The Key Stages in Book Publishing Explained (Editorial)

Every book that we bring into the Asteria Press community goes through every stage of editing. A new editing project is a mountainous task. In this short guide, we'll be explaining the key stages in publishing a book and what this looks like from an editorial perspective.

Getting to know the author

To know the book, I really need to know the author. The best thing to ask any author you are working with is “what excites you about your book?” They have written thousands upon thousands of words. People really don’t take up a challenge like this without passion. It is that passion that you want to preserve and make shine when you are editing.

In a call with the author, I get to know who they are as a person, how they might work best, what they love about their manuscript, and what they think needs a bit of work.

Developmental editing

The first step is developmental editing. Every editor has their own iteration of the developmental process. I won’t go into the precise definitions and criteria, but a developmental edit focuses on the big picture.

I have already prepared for this by reading the full manuscript submission. I might prepare more by talking to the team about how it has been received more generally. Wendy is a brilliant person to lean on because she approaches manuscripts in a way that more closely matches how our readers might. Her opinions are a valuable bar to measure my own against.

The author’s developmental revisions

Throughout this whole process, I call what I do “editing” and what the author does “revising”. This prevents a whole big tangle of communications! The distinction is that I am making editorial suggestions, whereas the author is making the actual revisions or changes to the copy.

For developmental revisions, the author has a collection of comments in their manuscript and a big long report detailing how I think the big picture story elements could be improved. After developmental editing, the work isn’t done. I have to be prepared to jump on a call to bounce ideas back and forth once the author has read the report. After that, most editorial support is provided via email.

Line editing

This is the artsy bit. We’re talking style, flow, musicality. Line editing is making good writing great.

By now, I’ve not read the manuscript for a good few months, so it is time to attack it fresh. The best way to prepare for this is to read craft books on line craft. This bit is easy, I’m always reading these. I also like to read some inspiringly brilliant prose. Normally by this point I have had some good chats with the author about what books they were inspired by. This is now my reading list!

Fun fact, why I get stuck – and yes, editor’s block exists too – I take a page of the manuscript and line edit it into having a completely different tone of voice. It helps me take the whole process less seriously and get realigned with the versatility of language.

The author’s line editing revisions

Line editing necessitates less editorial support once it is in the author’s hands. Guidance is given line-by-line (hence the name!) and is much easier to digest. Global suggestions are explained in a short report. For example, if the author is frequently writing sentences that show false simultaneity, this can be explained in a report rather than inundating the manuscript with comments every three lines.

Copyediting

Fun time’s over. We’re here for rules. Well, sort of. Rules are bendier than you think they are, and fact-checking can be fun! I prepare for copyediting by reading (shocker!) my trusty style guide and some of my favourite craft books on copyediting. Okay, not in their entireties, but I have bookmarked pages that I know I revisit frequently. Returning to them will get my head in the zone.

The author’s copyediting revisions

Even less to prepare for here! The best way to prepare is to only make edits that you can explain. If an author says “why aren’t we capitalising this?”, you will already have the answer. It also helps to have just a little bit of boilerplate to hand to explain away some common copyediting misconceptions.

And finally proofreading!

The lovely Wendy has designed a gorgeous layout and typeset the text, and it is now time to crawl through for those last pesky errors. The only way to prepare for this is a giant mug of tea. But also your style manuals and the style guide you should have created at copyediting help too.

Does the author have any proofreading to do?

Nope! Nothing to prepare here. Send them the shiny proofread file so they can join in with the preprint excitement. But other than that, summited the editing mountain!

We hope you enjoyed the first instalment of our new Guiding Star content series. Whether you're an aspiring author, a new indie publisher, or just curious about the publishing world, come along with us as we share each step of the indie publishing process for our next cosy fantasy title. Packed with our learnings, tips and insights on editorial, design, and marketing, you’ll even have the chance to guide us in our journey as we bring our next publishing project to life.

Asteria Press