Episode Five: What does a developmental editor do?
Ever wondered what a developmental editor does? Not even sure what developmental editing is? This episode breaks down my entire process as a fiction developmental editor - covering what developmental editing is, how I work through a project, and why developmental editing matters to you as a fiction writer. Let’s dive in!
Links Mentioned:
Subscribe to the Better Writer Weekly newsletter here: https://olivia-helps-writers.kit.com/better-writer-newsletter
Check out my services here: https://oliviahelpswriters.com/services
Learn more about my new revision course here: https://readerreadyrevisions.com
Find an editor via the Editorial Freelancer’s Association here: https://the-efa.org
Key Takeaways
The vast majority of readers DNF (DNF = did not finish) books because of developmental issues - boring stories, characters they don’t like, nonexistent plotting, and more. It’s not bad editing (grammar/typos as many writers believe).
Unlike other forms of editing that focus on line-level issues, developmental editing is all about fixing the big-picture elements of your story - the story elements that keep readers hooked.
My developmental edits are built around the four step revision process: prioritize, analyze, strategize, and revise. I do steps 1-3, so you can focus on step 4.
My edit starts before I ever see your manuscript. First, I need to understand your genre, target audience, publishing goals, and story vision, so I know what to prioritize.
Then, I analyze your manuscript by commenting on your work and creating a book map (structural overview of your story).
Step three is to strategize by crafting an editorial letter full of revision suggestions you can use on your own.
My goal as an editor is to empower you with multiple revision choices, not hand out a set of mandates.
I don’t work with every genre because I’m not an expert in every genre, but if you think I’m the right person to help you write a great book, get in touch!
Transcript
Please Note: This is an automatically generated transcript that has not been edited.
Olivia Bedford (00:00)
My job ultimately is to help you create a book that your readers can't put down, a book that hooks them in the beginning.
keeps them engaged through the middle and then has them reaching the end absolutely shattered or delighted or elated or whatever emotional response you're going for so that they want to read your next book. That is my job as an editor to help you craft that experience that readers do not want to abandon, do not want to DNF.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Better Writer podcast. I'm so excited that you're here taking time out of your day to hang out with me as I talk about writing.
I did want to say that if you
Listen to a 40 minute version of episode 4. I am so sorry. That was the unedited raw audio that Accidentally got uploaded if you listen to a 27 minute version of Episode 4 then you don't need to worry you have no idea what I'm talking about But if you did hear that unedited version, I am so sorry. I corrected it as soon as I could Hopefully you got the right version, but if you didn't I'm so sorry This is a brand
new endeavor for me. I'm still learning, so please forgive me. And if you listen to that unedited 40 minute version and you're still here, thank you. Thank you for giving me grace and for, you know, joining me this adventure. I honestly never saw myself as the kind of person who would ever have a podcast or have something to say, but I'm having so much fun putting these episodes together. So much fun talking about writing because it is one of my favorite things in the world to discuss. I have a lot of opinions and
Some of them are even helpful. So thank you so much for sticking around, joining in on the fun. Let's dive in to episode five. All right, today I decided to talk about what I actually do as a developmental editor because I realized that some people don't know what developmental editing is. They think that editing is just commas, grammar, that kind of thing. And developmental editing is not that at
all. It is very different. So I decided to give you a behind-the-scenes look at my process as an editor, what I do, how I do it, and why it's important for you as a writer to engage in the developmental editing process, whether you are doing it with an editor or not.
To start off, have some data for you. So this is from a survey that Goodreads did asking readers why they abandon a book. In other words, why are people DNFing, not finishing stories that they start? this survey is from 2013, so it is a bit outdated, but I don't think our reasons for DNFing have really changed,
our reading habits have changed in other ways since then. So what they found is that a full
46.4 % of readers DNF a book or abandon a book because it is slow or boring. Another 18.8 % will abandon a book because of weak writing. 8.8 % abandon books because they are quote, extremely stupid, end quote. And then there were another 8.5 % that said it was a ridiculous or non-existent plot that caused them to abandon a book. And finally, 4.9 %
that they did not like the main character and that was enough to get them to give up on a story. You may not know this, but every single one of those reasons, those top reasons for DNFing, abandoning a book, are all developmental issues. I will admit some of those issues could be a reader genre mismatch, so it could be an instance where
someone picked up a book that just was not a good fit for them on a personal level, but in an instance where the genre and the reader should be a good fit, these are developmental problems. Having a slow or boring book that could be a pacing issue, a conflict issue, a character arc issue, that is developmental.
Weak writing may sound like a line editing or copy editing thing, however, as a developmental editor, I do address issues of show-don't-tell, of dialogue. I address a lack of specificity and things like that that are often what readers are talking about when they say weak writing, even if those things can also be addressed in a line edit and to a lesser extent in copy editing. Copy editing is really about grammar mechanics. Typos not so much the actual word choice.
people often think that they only need copy editing because all people care about is, having clean, grammatically correct writing, and that's honestly not the case. There are definitely readers who do care about typos and grammar issues, but only 2.9 % of readers in this survey said that they abandoned books because of bad editing.
Again, weak writing is more of a developmental line editing issue, not a copywriting issue,
of writers don't know until they start really exploring the different types of editing and how they work.
So the reason I'm sharing this information is because I want you to understand that the things readers care about most are big picture. The things that readers are abandoning your book over are happening on a plot level, a story level, a character level.
clean text, clean as in air
it is important for your writing to be error-free. We want to catch typos. We want to solve grammatical problems. But if that's all you're worried about in terms of editing, you are putting your focus on the wrong things. You are putting...
your focus on the things that writers tend to care about and that editors tend to care about. But what do readers really care about? Readers care about the story. They care about the characters. They care about how those things are showing up on the page in a fun and engaging way that is appropriate for the genre you're writing. And that is what I handle as a developmental editor. Now, I want to be clear. This is not just a sales pitch for developmental editing. You can address these aspects of your story.
in revision on your own. Hiring a developmental editor is not your only option. I think it is a great option if you can afford it, if you have the time in your publishing schedule, but it is not the only way.
So even though this episode is focused on developmental editing and the work I do as a developmental editor, keep in mind that a lot of what I'm talking about applies to the revision process more broadly.
My job ultimately is to help you create a book that your readers can't put down, a book that hooks them in the beginning.
keeps them engaged through the middle and then has them reaching the end absolutely shattered or delighted or elated or whatever emotional response you're going for so that they want to read your next book. That is my job as an editor to help you craft that experience that readers do not want to abandon, do not want to DNF. Now again, a reader might stumble on your book who is not the right fit. We are not trying to be perfect for everyone, but
I want you to be able to reach as many people in your target audience as possible by writing a book that works for them.
I actually do that? First off, let's just talk a little bit about what do I mean when I say developmental editing. Developmental editing is not like other forms of editing. I do not use a red pen. I mean, most of us are on computers, but you know what I mean. I do not care about your comments. I do not look for grammatical errors. I will ignore typos and awkward phrasings and all those kinds of things.
My job is to look at the gap between your vision for the story you want to tell and your current draft. And then I give you strategies for closing that gap.
And I do that in three different ways.
First, I write comments on the manuscript itself. Not all editors include comments for developmental editing, so you do have to be really careful about assessing services and figuring out what you're actually getting editor to editor. But I comment in a developmental edit, I'm commenting on things like characterization, world building, whether you're showing, not telling, all those things that feed into how you actually execute developmental aspects of your novel on the page. I also provide a book map.
is an Excel spreadsheet that contains a summarized, high-level view of your novel. So I summarize what happens on the page, I keep track of conflicts and how they're developing, I keep track of characterization, character development, all those kinds of things that are really helpful to see broken down in a simplified format.
If you're writing a multi point of view book, I also track the different point of view characters. There's some quantitative data in there like, how long is each scene, what percentage of the manuscript is each scene. I keep track of structural benchmarks, like where is your inciting incident happening,
Is it happening at the 50 % mark when it should be close to the 10 % mark? All those kinds of things are tracked in the book map.
Then I also provide an editorial letter that summarizes all of my feedback and gives you very clear strategies for revision. The bulk of the editorial letter is a summary of what is working in your novel, so I do cover the strengths, things that you should amplify and maximize in revision, and then I talk about what needs work, the things that aren't yet meeting your vision. I consider myself to be a very
educational editor, so my editorial letters tend to run long because I do try to give detailed descriptions of the issues that I'm seeing in the manuscript plus suggestions that you can use. These suggestions are never mandates. I often give multiple suggestions, multiple different ways that you can approach a revision with some discussion of the implications of each one, and I leave plenty of room for your creativity. So my editorial letters are meant to be a starting point for you to
brainstorm and revise on your own after getting my letter. In addition, the letter has some extras that are helpful for you to have. I always include a premise statement and a synopsis that you are welcome to use when you go on to query or market your work. I also provide a series of next steps that break down how exactly you should approach the revision process. I offer resources that you should check out, books that I think are going to be particularly helpful for you based on what I'm seeing in your manuscript.
there's anything in your book that could affect your ability to market your work, I'll also note that in a marketing consideration section. For example, if you have chosen the wrong genre or the wrong age group, I'll note that in the editorial letter so you can act accordingly. If you have specific questions that haven't been addressed in other parts of the letter, I also have an author concern section that
I basically use to address any of those questions that didn't neatly fit into a category that I've already covered in a different part of the editorial letter. So like I said, my editorial letters tend to be comprehensive, they tend to be long, but I do try to design them in a way that you're getting very clear, actionable guidance. And I will say, I'm not going to list every single thing that is a problem in your manuscript. I am going to choose
no more than four big categories that I think are going to have the greatest impact on your revision. So you're never going to get like this whole laundry list of problems. You're going to get four areas to focus on in your next round of revision. And my process for editorial letters has changed. I think when I first started editing, I really felt like I needed to just tell someone,
every single thing that was wrong with their book because they were paying me all this money and I wanted to be comprehensive, but ultimately that was not effective for the clients and it was not effective for me because honestly writing a 60 page editorial letter is good for no one. It is not good for me because that took way too long and I think the quality is definitely diminished when an editorial letter is that long and for the clients getting a 60 page editorial letter was overwhelming I'm sure.
So if you are that person who got a 60 page editorial letter from me, I'm so sorry. I've learned and I am now doing better.
and altogether, the editorial package is going to include feedback on the high level parts of your story.
that can include characterization, character arcs, could include plot, structure, conflict, world building, could include scene dynamics, so the way that you're actually putting together the scenes in your novel. I might address pacing, the transitions, I might address genre conventions. It's going to change and adapt and be different for every author.
No two editorial letters that I've ever sent out have had the same exact categories because it's always personalized to you and what your novel needs. basically what this means for you as a writer is that if you hire me or anyone else as your developmental editor, we can do things like make sure that you are actually targeting the right genre with your marketing. So we can tell you you're hitting the requirements for this genre or
actually you're hitting the requirements for totally different genre and that's where you should position your book. If you're really committed to that original genre, I can also tell you what you would need to change to actually meet the expectations of that genre instead. I will help you find places where you might lose readers because the pace is too slow, the story is too complicated, the conflict isn't engaging, there's a lapse in cause and effect. I can find places where your characterization is underdeveloped.
or where your character arc is falling short because we're not seeing a part of their change happen on the page. I am not a sensitivity reader, but I do flag sensitivity issues when I see them. So again, this is not my area of expertise, but if I see something that I know is considered offensive or is going to do harm to your readers, I will tell you because I'm not going to keep that information and I want you to be able to make
informed choices going forward. Thankfully, I work with incredible authors. No one has ever been offended that I did that because I really assume that everyone wants to do the best for their readers and there are so many blind spots that we all have when it comes to offensive stereotypes, offensive characterizations, offensive tropes that are, super commonplace and we don't know until we know. So I do flag those as well, even though no one's coming to me just for sensitivity reading.
Overall, my editorial process is rooted in the four steps of a successful revision, and that is to prioritize, analyze, strategize, and then revise. Step four belongs to you as the author. I don't do the revised part for you, but essentially when you hire me as an editor, I am doing steps one through three for you instead of you having to do them on your own.
So what does that actually mean in practice? Step one, prioritize. Step one actually starts before your manuscript is on my desk. Step one happens
when we go through the client intake process, you will fill out a questionnaire talking about what genre you're writing, who your target audience is. You'll let me know what specific concerns you have about your project, which you're really proud of in your project. And I'm also going to ask about your writing history, if you have plans to turn this book into a series, all that kind of stuff. And I need to know that upfront because your target genre, your target audience, your vision for the project
is going to determine how I give you feedback.
And I think it's so important to recognize that there are very, very few rules, rules as in quotation marks, that really apply to every genre universally. There is no one objective standard for fiction. That is not how it works. You need to have an editor who is well-versed in your genre, who knows what is appropriate and expected for your genre specifically.
so that you can get feedback tailored to the kind of reader you are trying to reach. for me, that also means that I am very selective about which genres I work with.
work exclusively with genre fiction,
just like I tell readers, your book is not for every person. Not every reader is going to love your book and that is okay. Your job is to find the readers who will love your book. And as an editor, I'm the same way. I'm not going to pretend that I love everything or that I am the right fit for every writer. I am great at editing genre fiction. I love genre fiction. I do not touch...
memoir, I do not touch literary fiction, I tend not to work with things that are strictly comedic either, even if that technically would fall into a genre category. I'm just not a big comedy fiction person. I don't know why. I love comedic TV shows, but with writing it's just not my thing.
have read literary fiction that I loved. I have read memoirs that I loved.
but in a professional context, I don't read enough of them. I don't like enough of them for me to feel comfortable telling someone what to do to write that genre at a publishable level. And that's honestly what my job is as an editor. I help people write books that could sell. If I'm not reading anything that's currently selling in a current genre, how do I have the authority to say that at all?
So
are editors out there who have a much broader range. I'm not going to comment on how anyone else is running their business, but for me, I find it hard to believe that they are an expert in every genre and category. And my fear is that they may be misapplying the rules of the genres that they actually read and love to books that they are reading in a different genre. So as a writer, I would just urge you to be very careful.
about vetting editors, make sure that they actually read and enjoy the genre you are writing and that they're not going to inadvertently try to turn your book into something else. And again, there are definitely editors out there who read a variety of genres and do so well. You just need to be really careful that that person actually has expertise, not just in fiction in general, but in your genre in particular. So for me, I work with fantasy,
I with fantasy romance, I work with historical fiction, contemporary romance, and the occasional mystery slash thriller. And that actually is a pretty broad range compared to some editors who will really only work with one specific genre. Again, these are genres that I enjoy, I read, I feel well-versed in the structures and expectations of those genres, and that is why I am comfortable editing them.
If an editor ever says to you, I'm so sorry, I don't work with that genre, please do not take it personally. I've actually gotten some nasty responses when I say that to people and I'm just trying to help you out by not wasting your money on an editor who doesn't specialize in your genre because every genre is unique. So that was a bit of a tangent, but all that to say that the editing process starts before the edit begins.
with my knowledge of your goals and my knowledge of the genre that you're writing. And based on those two things, I am going to already have in mind some priorities. What does your book need to do for readers in order to succeed in that genre? And that is the mindset that I'm going to be bringing into the story. I will also ask about your plans for publishing.
Are you going for a traditional publishing deal or are you planning to self publish? If you're planning to self publish, you have more freedom in certain respects and I can take that into account. If you are going for a traditional publishing deal, I'm going to be much, much stricter on things like hitting a certain word
it's not going to necessarily completely change how I approach the edit, but I am going to take that into consideration.
The other thing that I really want to know beforehand is if you're planning to write a series and what your plans for the series are. Sometimes people don't want to give me spoilers, but I am immune. I'm immune to spoilers. And the more information I have, the better I can help you set up for a great book one and great book two and great book three or whatever your plans are. So the more information people give me at this stage, the better I can help them in the next phase of the edit.
Then we move on to phase two of the revision process, which is analyzing the manuscript. And this is the stage at which I am actually going to read your book. Some people like to do a cold read. I am not one of those editors. I prefer to read and comment on the book at the same time. So I read your entire story. I write comments as I go. I also create the book map as I'm going through. All that happens in one round.
My goal in this round is to observe what is happening in the story. I will start to make some suggestions for revision if it's something that is happening on the page level.
For example, a show don't tell issue, I will start commenting on, you know, this would be a great place to show, here's where we should do more telling. So I do get a little bit into strategy, but for the most part, I am just taking note of what's happening. That summary is going in the book map. I'm adding comments with my initial reactions and observations, and I am jotting down notes of things that I'm noticing on a structural level that aren't just contained to any one scene or any one comment.
By the time I'm done with the initial read, there are comments on practically every page of the manuscript and the book map is drafted. It's not complete, but it is drafted. Once that step is done, I do a full analysis of the manuscript. Once the comments and book map are done, I'm going to go back and analyze everything together.
I have a software tool that allows me to pull all of the comments that I've written into a separate document. I tend to print them out unless there's too many that'll just keep it on the screen. But I will go through and reread each of my comments looking for trends. What are the issues that I noted over and over again throughout the manuscript? I look at the book map and I look for structural issues. Is the inciting incident happening 50 % into the book?
or is there no actual climactic scene? Things like that that are going to show up in the book map, et cetera. I look at all of that together and from that I start strategizing. What are the most important things for this writer to focus on? What is going to have the biggest impact on their ability to tell the story that they want to tell? At this point, I outline my editorial letter and that is where I'm going to decide
What are those four things that are going into the editorial letter that I want this person to focus on in their revisions? Once that editorial letter is outlined,
It's time to write the editorial letter. And like I already said, the editorial letter is more than just a summary of my feedback. I'm writing a premise statement, I'm writing a synopsis, I'm writing a revision guide for you, offering resources, next steps, but the bulk of the letter and the bulk of my time is spent on figuring out the best way to explain what's working and what needs work in your story and giving you specific
actionable suggestions that you can use to revise.
These letters typically end up being between 15 to 25 pages depending on how long your book is. And that sounds really long, but again, I really try to give you specific examples from your book. So it's not just 25 pages listing out a bunch of like teeny tiny things you need to fix. It is, you know, 15 pages of here is the issue, here's the theory of why this thing actually needs to be addressed.
Here are specific examples of where this went wrong in your story And here are concrete, actual things you can do to fix this issue in revision. Like I said before, I also try to give you multiple options for revision. So I am not the person who's going to come in and say, you must do X by Z in your manuscript. I'm gonna say, here's X by Z that you could do. X will give you this effect. Y will give you this effect. Z will give you this effect. Here's what I might recommend.
But here are some other things that you should think about as you make this decision. So I'm really trying to give you the information that will empower you to make the right choices for your book and will help you write the best book possible going forward.
Once the editorial letter is drafted, it's time to start revising my work. Yes, as an editor, I revise the edit very meta. Basically, I do two rounds of editing on the editorial letter. One, I will read through it on the screen, making bigger changes, reordering things, making sure everything is as clear as possible. Then I print out the editorial letter and I do a revision on paper so I can make sure
that I'm actually catching some of those errors. If you want to go back to episode four, I talk a little bit about why it is so hard for us to self edit. And one of the strategies that can help you catch typos and other errors is changing the format you're working in. So I practice what I preach. I print out every editorial letter to revise on paper at least once. And then I actually do a third round of editing for the editorial letter where I listen to it read out loud using the text to speech feature on my computer.
just to catch any final errors that may have slipped through. By the end of an edit, I've reviewed my editorial letter so many times, I'm so close to it, that I really need to hear it read in order to catch those final typos and give you the cleanest, clearest editorial letter possible. I also revise my comments choice. The first time I'm revising the comments, it is a full-scale revision.
comments get deleted, comments get added, comments get completely rewritten in light of the way that your story works as a whole. Oftentimes, the bulk of that work is happening in the first 30-ish percent of your book because obviously my impressions of the first third of your book are going to change by the time I get to the end and something that I thought was important in the beginning might actually not be important at all. So the bulk of that work is going to happen at the beginning of your book and then by the end it goes a little bit faster. But again,
every single comment gets re-read and if it needs to get revised, changed, deleted, that happens at this point in process. Once that is done, I go back to the beginning and each comment gets reviewed one more time. This time I'm looking for typos only. I'm not as focused on, you know, subsystem changes unless I see something glaring that needs to be changed. But that final comment review is again making sure I'm giving you the cleanest package possible.
The same thing happens with the bookmap.
My first book map revision is all about making sure it is accurate and complete. I always have a column in the book map that is tracking plot movement, and that is basically saying what is this scene setting up? If I'm at the beginning of the book, I don't yet know what conflicts are coming, so that plot movement section often gets filled in at the end once I know what we're moving toward in the story.
If I feel like there's a column missing, I might go back and add that in there and I will reread everything and make sure that it is fundamentally accurate, clear, et cetera. Then I go back to the beginning of this one as well and I revise for type of grammar, et cetera.
The final step of my process is to get everything formatted for you and then I send everything to you at once. So you get the manuscript, the editorial letter, and the book map all together at the very end of the
process. at that point, you also get a link to schedule our follow up call. That is the final step of the process where we meet. You can ask any questions. We can talk about your next steps, brainstorm ideas for revision, whatever it takes to get you ready for the next steps in your process.
Alright, that is my process as a developmental editor in a nutshell, and it basically goes back to the four steps of a revision process. I learn your vision. I learn your goals for the project, and I use that to direct my priorities as an editor. Then I read your manuscript. I analyze what is currently happening in your story and try to find the gaps between what you currently have and where you want your story to go.
then I start strategizing. I figure out how you can revise your story to make it work.
And that happens in the form of comments on the manuscript showing you exactly where to implement your edits, plus an editorial letter that summarizes my feedback and gives you a very high level view of how you should approach the revision process. Finally, I send you the entire editorial package and that is where the revising happens. For that part, you are the one doing the work, but I am still there to support you with a follow-up call where we can...
brainstorm, discuss issues, troubleshoot, whatever you need to feel confident and empowered in revision. And you can schedule that call whenever you want to. You could do it right after the edit ends, but you could also wait six months when you're stuck and you need someone to talk to you. Or you can, you know, start with that call and then continue working with me for coaching after that if you need additional support. So even though the revising part is on you, step four is on you. I am still there to help you with whatever you need after the edit.
Hopefully you enjoyed that behind the scenes look at how my editing process works,
If you have been sitting here listening and thinking that what I described is exactly what your book needs, I would love to work with you. I would love to help you write the best book possible, assuming, of course, that you write genre fiction. So if you write fantasy, fantasy romance, historical fiction, mystery or thriller, go to oliviahelpswriters.com slash services. If you write anything
Other than those genres, I still want you to succeed. I highly recommend checking out the Editorial Freelancers Association or Readsie. Those are both directories where you can find an editor who specializes in your genre and will be able to help. And if you are interested in learning how to master the four steps of the revision process for yourself instead of just relying on an editor,
I am starting a brand new revision course. We kick off in February, 2026, and I've basically taken my process as a developmental editor and translated it into a process that you can use as a writer. Public enrollment has not started quite yet, but get on my newsletter now and you will be the first to know when you can sign up for the course in January. So.
If you want to learn how to become your own developmental editor with my support, encouragement, and feedback, then you definitely want to be on my newsletter so you can find out when the course is open because I think it's going to be amazing. All right. Thank you so, so much for listening to another episode of the Better Writer Podcast. I'm so grateful that you're here listening to me talk about writing and editing and all these things that bring me so much joy.
If you enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look of what a developmental editor does and why it matters, please consider sharing this with a friend, subscribing to the show, or leaving a review. I would appreciate anything you can do to help me get the word out to other writers. Thank you again for listening. Have a wonderful, wonderful day, and keep writing, keep getting better, one word at a time. See ya!
