Substantive Editing

Substantive editing, sometimes known as content editing, happens after you have a complete rough draft (even it’s technically your sixth rough draft). Like developmental editing, it involves looking at your manuscript as a whole. Chapters may be revised or rearranged, and significant changes may be made. However, full chapters are not added or removed at this point.

In my substantive editing service, edits happen on a chapter-by-chapter, paragraph-by-paragraph, sentence-by-sentence basis. Smaller grammatical errors may be addressed, especially when fixing them requires sentences to be completely rewritten, but they are not the focus. In this way, it has a lot in common with my line editing service for fiction.

At the end of a substantive edit, your manuscript should have a logical and compelling flow of ideas—all the way down to a sentence level. Paragraph breaks and distributions should be in their final form. Plot holes should be filled. Awkward or unclear phrasing should be addressed. Notes and bibliographies may be checked.

This is one of the most exciting editing stages, because this is where the missing pieces fall into place. As an editor, I find the last things holding back your message and brush them away. By the time the substantive edit and your ensuing revisions are complete, only mechanical errors should remain.

Is your manuscript is a good fit for substantive editing?

Every project and author has different needs. Here are some signs substantive editing may be the right next step for your nonfiction manuscript:

• You’re confident in the overall structure, pacing, and length of your manuscript.
• You know your text could use some tightening up on a paragraph level, but you’re not sure how.
• You want your wording to be elegant and concise, not just grammatically correct.
• You’ve been told your tone or voice is inconsistent, and you’re not sure how to fix it.
• Your manuscript has already been through developmental editing and heavy revisions, but it’s not ready for copyediting.

My specialties for substantive editing include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Narrative nonfiction (memoir, biography)
• Informative or educational nonfiction
• Nonfiction that communicates across cultural or demographic divides
• Nonfiction involving “geeky” topics such as anime and online culture
• Text involving the Bible and Christianity

The Process

1. We establish expectations.
2. You send me the text. I may email you questions if I cannot edit a section without further information. I will make clearly marked edits directly to the text. Other edits and suggestions will come in the form of “queries”—comments throughout the document.
3. I email you the marked-up document and an editorial letter. The letter may be in the content of the email itself, or it may be attached. This letter summarizes the edits and lists big-picture or persistent concerns. Depending on our agreement, I may send you an invoice at this point as well.
4. You email me with any questions. If needed, we may discuss the edits in a scheduled phone call.

The substantive edit can stop here. If you choose, we can do a two-pass substantive edit, which has additional steps:

5. You send me the text with your revisions. This time, I focus on your revisions and responses to my edits. This is to ensure no issues were missed in heavily revised sections, as well as to catch any new problems introduced in the revision process.
6. I email you my last round of edits. Depending on our agreement, I may send you an invoice at this point as well.
7. You email me with remaining questions. If needed, we may discuss the edits in a scheduled phone call.

Before I perform a substantive edit on a longer work, I will edit an agreed-upon sample. The purpose of the sample is threefold:

• To get to know each other. I will change my editing style based on your needs and wishes. Some writers prefer more meddling than others.
• To give me an idea of the manuscript’s needs. This affects my fee.
• To determine whether we want to proceed. Professional editing is an investment. I want you to be confident that I am the right editor for you. If either of us does not wish to continue after the sample is completed, we will part ways here.

If you’d like to hire me for both substantive editing and copyediting, my comprehensive editing package may be right for you.

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