Hello, my name is Ini Akpan. And this is another edition of dear editor. Hello, dear editor. Thank you for tuning in. So glad to have you here. So let’s get down to business. All right, quick one. Last week I talked about the four different types of editing. This week, we are going to deconstruct one type of editing, which is what I believe to be the very first step in editing, developmental editing.
Now what is developmental editing? Right now, the way it’s supposed to work developmental editing is when you guide an author through the different processes and stages of writing their book. So you start with the book outline, helping them create an outline, carving a topic, you know, just generally developing the entire manuscript. Everything chapter by chapter, page by page until you get to the very end. That is developmental editing.
However, that hardly works, that way whether here In Nigeria, or in developed Western countries, many times what happens is that an author has written the book and then at a time of, you know, maybe getting to the publisher, or you know, before the print, they give it to an editor. And the editor discovers that, Oh, no, there are lapses. In the manuscripts there is, you know, there are holes, there are all kinds of structural defects in the book in the manuscript, and that’s where you come in as a developmental editor.
Now, what does a developmental editor do? Developmental Editing is a lot like an intense kind of structural editing. Right? So you may find yourself suggesting to offer that “Okay, first of all, we may need to change the topic. Secondly, we may need to….
Mhmmmm chapter one, you shouldn’t start here. Let’s start there. Okay, let’s move this chapter there. And then let’s bring this chapter here…” you know, and all that, you know, just rearranging the manuscripts intensely developmental editing. So next time you get a manuscript, right, I bet that this would help you discover whether it needs developmental editing or just proofreading.
Remember, we’ll go into in the next series of videos, we’ll go into the other types of editing. So thank you so much for watching. Remember to turn on post notifications…turn it on now… turn on post notifications.
I look forward to receiving your comments, please leave your comments, like, share with your friends, whatever, let’s just you know, get this knowledge spread yes? Thank you so much. And if you are also an author to share this with your editor. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much for watching. I’m so glad to have done this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your feedback in last week’s video. I look forward to next week. Thank you, ciao.