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Line Editing
A line editor helps amplify your voice.
What does a line editor do?
The goal of a line edit is to tighten and strengthen an author’s voice, thus enhancing the experience for the reader. Working with a line editor is like having a landscaper come in to tidy up your yard. I’ll cut back the overgrown shrubs, thin plants from areas that are overcrowded, smooth out transitions between the lawn and border plantings (make sure there are transitions), suggest ways to fill in any barren sections, add some bark mulch to keep weeds down. You get the idea.
It’s a general tidying up so that, ultimately, passersby see an attractive, balanced composition with striking plantings sprinkled throughout. They may be inclined to pause to take it in, to marvel at how well organized it all is while still looking natural. No topiary here; that’s too heavy handed. Just a pleasing arrangement of colors and textures and shapes.
In the end, no one will ever know I was there. It’s your yard. It’s your story.
The next step, after line editing, is copyediting.
““You seem to have just the right touch—you make numerous comments and suggestions where needed, but you don’t go too far, so that we [the co-authors] still feel the book reflects our writing.””