Developmental Editing Rates

Rates for Developmental and Line Editing and Coaching.

Developmental editing rates are usually priced higher than other forms of editing; namely, between $50-$70 per hour according to the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA). However, the price for developmental editing is hard to pin down, as such revision may range from coaching writers to heavy line or copyediting.

Developmental editing is a form of revision and correction that is much more extensive than other types of manuscript editing. It involves extensive restructuring, re-organizing, or even revision of written work. In some cases, it may include drastic rewriting.

Developmental editing can some times take the form of coaching writers

In other cases, it may even begin at the proposal stage of writing. As a result, it is often much more expensive than other forms of editing. What goes into the developmental editing of a manuscript and its costs will depend on a wide variety of factors.

In this article, I will discuss what to expect from developmental editing in terms of both improvement in your manuscript and the costs involved. Read on to learn more. 

What is developmental editing? 

In the publishing industry, developmental editing is typically viewed as what comes before actual manuscript editing. Developmental editing is the process of extensively revising and reorganizing the content found in a manuscript. Ideally, copyediting and manuscript editing come after the developmental editing is complete.

However, the definition of developmental editing remains controversial. For example:

• What exactly is the difference between developmental editing and substantive editing? 

• What is the difference between developmental editing and coaching?

Let’s try to answer it here. 

The development editor can come in either before, during, or after the author writes and completes their manuscript. In the case of substantive editing, extensive changes are made but only after the writer has more or less completed their manuscript. For writing coaching, a writing coach has a wider range of responsibilities; however, the main goal is to improve your skill and craft as a writer. Editing your work may be just a small part of that.

Here is a list of activities or responsibilities of a developmental editor before writing the manuscript:

• Providing guidance to the author in coming up with the topic

• Providing assistance in mapping out the overall structure of the manuscript

• Providing coaching assistance in writing

• Suggesting sources and models to follow in writing the manuscript

When the developmental editor is hired after the completion of the manuscript, their main objective would be solving issues related to the organization and structure of the manuscript.

This is a list of the things they may do in such a role: 

• Shifting content between chapters

• Asking the author to include additional material or content to make the manuscript more complete 

• Requesting for the author to remove extraneous material

• Tightening and solidifying big-picture arguments more 

• Extensive rewriting and revising of the manuscript

The role of the developmental editor is not always clear-cut. They don’t always fall in place as part of a coordinated process at the beginning stages of a manuscript to help the author plan and map out a manuscript. 

There are instances where the developmental editor may come in at the proofing stage just before the manuscript is published. This is where the publisher may believe there is sufficient reason to drastically change and revise a manuscript to make it fit for publication.

In short, developmental editing that takes place before the manuscript is completed may be described as coaching. If developmental editing takes place after the manuscript is completed, then it can be described as proper developmental editing.

Developmental editing rates according to EFA

The EFA provides a range of rates for developmental editing. These rates are based on interviews with one thousand EFA members. They provide a comprehensive range of rates according to the type of developmental editing and who it is being done for.

The table below gives an idea of the type of information that was collected. 

Type of Editing	Hourly Fee	Editor Roles
Developmental editing	$50–$70	Extensive revision, rewriting, and reconfiguration of content. Fixes “Big Picture” issues.
Copyediting	$40–$62.50	Copyeditors are responsible for correcting spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation, as well as enforcing style guides.
Line editing	$45–$70	The editor works at the sentence or paragraph level of a project. They correct errors, with a focus on improving the language and style of the text.
Proofreading	$40–$62.50	Proofreaders are brought in the last stage of the editing process. They often compare the latest stage of the manuscript to earlier stages to ensure the correct changes have been made.

Developmental editing is the most expensive of the four types of editing featured in the table above. It is described as big-picture editing and affects the overall impression or tone that the book ends up creating. 

Types of Developmental Editing

Developmental editing can be used in a wide variety of genres. They include fiction and non-fiction, academic writing, thesis editing, and so on. We will take a brief look at what principles are common and which differ according to the type of genre. 

Most developmental edits come with what is called a Revision Letter. This is also known as an “editorial letter” or “edit letter. This outlines all the major issues that should be tackled in the revision. 

I. Manuscript evaluation 

This is a general critique of the content in a manuscript. It describes the problems rather than proposing solutions for them. For instance, the developmental editor can point out that the literature review needs to be more extensive. 

They may also point out inconsistencies in characters, plot holes, or arguments that are not sufficiently complete. That is typically called a query. 

II. Manuscript evaluation with a few edits 

This is where the developmental editor demonstrates what type of correction should be carried out in the document as a model for the author to follow. This would include everything involved in manuscript evaluation plus direct changes via a few examples of substantive editing or copyediting to your manuscript.

III. Extensively rewriting and revising  

Your manuscript may be revised to fix the literature review (if it’s a scientific article) or to tell a coherent story. In short, to pull everything together. The authors may have carried out proper esearch and obtained valid results. 

However, they could not use their results to frame a coherent story that tied together the study's context, hypothesis, results, and significance. The developmental editor would either extensively revise or rewrite on their behalf or advise them of the corrections that should be made. 

Let’s look at what developmental editing may look like in different contexts. 

1. Scientific writing: Journal publication

Scientific papers or articles are papers meant for journal publication. A developmental editor could end up doing all three of the types of developmental editing that have been described. In addition, some papers are often published using ghostwriters.

Is this an ethical practice? Would a ghostwriter qualify for co-authorship? Well, that’s a complicated question. Let’s look at the definition of co-authorship from the  Committee on Publication Ethics (or COPE) and compare that to their definition of a ghostwriter:

Authorship credit should be based only on: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published. Conditions (1), (2), and (3) must all be met. Acquisition of funding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship.

Here is also the COPE definition of ghost authors: 

This phrase is used in two ways. It usually refers to professional writers (often paid by commercial sponsors) whose role is not acknowledged. Although such writers rarely meet ICMJE criteria, since they are not involved in the design of studies, or the collection or interpretation of data, it is important to acknowledge their contribution, since their involvement may represent a potential conflict of interest. The term can also be used to describe people who made a significant contribution to a research project (and fulfil the ICMJE criteria) but are not listed as authors. The ICMJE guidelines clearly condemn this practice and state that ‘All persons designated as authors should qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify should be listed.’

This can be interpreted as saying that a developmental editor could be brought on board as a professional writer who does not contribute significantly to the paper, but who instead uses data to tell the story of your research in terms of background, hypothesis development, results, analysis, and conclusion. 

Either way, before publication careful discussions should be had about the ethics of co-authorship even long before you start writing your scientific paper. 

2. Thesis editing

In terms of thesis editing, universities and graduate departments have strict rules and regulations against editors doing any significant work besides light proofreading. Developmental editing may be allowed.

However, it would take the form of queries, recommendations, and suggestions on how the work can be improved. A developmental editor, more or less, would be playing a role similar to your advisor. 

They would be advising on how parts of your thesis could be improved. For example, how your arguments could be strengthened or made more tight. How your arguments need more support through citations or more extensive explanations and so on. 

Turning your thesis into a scientific paper

However, one role in which a developmental editor could engage in extensive revision would be turning your thesis into an academic paper. It is quite common for a master’s thesis to be turned into journal papers. 

In fact for PhD dissertations, journal publication is often part of the requirement to graduate. In such a role, the developmental editor would be responsible for taking a large document that could range between 12,000 to 30,000 words and turn it into a paper meant for journal publication that might be only 3000-5000 words long. 

This naturally would entail leaving out huge chunks of text and extensive revising to streamline the document and tell a coherent story. Perhaps, the thesis was completed years ago, and several developments have occurred between its publication and the writing of the journal paper. Therefore, the literature review would have to be updated. 

3. Essay editing

By essay editing, I mean developmental editing of essays that should be written as coursework for various classes (or coursework essays). This could be literary essays, history essays, art essays, and so on. Another class of essays would be college admission, college admissions, and statement of purpose essays. 

Coursework essays. It is likely against school rules for such essays to be extensively edited after being written. The ideal would have a developmental editor come in at the very beginning, perhaps at the proposal stage. 

The service would entail essay evaluation and essay evaluation with a few edits. In the first case, the editor would comment on what is missing in the essay and advise on how it could be corrected. In the second case, they would provide a few demonstrations on how to make the corrections to serve as a model for the author to follow. 

College application essays. These essays would require much more extensive intervention than coursework essays. The intervention may not even necessarily be direct corrections made in the text. Instead, it would require very often an extensive commentary on how the essay can be fixed to increase the chance of success. 

Direct corrections to the text can be made and are often made. However, these types of essays are deeply personal experiences, and the author typically is advised on what type of personal information should be included or what is missing to increase the chances of being accepted or winning a scholarship.

These essays can be quite short. Sometimes one to three pages long; however, they carry alot of weight. They can decide the course the life of the author will take. Therefore, despite their small size, they may require much more work and effort. 

4. Fiction editing

Developmental editing is frequently used in fiction editing. In this genre, the role of the developmental editor is to focus on “big picture” issues. This includes structure, plot, themes, and character.

This usually comes before copyediting. The developmental editor has to make sure that your novel meets industry standards. Are you authoring a romance novel with a grey or sad ending? Then, your developmental editor may advise you to change it to a happy ending.

The romance genre requires it. If the point of the book is to be a commercial success within that genre, it would be best to make these changes to satisfy the expected industry standard. 

A developmental editor would also point out inconsistencies in character actions, settings, and events. For example, if you describe a character wearing a heavy winter trench coat in the middle of summer. Then, you should also provide context to explain how strange that is. For example, noting people in shots and summer clothing staring at him strangely. 

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Final thoughts on developmental editing rates

Developmental editing rates rely on what your definition of developmental editing is. Developmental editing, as we can see, is not always easy to pin down. There are three major perspectives on what it is. Some see developmental editing as a collaboration between the author and editor to develop an uncompleted manuscript.

Another perspective sees any editing or correction before a completed manuscript as “coaching.” Lastly, other people that copyediting should be part of the developmental editing deal, whereas others believe that it is something altogether separate. 

Type of Editing	Hourly Fee
Developmental editing	$50–$70
Line editing	$45–$70
Coaching	$70.00–90.00

This poses something of a dilemma. The rates for line editing, coaching, and developmental editing all vary as can be seen in the pricing list above. So how do you decide on the appropriate rate to pay?

It would be best to talk extensively with potential developmental editors to be clear about what is expected of them and what they expect of you in terms of both the work to be done, the communication, and the rates to be paid. The only correct rate is the one that both parties are happy and satisfied with. 

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Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, September 01). Developmental Editing Rates. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/developmental-editing-rates