Editing

You’re finished writing your manuscript. Now you need someone to edit it. But there are different types of editing. What kind do you need? There is structural editing, copy editing, and proofreading.

Structural editing

You’ve lost count of the times you’ve gone through your manuscript, but something still feels off. You need a professional to work closely with you, to point out any problems, and to help you fix them before self-publishing or submitting to publishers.

Structural editing (also known as developmental editing) is aimed at helping authors improve on many aspects of writing, including:

structure
plot
characterisation
pacing
language
grammar
logical flow
factual accuracy
dialogue, and
clarity.

The editor makes some changes and adds comments directly to the manuscript for the author to address and work on, and this often involves several rounds of editing. Through this process, the editor guides the author in producing the best-possible draft manuscript that is ready for copy editing.

Copy editing

If you are further down the line, you might only need someone to tighten the language, fix the grammar, clean the manuscript up, and get it ready for book production. In this case, you need copy editing.

Copy editing, also known as line editing, is only done when the author has thoroughly worked on her or his manuscript and ensured there are no major structural problems with it.

In copy editing, the editor makes changes to your text, line by line, to correct errors and improve on things like grammar, stylistic consistency, and factual accuracy. Often, the editor also raises queries related to facts or clarity.

Proofreading

Has your book been edited and laid out in its design already? If you only need someone to catch the last errors before pushing the big, green publish button, start with proofreading.

Proofreading involves meticulously identifying errors in the manuscript after copy editing and once the pages have been laid out. A good proofreader trains their eyes to dwell on every letter or character, combing texts for style, grammar, and punctuation errors. Good proofreaders add value by spotting factual errors and keeping an eye out for layout issues.

Get in touch

Note: unfortunately, I don’t work on academic papers, theses, or dissertations at the moment.

Often, when authors finish writing their first draft, they feel overwhelmed by the excitement of the writing process and the prospect of having their work published, and they rush to find an editor. Without a clear understanding of what editing involves or if their book is ready to be edited, they believe that an editor will simply ‘fix’ and clean up the manuscript so that it’s more presentable and ready for publication.

Yet, they are unaware of the major problems in their manuscript. These issues range from structural weaknesses to plagiarism, and they are too big for an editor to simply ‘fix’.

Before finding an editor, you should have worked through your own book a few times, editing and rewriting it to improve the quality of the manuscript.

It’s also a good idea to get feedback from friends and family, a writing group, or beta readers. If you haven’t edited your own work, it’s likely that your book isn’t ready for someone else to edit it.

Instead, a manuscript evaluation might be more suitable for you. This is a report focusing on the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses, its readiness for publication, and how you can improve it in order to self-publish or submit to publishers.

Many people confuse proofreading with copy editing, thinking they can skip structural editing and copy editing and go straight to proofreading. But proofreading is a separate process that happens only after copy editing, and after the book has been laid out in its design.

It is aimed at catching any remaining errors after editing and layout. If the book has not been edited, a proofreader cannot ‘fix’ it by only catching minor errors. A copy edit, or even a structural edit, will be needed.

Structural editing generally costs about R0,15 per word, but it depends on the work and the number of rounds of editing involved.

Copy editing costs between R0,26 and R0,45 per word, depending on how much work the text needs to get it into shape.

Proofreading costs between R0,09 and R0,14 per word, depending on the complexity of the book.

Proofreading is a final check that catches any remaining errors in your book after editing (and usually after the book has been laid out in its design). There will almost always be some errors. Having a fresh pair of eyes on the text can help identify these. It is highly advisable to have your book proofread before you send it out into the world.

Good editing takes a lot of time and an incredible amount of energy. It requires a commitment from a dedicated professional who has devoted years of their life to the craft of improving text. Editors are often highly educated and well trained. Their time, like yours, is valuable. The work they do to improve your book is invaluable.

Good editing is without question the most important aspect of producing a quality book, and it therefore requires a big investment.

It takes about one month to have an average-length manuscript of 70 000 words copy edited. Structural editing takes longer because it involves a back-and-forth process between the editor and the author.

It takes about two weeks to have an average-length book of 70 000 words proofread.

We all have weaknesses when it comes to our writing. An editor helps you identify and work on these. If you don’t address these issues, readers will be put off. Although editing software is advancing rapidly, at the moment it does not replace the need for a human editor. After all, it is humans, and not machines, who will be buying and judging your book.

AI solutions have come a long way. They offer invaluable help – from conceptualising outlines to improving and refining your language. However, using generative AI to write your book may result in your story losing its personal touch. Much of the content written by machines can end up sounding monotonous, repetitive, and lacking in personality. What readers crave most is a personal connection through the text, real stories created by real people.

Often, these solutions make editing suggestions that miss the mark or ignore the broader human context. And it can be challenging to decide if the AI is right. Therefore, while AI can help you along the way, you still need to put the work in to ensure you create an authentic reading experience.

Good editors always use the best technology at our disposal. With years of experience, we can get the most out of it – we’re good at telling which editing suggestions to implement and which to ignore. We understand style, tone, and human emotion.

So, why not have the best of both worlds: a person who brings a human touch to the project while using cutting-edge tech to ensure we make fewer mistakes?

If one of your friends or someone in your family is a professional book editor, they can surely edit your book competently. However, the truth is that a book edited by someone who is not a professional book editor will be of inferior quality. You need someone with real book-editing experience.

Liquid Type’s prices are based on industry-standard rates, and our services are exceptional and characterised by fine attention to detail.

Editing is an art. It is a craft that takes years of practice to grasp. It’s best entrusted to an experienced industry professional.

I have edited and proofread a wide range of novels, memoirs, business books, self-help titles, personal-finance books, educational works, history books, and sports biographies.

Some of the books I’ve edited over the years include:

Running to Stand Still by Theo Covary (Unlimited Energy: 2021)
Selling Products Online and Side Hustles and Startups by Heavy Chef (Pan Macmillan: 2023 and 2024)
We Need to Act by Jonathan Jansen (Bookstorm: 2013)
The Disruptors by Kerryn Krige and Gus Silber (Bookstorm: 2016)
Closing the Gap by Tshilidzi Marwala (Pan Macmillan: 2019)
What’s Your Move? by Nicolette Mashile (Financial Bunny: 2019)
Sweat, Scale, $ell by Pavlo Phitidis (Pan Macmillan: 2019)
Walking to Australia by David Robbins (The Book Guild Ltd: 2018)
A Weakness to Die For by Owen Salmon (Owen Salmon: 2024), and
The Bicycle Test by Damian Wąsowicz (Damian Wąsowicz: 2021).

Some of the titles I’ve proofread in recent years include:

Beast by Andy Capostagno and Tendai Mtawarira (Pan Macmillan: 2019)
Bad Blood, Flaming June, and One Shot by Amanda Coetzee (Pan Macmillan: 2011, 2013, and 2014)
AB by AB de Villiers (Pan Macmillan: 2016)
Rassie by Rassie Erasmus and David O’Sullivan (Pan Macmillan: 2023)
Saving My Sons by Ilana Gerschlowitz and Marion Scher (Bookstorm: 2019)
Recover from Burnout by Judy Klipin (Bookstorm: 2019)
Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe edited by Benjamin Pogrund (Jonathan Ball Publishers: 2019)
Survive the Century by Sam Beckbessinger (Electric Book Works: 2021)
Parcel of Death by Gaongalelwe Tiro (Picador Africa: 2019), and
The Upside of Down and Genius by Bruce Whitfield (Pan Macmillan: 2020 and 2022).

Get in touch and send me a few sample chapters of your manuscript, a description of the book, and the total word count. Please also let me know what kind of editing you need, or ask me to advise if you aren’t sure.