What does a book editor do?

Ever wondered what a book editor does with their time? I think most people are curious about this, even non-bookish people and non-writers. There’s an air of mystery and I’ve lost count of the number of times people have asked me with fascination what being a book editor is like. There are also unfortunately a lot of misconceptions from TV and movies about working in publishing, particularly in editorial.

What people don’t usually know is that there are so many types of book editor as well. “Book editor” is really just an umbrella term; there are lots of roles that fit into this umbrella, and they’re not all the same.

The different types of editing

Broadly speaking, there are three major types of editing where the editor’s main role is to be actively involved with the text. These are developmental editing (which may be referred to by various names including structural editing and substantive editing), copy/line editing, and proofreading. There is even debate in publishing about what these terms all mean, and how they overlap or differ (as if publishing wasn’t already confusing enough).

Outside of these three types, we also have other roles at traditional publishing houses – things like commissioning editor, editorial director, and assistant editor. All of these roles have different responsibilities. They might not technically have the words “book editor” in the title, but they are editors who work on books – just in a slightly different way. Some of these roles involve much less interaction with the text itself than others.

What does each type of book editor do?

Developmental editor

A developmental editor looks at the big-picture issues in a book – they help authors to get the foundations right. They may cover things like the story’s structure, plot, character development, world-building, story goals and stakes, conflict, and so on.

Developmental editing is quite commonly done on early drafts to get them into shape, and multiple rounds of developmental editing may be done to make the story as strong as possible.

A developmental edit could be performed by an editor at a publishing house (such as a commissioning editor) as part of their role. It’s also a service offered by many freelance editors. Some of these freelancers choose to exclusively work as developmental editors. Others offer different services too.

Copyeditors and line editors

There is often debate about these two terms, since there’s overlap. But they are both sentence-level editors. For the sake of simplicity, copyediting has a technical focus and line editing incorporates stylistic elements.

A copyeditor will fix things technically – errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, continuity. There’s a strong focus on consistency, and copyeditors will make sure industry styles are applied and build a style sheet for the book. Copyediting may include some tidying-up of formatting, such as page breaks, indents, and scene breaks.

A line editor will focus more on the stylistic elements such as flow, sense, word choice, things that could read better, redundancy, confusing or unclear sections, changes in tone, and so on. Line editors help writers to improve their writing stylistically.

One of the frustrating things about publishing is all the overlap and differing terminology! Some editors combine these two things under the same copyediting umbrella. Some people call a line edit a heavy copyedit. Is your head spinning yet?

The main thing is that the author knows what to expect from the edit they’re getting beforehand. Editors will make sure this is clear before getting stuck in.

Proofreaders

It’s unlikely that a proofreader will call themselves a “book editor” if they’re solely a proofreader. Lots of people only work as proofreaders and don’t consider themselves editors!

That said, many editors offer proofreading services, and it’s a key part of the process of getting a book to print. It’s the last line of defence for errors before a book hits shelves.

Many different types of book editor perform proofreading as part of their job.

Commissioning editor

A commissioning editor is responsible for acquiring books for a publishing house. They hunt for promising submissions to publish and build and develop relationships with literary agents and authors.

They’ll also be doing things like attending meetings, negotiating, managing the publication process (such as writing copy), and communicating with other teams at the publisher.

Carrying out developmental and line edits is only one part of a commissioning editor’s job, alongside all their other responsibilities. Commissioning editors do have involvement in the text but there is much more that goes into the role!

Editorial director

The editorial director is someone who runs the entire imprint at the publishing house – there’s a lot of project management and strategy involved, and they may look at trends in the industry and monitor the market. As with commissioning editors, they decide what books the publisher chooses to acquire and get involved with negotiating contracts and overall planning. They may have a list of authors of their own.

Editorial directors will also have other tasks like evaluating manuscripts, editing titles that have been acquired and writing editorial notes for authors, and maintaining and building relationships.

Assistant editor/editorial assistant

Assistants do exactly that – they assist the rest of the team when it comes to producing and publishing books. They may perform admin tasks like contacting freelancers and communicating with authors, as well as editorial duties such as writing copy and proofreading manuscripts.

Other book editor terms

You might come across other terms related to book editors that I haven’t listed here. (I’m not sure what it is with publishing and using lots of different/confusing terminology – yeesh.)

You might hear the term “desk editor” or the generic “editor” used to refer to people who manage books and usher them through the publishing process. They aren’t necessarily the “buyers” of the book though. This role has more of a focus on editing manuscripts, collaborating with authors, managing the publishing workflow, and getting titles ready for publication.

Freelance book editors may use different terms to refer to themselves, too. You might hear the term independent editor, or they might categorise themselves based on the service they mainly do – “developmental editor” or “copyeditor”. I’ve even seen some freelance book editors call themselves book nannies!

I hope this post helped you to understand the different types of book editor, and what to expect from different editorial roles! Here are some more resources: