Who Hires Academic Developmental Editors—and When?

Academic developmental editors provide big-picture feedback on a manuscript to ensure it’s presented in an optimal way for readers. They bridge the gap between what the writer thinks the book is doing, and how that appears to readers.

Academic writers are usually very close to their material and may not notice relationships between arguments, that one argument or idea is out of place, etc.

Academic developmental editors are therefore usually editors who know the conventions of academic writing and of certain disciplines well, and they have been trained in how to spot developmental issues (many through learning on the job, but there are also courses, such as the University of Chicago Developmental Editing Pathway).

Who hires academic developmental editors?

University presses and academic publishers

University presses and academic trade presses sometimes hire academic developmental editors if they have a problem manuscript they need help with (the same applies for line editors). It’s worth pointing out that the skill set of a managing editor and an acquisitions editor will overlap with that of a developmental editor. Managing editors frequently give academic authors feedback on samples, chapters, etc., with developmental concerns in mind.

Also, part of the acquisitions editor’s job is to assess market suitability, so they are highly skilled at diagnosing problems with book proposals in particular, which translates in being able to give high-quality feedback on such proposals.

In summary, university presses have substantial developmental editing expertise in-house, through acquisitions editors, managing editors, and the peer review process. As a result, freelance academic developmental editors are usually brought in when presses lack capacity or when the stakes are high to the press.

Academic researchers

Academic researchers increasingly hire developmental editors for academic books when revising a dissertation or preparing a manuscript for a university press. And scholars often seek developmental editing for journal articles when a piece has been rejected multiple times and the underlying issue is structural rather than sentence-level.

This has become a more popular trend in recent years, as publishing a book has become increasingly important for academic career progression. Twenty years ago in the UK, for example, a book was by no means essential to secure a first permanent lecturer position, while it has become near essential for social and cultural anthropology, roughly from the early 2010s onwards – linked to the global economic crisis and the increasing precarity for many in academic careers.

Why academics hire developmental editors

Developmental editors also offer researchers support they often cannot find inside academia.

Peer review involves detailed expert feedback. Good peer review often includes some developmental editing feedback, which academics learn as they go. But it also includes gatekeeping and sometimes a reluctance to engage with an argument or piece of work in a constructive way (e.g., if the reviewer has a big ego and advocates a competing academic approach).

As an independent academic developmental editor, I often work with scholars who want detailed structural feedback in a space that is separate from peer review, hiring, and university or disciplinary hierarchies.

I have a separate blog post on when to bring in a developmental editor on your book project.