How To Hire An Editor #3

Because I get asked many versions of the same question – “How do I hire an editor?” – I’ve written this series to take you through exactly what working with an editor entails.

What to expect, what you’ll need to do, and how to approach the whole thing.

You can read the first and second parts here: How To Hire An Editor #1 and How To Hire An Editor #2.

Today I want to take you through hiring an editor for a Structural edit – also known as a Developmental Edit.

The Structural edit is a strange beast. It is an edit that looks at how your book as a whole hangs together, and identifies gaps or leaps that you have in there, which might lose your reader – NOT what you want to happen!

Structure is the first thing that I look at when someone brings me their manuscript for a full edit. It’s the logical way to do things, because if the structure isn’t right, then it’s no use fixing small things like spelling, because the book still won’t make sense on a macro level.

But getting an editor to look at your structure isn’t just for the full edit. It can be really useful to get an opinion when you’re partway through your book too, to make sure it’s going in the right direction.

You’re ready for a structural edit if you’re:

• Into your first draft and are confused about where to head, or whether what you’re saying really takes your reader somewhere
• Finished your first draft, but unsure of whether it really works the way you envisaged, or
• You’ve revised your manuscript several times, and you’re ready to have an editor do a full edit.

When I edit for structure, it happens in two parts:

1. First I look over the whole book, and see whether the way it’s set out makes the most sense that it could, or whether the chapter and/or section order needs an overhaul.

That’s the first big job, and sometimes it’s immediately obvious just from looking at the contents page, and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I need to read through the whole thing and then sleep on it for a night to have the realisation that it’s just not going to work as well if left alone.

This first part can happen without you finishing the draft.

 

While it can feel odd to get in touch with an editor early, getting some advice at this stage often means that you don’t have to do loads of rewriting down the track.

2. Once the larger structure is set, I’ll read through once more – often backtracking and referencing various points as I go – in order to make sure that the writing flows from point to point within the chapter level, then within the paragraphs, so that they lead from one to the next with minimal ‘bumps’.

So a structural edit really isn’t for looking at language and/or copy – grammar, spelling, turn of phrase and the like.

I admit: I sometimes can’t resist changing something that is jumping off the page at me, but I have learned that if I do allow myself to begin copyediting at this point, it is nearly always a waste of time.

Usually, my feedback for a structural edit includes fill-the-gap style comments, and requires you to write more into your book to create the flow you’re after. For this reason, I hold off editing copy until the structure and flow are complete. I’ll also recommend where things need culling to make more sense.

A word of warning: if you hire an editor for structural editing, expect to work. The gaps identified and suggestions made are there for you to take care of, unless you’ve negotiated with your editor that they do this for you.

When I’m hired, I usually state this upfront with people – it’s HUGELY important. Setting aside the time to actually DO the suggestions your editor makes will be the difference between a project that drags, and one that is finished up fast.

But what happens if you’re through a structural edit, or you are looking at the manuscript you’ve been polishing for AGES (that you’re happy with the structure of, thankyouverymuch!)?

That, my friends, is the language and copy edit stage, which I’ll cover next week.

For now? If you’re writing a book, come and hang out in the Facebook group I’ve created specifically for writing writers: Book.Write.Now.