Learn The Difference Between Editing vs Proofreading
By Mary Kole
Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
Get clear on the topics of editing vs proofreading in your creative writing if you want to enter the publishing marketplace. Writing a book can be a long, tedious process—especially when it comes to revision, which can be a very nebulous journey. But what does that process actually look like? How do you know when your project is ready for submission? What are the different types of editing? What’s the difference between editing vs proofreading? There’s a lot to learn about revision, whether you’re self-editing or working with a professional editor. Read on to get some much-needed clarity.
Editing vs Proofreading: What's the Difference?
The main difference between editing vs proofreading is that editing focuses on making improvements to the overall content, structure, and organization of a piece of writing, and can encompass a lot of developmental editing functions, while proofreading focuses on fixing errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, syntax, consistency, and formatting. Proofreading is much more nitpicky and is often the final step before a manuscript is ready for submission, publication, or self-publishing. “Editing,” however, is a much broader term and can refer to many different kinds of feedback. Very confusingly, all proofreading is editing, but not all editing is proofreading. It's important to note that although both processes involve close attention to detail when it comes to a manuscript, they are not interchangeable.
Editing vs Proofreading Your Own Work
Take the time to develop your own editing and revision skills. These writer tools will be with you throughout your journey, and most manuscripts spend more time in revision than they do in the drafting phase. All this being said, it can be tough to know where to start when editing your own work.
First, you’ll want to read over the project and notice any structural changes that you need to make. This means tracking character arcs and plot arcs and making sure everything makes sense. You’ll ideally make big changes here, from combining chapters to introducing a new subplot to reimagining the story climax. In the battle of editing vs proofreading, this is still editing.
From there, you will want to make sure that each chapter and scene is working well, that there’s tension on every page, and that your character is living a rich inner life via interiority and being proactive by moving the story forward. This is still editing.
Then, you will want to go to the sentence level and work on your use of writing imagery and writing voice. Believe it or not, in the battle of editing vs proofreading, this is STILL EDITING. (And it can sometimes be called line editing or copy editing.)
Only after all that is done do you do a final pass to look for typos and tiny errors, and this, my friends, is proofreading.
By developing these skills early on in your career, you can be better prepared for working with professional editors and proofreaders later on down the line—something which could ultimately lead you closer towards achieving traditional publishing or self-publishing success.
The Benefits of Working With Professional Editors and Proofreaders
Often, there comes a time in the writing and revision journey when having another set of eyes on your work can be extremely beneficial. Writers are notorious for not being able to see their work objectively, and missing things, especially when revising for the twentieth time. (Sometimes, when a writer is early in their process, they don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s impossible to be aware of advanced writing and revision concepts.)
In this case, hiring an experienced freelance editor or proofreader can be incredibly helpful. Publishing professionals have experience dealing with all types of editing (yes, editing vs proofreading as well), in different categories and genres, and can often provide valuable insight. They may also be knowledgeable about the market, and can give additional submission advice and recommend comparative titles. This function can absolutely be done by critique partners or a writing group, but sometimes an unbiased professional is the right call.
It’s important for writers to remember that mastering all of the skills across the editing vs proofreading spectrum is essential to a successful writing journey. Whether you decide to bring in an experienced editor or proofreader to the table or learn these skills yourself, the key takeaway is that you need to be mature enough in your craft. Books are created in revision, and editing vs proofreading is not the place to skimp on your energy and attention, even if you’ve been working on the project for years and just want to see it through to submission. In today’s very crowded publishing landscape, you need to commit to these nitpicky parts of the process if you want to give yourself the strongest chance at success.
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