Key Qualities Of A Developmental Editor

By Edward Reynolds


People, who offers support to authors either before or during the publication and release of a manuscript is referred to as the developmental experts. The developmental editor offers his services to the clients either directly or through an editing firm. Depending on their skill set, an editor can handle different genres.

The editor performs a myriad of tasks so that the success of a book or manuscript is a success. One of the main responsibilities is giving relevant suggestions. It is part of their job to ensure that they offer not only suggestions, but also tangible ones at that. Such ideas may be improvement of the style, language or even character development. They however are not responsible for correcting spelling or grammatical errors. Theirs is just to highlight and let the writer carry out the necessary corrections.

A good publishing supervisor should possess a couple of qualities. First of all they have to be able to make clear edits. They should be able to make changes that are understandable such that the writer may be capable to see them clearly. The edits should be written where they may be visible so that the writer might be capable to compare the original manuscript with the edited one and make all the necessary changes.

They should also solve problems and not add to them. Giving solutions to problems identified is part of their job. They have to offer advice as well as give suggestions as to what needs to be done so that a way forward is clearly mapped out and the issue at hand gets to be addressed.

Creativity is part and parcel of each and every aspect of life. A good editor should possess a lot of it. They should have the ability of thinking beyond the reality of life and embrace impossibilities. They have to be able to visualize things from the perspective of an author and even beyond. This way, they will be able to come up with something creative that if incorporated to the original story-line could see the story becoming more captivating.

Respect is another core value. At the work place, everyone needs to practice mutual respect and recognize that everyone has a unique role, which they need to play in order to ensure that business runs smoothly. The same applies here, where the editor should realize that their job is to revise, offer suggestions, and leave the rest to the writers, who are the only ones with the control of making any kind of alterations to the script.

Everyone needs some guidance at some point of their life and it usually does not matter how experienced you might be. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the editor to give the writer proper instructions of what needs to be done. They should also provide market analysis and know what the readers want.

In order to ensure the success of a book, then both the writer and the publishing supervisor need to chip in equal efforts. They ought to both try and work together by for instance being open-minded, respecting each other in addition to promoting good communication between them.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment