Developmental Editing

$0.09 per Word

The Developmental Edit is the most comprehensive edit Balboa Press offers, combining the best of all of our editing services into three phases. You can rest assured that your book will be ready for the world to read after it undergoes our Developmental Edit. For nonfiction books, the editor will confirm the following: your content is relatable to the target audience; the book is organized; lists, and tables are used properly throughout the book; and concepts are developed appropriately. For fiction books, the editor will ensure the plot flows well, the characters are consistent, and the whole story fits together.

Phase One: Developmental Edit

A developmental editor gives your manuscript a high-level review at the paragraph, chapter, and book levels. The editor provides comments throughout the manuscript, to identify areas of your work that may need overall revisions. 

Phase Two: Content Edit

After any major content changes are made, the editor will continue the editing process with a Content Edit. The Content Edit is included in the Developmental Editing package. During this phase, errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure will be caught and corrected.

Phase Three: Quality Review

After you have reviewed your Content Edit and submitted the updated version of your manuscript, we will perform a Quality Review service to check your work. This will not review the entire manuscript. Instead, an editor will check over all the revisions you made to the manuscript after the Content Edit in order to eliminate any errors or problems added in during your revision.

This three-phase process usually takes three to four months to complete, not including any time you spend with the manuscript. The time is well worth it, though, because at the end, your book will have received the most extensive and beneficial editing services we provide.

*There is a 5,000-word minimum charge for all editing services.

Please note: Balboa Press accepts a very low margin of error in each completed edit –  no more than three percent of the total errors found. Our professional in-house editorial staff reviews each editorial service for quality assurance. Upon reviewing your edited manuscript, if you believe that an unsatisfactory number of errors remain, please create a list of the errors and the page numbers on which they appear and email it to editorial@balboapress.com. We will review the list with you and address your concern.