5 Kinds Of Editing (And Why They Are Important)

What’s the difference between a critique and an edit? Are line edits different than copy edits? Do I need a proofreader? Is that different than a beta reader? And here you thought the hardest thing about writing your book would be the actual writing! Ok, so maybe the writing is a little more difficult, but trying to navigate the world of editing and editors is also overwhelming! In this awesome video by Jenna Moreci, we find out the five different types of edits, and why you need all of them for your book to be in its top form for publishing!

The five basic kinds of edits are critique, developmental, line, copy, and proofreading. A critique is actually not even a type of editing, it’s more pointing out things in the work. If you’re going to pay someone to critique your work, it should be noted that these people won’t actually offer any suggestions on how to fix the problem.

The others might be a little more self-explanatory. Developmental edits are the kinds of edits that deal with overall plot structure. Think big picture. Line edits start to narrow the focus to the language, the consistency, is this dialog believable, etc. Copy edits zero down even further into spelling and grammar issues. Go ahead and listen to Jenna in the video below for even more info on editing!