What Is Developmental Editing?

​One of the first questions to ask when you're considering professional editing is What type of editing do I need?

Not only are there a plethora of options, but terminology is not completely standardized throughout the industry. Depending on who you're speaking with, publishing professionals may use different terms for the same type of editing. Specifically, professionals who work directly with authors (like us at Blue Pen) often use different terminology than in-house editors.

And even professionals who use the same terminology may offer slightly different deliverables for each services.

Starting with this post on developmental editing, I'm going to break down important aspects of the different types of editing. Along with giving you a basic definition of what the editing services usually comprises, I'm going to discuss alternatives, other names, and common variations.

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