Publishing Decisions

Does Your Book Need Editing, Proofreading, or Both?

Editing and proofreading solve different problems. Developmental and line editing can change structure, clarity, pacing and language, while proofreading is a final quality-control pass for errors after the manuscript and layout are substantially settled.

Updated October 7, 2026. Verify changing platform requirements with the primary sources below.

What to know before you decide

  • Use developmental editing when the book still needs structural or content-level decisions.
  • Use copyediting or line editing when the manuscript needs sentence-level clarity, consistency and correctness.
  • Use proofreading near the end of production to catch remaining errors rather than to rewrite the book.
  • Ask an editor to identify the level of work needed before accepting a quote.

Want a project-specific quote?

Tell us what is already complete, the formats you want to publish and the work you still need. We can scope only the services relevant to your book.

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