This is a comprehensive, deep-dive assessment of your completed manuscript. It looks at structure, narrative arc, voice, pace, and flow, and considers readability, continuity, character development, and storytelling (even business books should tell a story). It will also pick up on any obvious inconsistencies or plot holes. A developmental edit won’t fix spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, that’s what happens at the proofread stage, and it won’t rewrite any text, that’s what line and copy edits are for. But it can highlight sentences or paragraphs where the writing could be revised, sometimes providing a sample rewrite or suggested rewording. It will also look at the elements of the manuscript that work well and consider how they can help address the bits that don’t.

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Developmental editing is sometimes called a comprehensive, structural, or substantive edit, and while they pretty much all do the same thing, editors have their own styles and approaches. It is a bespoke service, not an exact science.

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With my service you will get:

• An initial thirty-minute phone call or zoom meeting to discuss the basics of your manuscript – genre, content, target reader, your aspirations, etc.

• A detailed editorial report, usually around 8 to 10 pages, focusing on the various elements mentioned above – structure, flow, tone of voice, plot, characterisation, readability, etc.

• An assessment of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses, with suggestions on how the weaker areas could be improved.

• Comments and highlighted sections on the manuscript itself, potentially with suggested edits or brief examples of how a sentence could be rephrased.

• A one-hour phone call or zoom meeting to discuss the contents of the report.