Our editing process

 

For our imprints Bridge House, Chapeltown and The RedTelephone, we use a particular editing process.

Edit 1

An editor will read the script very much as a reader would. However, with their editing hat on they will be looking for plot holes, character inconsistencies, lack of cause and effect and also for any persistent grammatical, spelling or formatting mistakes you make.

At this point the text will not be heavily annotated. Where there are annotations, the editor will use the Comments function on Track Changes. You may be supplied with notes at the end of chapters / stories and you will also be given an overall report.

You are then invited to revisit your text. How much needs to be done will vary from writer to writer. If we’re publishing a volume of short stories, many of which have been published before, there will be little to do. Often for a whole novel this will be the biggest edit and will take the most of amount of time of all the edits.

 

Edit 2

There will be many more annotation this time and the editor will use the Comments function of Track Changes. You are asked to respond to the comment but leave the comment visible on the text. Always these are just suggestions. The writer is also invited to comment on the comments  

This will include flagging up repetitions, clichés, award language, missing section breaks, instances of telling where showing would do better etc. If at this stage the editor notices the odd punctuation, grammatical or spelling mistake, they will just correct it.

 

Edit 3

Here we use full Track Changes. This is where the editor just changes what isn’t working. This will include correcting typos, awkward language, punctuation and  spelling mistakes and may even include alterations that the writer has not managed to make. This is sent back to the author to check. We recommend reading it without  the changes showing and only switch them on if something doesn’t seem right. In which case, reject that change. At the end of the read through, the author accepts all the changes. There may be a little toing and froing until both parties are happy. Often though, there is just one exchange.

 

Technical proof read

This is done by the design team and is computer assisted. This checks for extra double spaces, consistent spelling of words that have optional spellings, consistency of speech marks etc. .  

 

Proof 1

The text is now made into a camera-ready PDF for the author to check. The most common issue that comes up here is the correctness of section breaks. Your wysiwyg text may say something different from what the coding that is within the text tells us. The author is invited to list any change that are needed or put sticky notes on to the PDF. If there are issues with what you suggest we contact you. If we have an issue with anything you suggest, we get back to you.  

 

Proof 2

After the author’s changes have been made we pass the text on to a proof-reader. We have been using a different editor from the one that did the original edit but we are revising this as some texts with strong voices or quirkier styles- and many of our texts are like this – use a slightly different type of language. If we have an issue with anything the proof reader suggests, we get back to you and to them. .  

 

 

Then the book goes to print.