continuing with the theme of developmental editing, as I’ll be doing all month long in the newsletter. My hope is to demystify the process of working with a developmental editor in case that’s something you might be interested in doing as you work toward publication of your scholarly manuscripts.

First, I want to remind you that I’m offering a free webinar next Wednesday (June 15th) on How to Work with a Developmental Editor.

The webinar will cover what developmental editors do, how to find one who’s a good fit for you and your project, typical costs, and any other questions you may have. It’s free to register and everyone who registers will receive access to the recording and handouts, even if you aren’t able to attend live.

One of the topics I’ll go into more depth on during the webinar is why academic authors choose to work with developmental editors.

In my experience, some of the main reasons academics decide to seek professional developmental editing are:

• It’s hard to get feedback on your writing from colleagues who are already short on time

• It feels risky to circulate your work in progress to people who might be in a position to judge you or affect your career

• You’ve gotten feedback from friends or peer reviewers but it doesn’t actually help you figure out how to make the needed revisions

• You want the structure and narrative of your work to be really solid but you’re not sure how to do that because no one ever taught you

• You’ve been immersed in the work so long that you’ve lost sight of what you were trying to say in the first place

If any of these resonate with you, you may want to check out my post on 8 Signs you Need a Developmental Editor for Your Academic Book Manuscript.

Although the post focuses on book manuscripts, you can also hire a developmental editor to help you with articles, chapters, book proposals, and pretty much any other type of scholarly writing.

You may already know that you want to seek the help of a developmental editor, in which case you may be wondering when you should get in touch with them.

Different editors have different timing preferences (and scheduling lead times), so my best advice is to reach out as soon as you know you might want to work with someone. You can tell them about your project and your goals and see what they advise as far as when they want to step in. You can also find out how far in advance you’d need to get on their schedule.

This post on The Best Time to Bring in a Developmental Editor sheds a little more light on what developmental work looks like at different points in the lifecycle of an academic book manuscript. And of course I’ll be covering it in the webinar as well.

Hope to see you there!

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If you’re not necessarily seeking a developmental editor, but rather contemplating whether you might like to be a developmental editor who works with academic writers, I also have a (free) webinar for you. This one is coming up on June 22 and you can find all the info here.

I’ll be back with more developmental editing tips next week. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see me discuss, you can always reply to this email and let me know!