Description

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Editing is a tricky business. It requires analytical flair and creative panache, the patience of a saint and the vision of a writer. Transforming a manuscript into a book that edifies, inspires, and sells? That’s the job of the developmental editor, whose desk is the first stop for many manuscripts on the road to bookdom—a route ably mapped out in the pages of Developmental Editing.

Author Scott Norton has worked with a diverse range of authors, editors, and publishers, and his handbook provides an approach to developmental editing that is logical, collaborative, humorous, and realistic. He starts with the core tasks of shaping the proposal, finding the hook, and building the narrative or argument, and then turns to the hard work of executing the plan and establishing a style.

Developmental Editing includes detailed case studies featuring a variety of nonfiction books—election-year polemic, popular science, memoir, travel guide—and authors ranging from first-timer to veteran, journalist to scholar. Handy sidebars offer advice on how to become a developmental editor, create effective illustration programs, and adapt sophisticated fiction techniques (such as point of view, suspense, plotting, character, and setting) to nonfiction writing.  

Norton’s book also provides freelance copyeditors with a way to earn higher fees while introducing more creativity into their work lives. It gives acquisitions, marketing, and production staff a vocabulary for diagnosing a manuscript’s flaws and techniques for transforming it into a bestseller. And perhaps most importantly, Developmental Editing equips authors with the concrete tools they need to reach their audiences.

About the Author

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Scott Norton was formerly a developmental editor at the University of California Press, where he eventually served as the director of editing, design, and production before retiring in 2020.

Praise For…

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“In Developmental Editing, Scott Norton discloses the analysis and techniques that underlie the seemingly magical act of turning an idea—or a flawed manuscript—into a good book. Norton gives aspiring editors the tools they need to do this demanding job. He gives authors the understanding they need to take advantage of an editor's advice. Finally, he gives authors without the good fortune to work with a developmental editor a way to look at their own work with a critical eye.”
— Beth Luey, author of Handbook for Academic Authors and Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors

“Scott Norton is no seat-of-the-pants developmental editor. He’s a man with a method—practical, detailed, lucid, engaging. Even the most battle-tested editors and agents will rethink their tactics after reading this field guide to manuscript development.”

— Susan Wallace Boehmer, executive editor for trade book development, Harvard University Press

“Scott Norton’s book should be required reading for publishers who want to understand developmental editing and how it can improve their books.”

— Michael Morgan, president and CEO, Morgan & Claypool Publishers

“I’ve done a fair amount of developmental editing, yet Norton has managed to fill his book with things I didn’t know—or had forgotten or stopped being very disciplined about. Editors of every stripe—DEs, line editors, copyeditors—can learn much from this fresh, readable, and practical book.”

— Wendalyn Nichols