What is ...?

Mentoring supports you as you explore and develop your writing, or a particular piece of writing – or even an idea for a piece of writing. It tends to take place as a work is being written, or while you are reviewing and redrafting, and the work will inevitably undergo many changes during this time. Because of this, it's not a substitute for editorial or structural advice on a finished draft. It will help you see whether you need to spend a bit more time honing your craft and developing your draft, or are ready to go on to the next stage (finding an editor or a publisher).

At this stage you'll get help, with feedback, to deal with any specific areas you wish to work on. Typically, I read, annotate and discuss sections of your text – or a full draft – and offer tailored workshop sessions to help with particular areas you may be tussling with, whether they're individual scenes, or more general issues such as narrative point of view, voice or structure. These can be done via Zoom or WhatsApp, or – when possible – in person. 

A report on your work can help you assess your manuscript and see whether it needs further work – and if so, what kind of work – before you self-publish or start submitting to agents and publishers. So at this stage your script will be carefully read, and the report will assess its overall publishability, its strengths, and potential areas for further work. The assessment should supply enough information to help you consider independently what you need to do, but a detailed developmental edit, line edit or 'tidying' copyedit may follow if that seems suitable.

What you get, subject to initial discussion:

• an appraisal of your synopsis and the first 20,000 words/30 pages of the manuscript, to assess where you are/where you are going, and the level of work likely to be needed

This can lead to a plan for the next steps, including:

• a read of the full script followed by a report offering a broad overview, with detailed sections on structure, language/expression, appropriateness for audience and any potential areas for improvement, with suggestions where suitable – this is not as detailed as a structural or developmental edit (outlined below), but offers some general pointers and feedback
• one to two meetings (by phone/video call or if possible and preferred, in person) to discuss the report, next steps, revisions (you choose at which stage you want these sessions)

A constructive critical read followed up by notes and advice on structure, pace, plot, characterisation, tone, language, and so on, where needed. This includes suggestions to help improve the flow, plausibility and consistency in skill and intention throughout the book. It is a very collaborative process between author and editor, so I always offer the option to have phone or video call discussions and/or face-to-face meetings (where possible), if wanted.

The editor brings a fresh perspective which often an author is too close to the work to achieve, especially if they have spent a long time writing and thinking about the book. The author is of course under no obligation to follow the editorial suggestions, but they can provide a helpful starting point for developing the work.

During this stage there is likely to be significant reworking and rewriting, and I will be there alongside you to read and discuss the work as it proceeds – as hands-on or hands-off as best suits you.

At this stage I am not looking at the bigger picture, but at how that picture is drawn. A line edit is an intense look at the language, to make sure that voice, tone and intention are exactly as you mean them to be. This involves checking:

• overall style
• character voice and authenticity
• how the language used assists the pace needed at each point in the work
• variety and rhythm in vocabulary (and help to avoid unwanted repetition)
• appropriate dialogue tagging
• and, of course, suitability of grammar and punctuation for the voice and style

I will also pick up any unintentional shifts in narrative point of view at this point, although this is also looked at during the developmental and copyediting stages – as it can be very slippery.

Think of a line edit as an active 'close reading' of your text. In many ways, it’s my favourite part of the editing process.

This stage is frequently conflated with copyediting (see next item), and they are often done at the same time. If a great deal of work is done at this stage though, another pass through the full text before sending it off to be typeset/designed will be helpful. When you are looking at a detail with a very close-up magnifying glass – as you are at the line edit stage – it can be easy to miss any elephants behind you ...

This stage helps you avoid expensive corrections at the proof stage, and potentially embarrassing errors in content in the finished work. It is usually done on-screen, using tools like Microsoft Word's Track Changes and Comments to highlight edits and potential issues. After the first pass, the script is sent back to the author to go through and further edit/mark up, and then send it back to the copyeditor (me) ... etc., until the script is ready to be typeset.

Checks:

• Flow and clarity: to ensure that the text is pitched at the right level for your intended audience
• Consistency: so that details don’t change and are not unintentionally contradicted
• Accuracy: 'real world' dates, names etc., but also within any quotations, references and general facts
• Completeness: important especially for non-fiction texts that may include tables, illustrations, photographs
• Presentation: language, grammar, spelling, punctuation

Tasks:

• Laying out and styling/tagging for typesetting (e.g. displayed quotations, poetry/letters, other special features, but also chapter and other headings, etc.)
• Flagging up any necessary permissions (for quotations etc.) and potential legal issues (libel, plagiarism etc.)
• Checking/preparing prelims and a table of contents where appropriate

This is generally the final element of the editorial process (unless you have an index), and traditionally takes place on a designed and typeset pdf or hard-copy pages (proofs). Both author and proofreader check the proofs, and once all corrections have been collated, made and checked, the text should be ready to print/e-publish. It is worth remembering that the proofreader can only mark the proof; it is the typesetter/designer who actually makes the changes. This can make this a slow and potentially costly stage, if there is a great deal of rewriting or tidying up to be done. If the work has a publisher, the responsible in-house editor will generally double-check the mark-up before allowing it to go to the typesetter. A thorough copyedit can save both money and time at this stage. 

Checks:

• spelling, punctuation, layout and formatting
• grammar, repetition, inconsistency (issues that may arise out of lack of copyedit or lack of time at copyedit, or late-stage re-writing, deletions and additions)
• design features such as displayed text, style for chapter openings and headings, and scene breaks
• table of contents checked against text, where relevant; also anything involving cross-references within the text (e.g. notes, references)
• running heads (headers) and folios/footers
• bibliographies and references, to ensure they consistently follow the preferred style
• indexes (page references) can be checked at an extra cost

Occasionally, proofreading and copyediting can be combined as 'proof-editing', and this takes place in Word, before the text has been designed and typeset. Proof-editing should only happen if the text has already been structurally checked and properly laid out, as it can risk errors in presentation post-typesetting/design. However, proof-editing is not a service I offer (I find I need to go through the text twice, once to copyedit and then again to proofread, so it's not an effective saving on either time or cost).

The term derives from when individual pieces of type (made out of lead – similar to what you might have seen on a typewriter) were set together to create lines and pages of text that would be inked and printed. There was plenty of opportunity for 'cock-ups' (originally a typesetting term for when a letter was set slightly above its partners, making the line look crooked, but encompassing a multitude of other potential mistakes) – and so it was essential to check a sample run of unbound pages (proofs) to check that no errors had crept in at this stage. Nowadays typesetting is generally done electronically, using files that the author and editor/copyeditor have refined – so there is less margin for error in terms of which characters appear on the page, and how they appear. However, there is still plenty that can be missed during the editorial process, while the focus is on content rather than appearance; it's also possible for page numbers, running heads (such as the chapter headings that sometimes appear at the top of the page) and special layout styles to be faulty once the text is run into a design template – so it's important to check the proofs before a work is finalised for print or online publication.

A proof, or 'proofs', are the unbound pages that are produced once the text has been typeset – they are what will (post-correction) be printed and bound into a book, or made into a digital work. The text is not editable, being fixed in place (though digital work and e-books are slightly different in this respect) and fully designed. In traditional publishing there will be several proof stages, where a proofreader will check that the text is error-free and that no problems have been introduced at the typesetting stage (such as wrong styles used for different elements, or illustrations appearing in the wrong place, and so on). Proofs also offer a chance to correct any typos that have got past the copyedit. Second proofs (and later proof stages) are when corrections are checked.