A full developmental edit will usually take a considerable amount of time (sometimes as long as a month) and comprises actually changing the manuscript itself (maybe even reorganizing entire chapters). Whereas a manuscript evaluation makes no physical changes to the original work. Instead, the editor performs a chapter by chapter analysis with corresponding reports that are built into the final deliverable.

Among other things, a line editor goes through a manuscript sentence by sentence, asking questions about how the language itself is working. For example, what is the tone of this passage? Do the words successfully evoke that tone? Are there any extraneous words or needless digressions? How do the sentences fit together? Do they flow naturally from one to the next? Is the language precise and free of cliches? Is there a consistent point of view? If the POV shifts, does it do so in a logical, consistent manner?

Line editing comes before copy editing. Where line editors are concerned primarily with questions of style, copy editors are concerned with mechanics. A copy editor ensures that the language in a manuscript follows the rules of standard English and adheres to the house style guide. While a line editor shares certain attributes with a copy editor, their jobs are meaningfully different.

A line editor might look at a passage and wonder if a specific word or phrase is the best way to describe something in order to be understood, or if the adverb “ambiguously” contributed anything to the sentence. They might ask what the thematic import of this passage is meant to be and whether there isn’t a clearer way for the writer to convey it. A copy editor will comb a manuscript for typos, grammatical errors, punctuation, and other mechanical mistakes, before going to print.

We can’t speak for everyone, but at Raven’s Prose, a technical editor is going to have training and experience that differs from, say, someone who only specializes in fiction/non-fiction. Usually they have in their past, either through schooling, experientially, or both, been either a programmer, an engineer, a database specialist, maybe a network architect or similar. Then this person took that background and added training and experience in English (grammar), journalism, writing, documentation or similar discipline.

For most of what you see in industry, a copy editor is someone who is good at writing “copy”, which traditionally was referring to sales. So, for example, if you have a website, and you want to sell a product on that website, you would hire a copy editor to help you get “click throughs”. They would also be the person you would want to help you write advertising copy, sales brochures, those types of things. Recently “copy writers” have also been the name given to people who write the plethora of content that is on various websites, though it’s not “technically” always sales related, it’s just called content. Which is why you might also see the title of “content writer” used interchangeably.

Yes. We absolutely do. We believe that it’s paramount that both Raven’s Prose and the customer (you…hopefully) completely understand what is being delivered, what is being paid for, what the various terms are (delivery dates, word counts or number of hours, scheduling, etc.) before the project begins in earnest. That doesn’t mean a pile of legal “mumbo jumbo” though. Our contracts are in plain language and they are there to help both parties understand not just what IS being provided, but also what ISN’T, which can be just as important.