So you’ve got a completed manuscript on your hands. Congratulations! Now you just have to edit it. But what kind of editing do you need? I’ve got seven good reasons to hire a developmental editor below.
What Is Developmental Editing?
A developmental edit takes into account all the “big-ticket” items regarding your manuscript: plot, pacing, characterization, etc. It’s less concerned with how your prose sounds from line to line and more focused on how your novel reads holistically. A good developmental editor will dig deep into the meat of your story to help you improve it.
Reasons to Hire a Developmental Editor
Not every manuscript needs a developmental editor. Here are seven situations in which you may find a developmental edit to be helpful, however.
1. You’re Working with a Ghostwriter
If you aren’t a writer yourself, it can be difficult to judge the quality of a ghostwriter’s handiwork. That’s where your developmental editor comes in. They’ll help you determine whether the manuscript you’ve paid for is worth saving — through line edits, copyedits, and proofreading — or if you’re better off cutting your losses.
2. Your Alpha Readers Found a Lot of Plotholes
So you got your manuscript back from alpha readers and the response is… not good. They’ve found plotholes in parts of your novel you thought were really great, some of them wide enough to drive a truck through. Worst of all, they’re telling you those plotholes prevented them from enjoying your book.
Deep breaths. It’s all going to be okay. A good developmental editor can help you identify plotholes and come up with ways to patch them. They might even find problems your alpha readers missed.
3. You’ve Written Yourself into a Corner
What about if you have the opposite problem? You’re still working on your manuscript and you don’t know where to go from here. Although conventional wisdom will tell you to just write through the pain and make it to the other side — because you can’t edit what doesn’t exist — a developmental editor may be able to come in and help you fix the problem areas that have got you bogged down.
4. You’re Writing in a New-to-You Genre
Every writer should feel free to explore all the possibilities genre offers. But if you’re working in a completely new genre — a sci-fi author penning a romance, say, or a mystery writer working on a literary horror novel — that can be as good a reason as any to hire a developmental editor. Developmental editing ensures that you’re adhering to the conventions of your genre. You don’t want to strike out because you’re in unfamiliar territory.
5. You Want to Write a Series
Series are difficult. Every book has to have a satisfying emotional arc, but so does the series as a whole. If you’re working on a trilogy, quartet, or even just a duology, consider hiring a developmental editor to help you smooth out your plots and prepare to publish.
6. Your Manuscript Is Striking Out with Agents
If you’re in the querying trenches, godspeed and good luck. But if you’re not getting any bites on full requests — or not getting any full requests at all — it could be time to hire a developmental editor to take a look at your work. Not only do developmental editors know the ins and outs of genre conventions, but they also know what’s hot in publishing… and what could be landing you in the not pile.
7. You’re Not Interested in Traditional Publishing
Finally, you should hire a developmental editor if you plan to self-publish. Working with an agent or publishing house editor pretty much guarantees you some degree of developmental editing, but going it alone is a different matter entirely. As a self-published author, you need all the help you can get. After self-editing your fiction, hire a developmental editor to assist you in polishing your manuscript for the line-editing process.