The Editorial Glossary

Editing Services and Process

Beta Reader A reader — often a fellow writer or an enthusiastic reader of the genre — who reads a manuscript before publication and gives feedback from a reader's perspective. Beta readers aren't editors; they offer impressions and reactions rather than professional editorial guidance, and the two kinds of feedback complement each other.

Copy Editing Editing that refines the writing for clarity, consistency, and correctness — grammar, punctuation, syntax, word choice, and internal consistency — while preserving the writer's voice. Copy editing usually comes after the bigger structural work is done. It's one of the core services offered at LFP Editorial Studio.

Developmental Editing The most substantial level of editing, focused on the foundations of a book: structure, plot, character development, pacing, and theme. Developmental editing is usually iterative and collaborative, often involving more than one round of revision. A manuscript critique offers developmental insight in report form; full developmental editing works through the manuscript with you over time.

Editorial Letter A written letter from an editor to a writer, reflecting on the manuscript as a whole: its strengths, its challenges, and suggested directions for revision. An editorial letter often accompanies a critique or a developmental edit, and may respond to specific questions the writer has raised.

Line Editing Editing at the level of the sentence and paragraph, focused on how the writing reads: rhythm, clarity, word choice, flow, and the texture of the prose. Line editing is concerned with style and expression rather than grammar and error-correction, which makes it distinct from copy editing.

Manuscript Assessment / Editorial Assessment Terms used by some editors for a focused or shorter-form editorial review, often of part of a manuscript or a work in progress. Usage varies between editors, so it's always worth checking exactly what a particular service includes.

Manuscript Critique A big-picture editorial review of a complete manuscript, delivered as a written report rather than edits within the text. A critique looks at structure, pacing, character, voice, and overall effect, and offers guidance for revision. It's one of the core services offered at LFP Editorial Studio.

Proofreading The final stage of editing: a last careful check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typographical errors before a manuscript is published or submitted. Proofreading catches surface mistakes; it isn't the stage for structural or stylistic change.

Sensitivity Read A read focused on the accurate and respectful portrayal of a particular experience, identity, or community, usually carried out by someone with lived experience of it. A sensitivity read is intended to catch misrepresentation or unintended harm before publication.

Structural Editing Closely related to developmental editing, structural editing concentrates specifically on the architecture of a book — how it's organised, how its parts fit together, whether scenes and chapters are in the right order and pulling their weight. The terms are often used interchangeably, though "structural" tends to emphasise organisation over character and theme.

Style Sheet A document an editor creates to record the specific choices made in a manuscript: spellings, hyphenation, capitalisation, character details, timeline points, and other matters of consistency. It acts as a reference for both editor and writer, and is especially useful across long or complex projects.

Tracked Changes A function in word-processing software that records every edit made to a document, allowing the writer to see exactly what has been changed and to accept or reject each suggestion. Copy editing and proofreading are usually delivered using tracked changes.

Craft and Structure

Backstory The events and history that precede a story's opening: a character's past, prior relationships, earlier events. Backstory matters, but generally works best woven in lightly rather than explained in full.

Character Arc The internal journey a character travels across a story: how they change, what they learn, what they become. A character arc runs alongside the narrative arc, and the relationship between the two is often where a story finds its meaning.

Dialogue Tag The small attribution attached to a line of dialogue: she said, he asked. Plain tags like "said" are usually best; they're nearly invisible to readers. Elaborate tags and adverbs ("she expostulated furiously") tend to draw attention to the writing rather than the speech.

Exposition Information the reader needs in order to understand the story: background, context, history, world detail. The skill lies in delivering it without slowing the narrative.

Filter Words Words that place a layer between the reader and the experience — she saw, he felt, I noticed, she realised — by filtering the action through a character's perception rather than presenting it directly. Trimming them often makes prose feel more immediate.

Head-Hopping An unintended shift in point of view slipping from one character's perspective into another's within a scene, without clear transition. It tends to disorient readers, and is one of the more frequent POV problems editors flag.

Inciting Incident The event early in a narrative that sets the story in motion; the disruption to the status quo that gives the protagonist something to pursue or contend with. It's the moment the book "really begins."

Info-Dump A large amount of exposition or backstory delivered all at once, usually slowing the narrative and overwhelming the reader. The usual remedy is to break the information up and release it gradually, as the story needs it.

Narrative Arc The overall shape of a story as it moves from beginning to end: the rise and fall of tension, the progression from setup through complication to resolution. A satisfying narrative arc gives a book a sense of momentum and completeness.

Pacing The speed and rhythm at which a story unfolds: how quickly events happen, how much time is spent in scene versus summary, where the narrative lingers and where it moves. Pacing problems are among the most common issues a critique identifies.

Plot vs. Story A useful distinction: plot is the sequence of events — what happens — while story is the deeper meaning those events carry, the emotional and thematic experience for the reader. A manuscript can have a busy plot and a thin story, or a quiet plot and a profound one.

Point of View (POV) The perspective from which a story is told, whose eyes and consciousness the reader experiences events through. Common choices include first person ("I"), third person limited (closely following one character), and third person omniscient (a narrator with access to all characters).

Show, Don't Tell A widely cited piece of craft advice: rather than stating a character's emotion or a situation directly, convey it through action, detail, dialogue, and sensory experience so the reader feels it. Like most craft "rules," it's a tendency to weigh rather than an absolute, because telling has its place.

Subplot A secondary storyline that runs alongside the main narrative, usually involving its own smaller arc. Effective subplots deepen theme, develop secondary characters, or apply pressure to the main plot, rather than simply running in parallel.

Three-Act Structure A widely used way of describing narrative shape, dividing a story into setup (Act One), confrontation and complication (Act Two), and resolution (Act Three). It's a descriptive framework rather than a rule, and many excellent books use it loosely or not at all.

Through-line The continuous thread — of plot, character, theme, or question — that runs from the beginning of a book to its end and holds it together. When a manuscript feels like it loses its way, a weak or broken through-line is often why.

Tone The attitude or emotional colour of a piece of writing: wry, sombre, tender, urgent, comic. Tone should usually be consistent with the kind of book being written, and a query letter's tone should reflect the manuscript's.

Voice The distinctive quality of a writer's prose, the personality, rhythm, and texture that make their writing recognisably theirs. Voice can also refer to a particular character's distinctive way of narrating or speaking. Preserving voice is central to good editing.

Submission and Publishing

Advance A sum of money paid to an author by a publisher before publication, set against future royalties. The author earns no further royalties until the advance has been "earned out" through sales.

Comparable Titles (Comps) Recently published books that share something — tone, theme, readership, structure — with your manuscript, included in a query letter to show an agent where your book sits in the current market. Effective comps are recent and realistic.

Logline / Elevator Pitch A one- or two-sentence distillation of a book — its protagonist, central conflict, and stakes — short enough to deliver quickly and memorably. A strong logline is useful well beyond the query letter.

Manuscript Wishlist (MSWL) A list, often shared by agents online, of the kinds of books and stories they are particularly hoping to find. Checking an agent's wishlist helps a writer judge whether their manuscript is a genuine fit.

Partial Request / Full Request When an agent responds to a query by asking to read more, they may request a partial (a set number of pages or chapters) or a full (the complete manuscript). Both are encouraging signs that a query and sample have done their job.

Query Letter The one-page letter a writer sends to a literary agent to introduce their manuscript, including a brief pitch, key details (title, genre, word count), comparable titles, and a short author biography. Its purpose is to make an agent want to read more. (See also the Query Letter Checklist.)

Slush Pile The informal term for the accumulated unsolicited submissions an agency or publisher receives. To "come out of the slush pile" is to be picked up on the strength of a cold submission.

Submission Package The set of materials an agent asks for when considering a manuscript, typically a query letter, a synopsis, and a sample of the manuscript (often the opening chapters or first ten pages). Exact requirements vary by agency. (Preparing one is the focus of a Submission Package Review.)

Synopsis A concise summary of a manuscript's entire plot, including the ending, usually one to two pages. Unlike the query letter's pitch, the synopsis is a complete account of what happens, written to show an agent that the story works.

Traditional, Self- and Hybrid PublishingTraditional publishing sees a publisher acquire, produce, and distribute a book, usually via a literary agent. Self-publishing sees the author take on those responsibilities themselves. Hybrid publishing sits between the two, with the author contributing to costs in exchange for publishing services, a model that varies widely and is worth researching carefully.

Word Count Conventions The expected length ranges for books in a given category, for example, most adult literary and commercial novels fall roughly between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Manuscripts well outside the conventional range for their genre can raise concern before the writing itself is read.