Last week Looseleaf’s Kristy S. Gilbert was an editing special guest at the Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium, and we’re going to post a few snippets from her panels. Today’s bit is from the panel “Developmental Editors.” Excerpts are lightly edited for clarity (and some parts are summarized).
Brittany Passmore: A lot of writers get really excited when they finish their book, and sometimes they’re just not sure if they’re ready for that or if they need to go through some other editing process first, so how would people know they’re ready for developmental editing, if it’s too soon, or maybe they should have done it sooner . . . what do you guys think?
Amy Michelle Carpenter, Emma Heggem, and Nic Nelson shared some wonderful advice, including working with writing groups and beta readers so you can get more bang for your buck (and so you can have a hivemind help you brainstorm fixes for the biggest revisions) and remembering that many developmental editors are happy to look over your outline and give feedback there even before you draft the book.
Kristy S. Gilbert: Yeah, I think especially in nonfiction, developmental editing can mean something different. Developmental editing can mean looking at an outline and giving feedback on how to develop the actual book that will eventually come of it. And it can also, on the other side, mean taking a full book and developing it further, so it is important to know what you’re getting when you sign up for developmental editing just ‘cause there is that fuzziness in terminology use. [Read more…] about When Am I Ready for a Developmental Edit?
