The Two Birds approach to line editing your manuscript
Recently, someone asked us about what to expect in a line edit, and that is such a good question. There are many different editors to choose from out there, and if you’re trying to make a decision on hiring one, it can be challenging to compare them to each other. While we can’t speak for how other shops operate, we can give you an idea of how we work and what you can expect when doing a line edit with us.
If you’ve asked editors for sample edits before, you’ve probably seen that different editors take different approaches. This is, in fact, one of the reasons we suggest you get samples from several editors, and it’s why we do a short sample edit for free before we book work with anyone. It’s important to understand what you’re getting, so you can find the best fit for you. There are lots of flavors to choose from—pick one you like, right?
At Two Birds, combine two approaches when we line edit. We use a combination of Track Changes in Word along with comments and highlighting.
We make some direct changes to sentences when needed, to create clarity. If it’s clear what you’re going for, we can simply rewrite the sentence for you — we’re happy to change wording where we think it’s most beneficial for you to do so. Because chances are, if we had trouble figuring out what something means in your manuscript, your readers might, too!
In other places, where we think it would be helpful to you to look at what we’re seeing and have more of a say in the wording, we make comments and suggestions. We like to offer you a choice of words if we think several could work in place of what you currently have, so that the choice remains yours. We also highlight and suggest changes when we’re noticing things like overuse of a word or phrase, and repetition of style choices and sentence structure that you might want to make decisions about.
Our approach to line edits is this: We believe that authors should have the opportunity to learn how to improve their craft and be as involved as possible in the development of style and voice for their books. After all, it’s your book and it should sound like you! If we take too heavy of a hand and just change everything to wording we like, it’ll sound too much like us, not enough like you.
That said, there are places where your intent will be clear but the wording won’t be, and if there’s a straightforward fix, we can and do make those changes. But we also want you to have choices. It’s always up to you to accept the change or not.
We realize other editors may handle some of these issues differently. We also know that you as an author are juggling a budget, and it can be tough to choose where it would be most beneficial to spend your money on editing. So, if you’re not sure about what our line edits look like and you’re considering hiring us, be sure to ask for a sample. We don’t mind. In fact, we think it’s a great way for us to get to know you and your writing, and for you to get to know us and our editing style.
Have questions about the editing process? We’d love to chat with you and help you figure out your next steps. Contact us to set up a free sample edit.
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