Developmental Editing

You can feel that something in the manuscript is off, and you can't quite name it. The middle sags, or the argument doubles back on itself, or the chapters read fine one by one and somehow don't add up to the book you meant to write. Your early readers say "I liked it," which helps not at all.

Sending it into production in this state would mean typesetting the problem. What the manuscript needs first is a professional who reads structure the way you read sentences.

How it works

Julie matches your manuscript to a developmental editor who works in your genre and respects your voice. This matters more than authors expect: a thriller editor and a memoir editor are different instruments, and the wrong match produces notes that fight the book instead of strengthening it.

The editor reads the whole manuscript for structure: architecture, pacing, argument, the promises the opening makes and whether the ending keeps them. You receive an editorial letter that names what is working, what isn't, and why, with a clear path through the revision. Then, while you revise, you have a round of support for the questions the letter raises.

The edit slots in ahead of Foundation or Signature when the book needs it, and stands alone when production is still a ways off.

Who this is for

You suspect, or know, that the manuscript needs a structural pass before it deserves production money, and you want the diagnosis from an editor matched to your genre.