How I deliver my edits: Track changes, clean manuscripts, and comments

Today's post is about my line/copyediting services.

Suppose you've hired me to edit a manuscript for you. How do I return the manuscript to you and what's the process?

Well, that depends on what you've hired me for. For some clients, I'll just deliver a single marked-up document (using MS Word's track changes).

But if you've sent me a book manuscript and I'm the last editor who will read through the text, then you can expect three documents:

1. A marked-up document with edits and comments using MS Word's track changes (filename with _tracked)

2. A clean document with comments preserved (filename with _clean_comments)

3. A clean document without any comments (filename with _clean)

Which document you work with depends on your level of familiarity with MS Word's track changes.

First, please avoid this mistake:

Don't just submit the clean document without comments and without reviewing it. Make sure my edits hit the mark, and check for any author queries (comment bubbles) I left.

Instead, consider these options:

Option 1: You're confident with track changes AND there will be another read through by an editorial professional

If you're comfortable with track changes, use the tracked version, approving each edit as you go. This is ideal if you plan to have another person proofread the document. However, be cautious if you're also making your own insertions; it can get messy. I've seen many manuscripts where using two sets of track changes has resulted in mistaken double gaps between words, or no space atall.

Option 2: You're not familiar with track changes OR this is your final professional edit.

If you're not comfortable with track changes or this is your final edit, work with the clean version that includes comments.

The best approach is to have two screens, one with the tracked changes and the other with the clean version. To avoid confusion, you could look at a PDF version of the tracked manuscript.

Review the tracked edits but only make changes in the clean version.

A second-best but quicker option would be to read through only the clean version with comments, making changes where you see fit.

The danger of introducing new errors

When working through the edited manuscript, I highly recommend you keep the number of new changes you make to a minimum. This is really important because the more changes you make, the higher the chances of introducing new errors.

And also, you've hired an editor to prepare a near-final version of your manuscript for publishing. The line/copyediting stage is not an appropriate stage at which to get a discussion going about the most appropriate edit. It's a stage where the editor makes decisions and guarantees a text of publishable quality as the outcome.

If you want to discuss your manuscript and the edits made in lots of detail, then you need a different service – either some kind of developmental editing or coaching for writers.