In line editing (or what I like to call stylistic editing) I do my best to improve your writing style while maintaining your personal voice. The focus will be on the words and how they’re put together — with the goal of inducing emotions in the reader so they will want to keep reading your book!
Traditionally, a line edit comes after a developmental edit. Or, if you are confident that the content is where you want it to be, you can forgo the developmental edit and go ahead with the line edit. The overall structure of the book should be well established before starting a line edit and you should be happy with the plot and characters.
Line editing involves editing a book sentence by sentence (or line by line, hence the term “line editing”) to help improve your writing, always keeping craft in mind. A line edit ensures that your book’s content is consistent while its language is creative and concise. Why is line editing necessary? Well, your goal as an author is to make sure the premise of your book is executed as effectively as possible, and a line editor helps make that happen.
As far as what I do in English line editing and Spanish line editing, it really is an extensive, detail-oriented review of your manuscript — sort of like a copy edit on steroids! The things that I will be looking at are:
A line editor will help make sure the syntax is clean and concise and words aren’t wasted.
As an example of how a line editor will help, here is some unedited text:
“Pedro was on his way to the internet engineers’ union meeting when he saw colorful flyers being passed out on every street corner that clearly had something to do with the union busting Maria was investigating, even if he could barely see the lettering. Maria’s investigation of union busting was not going well at all. Pedro’s union meeting was also now more than likely going to be similarly derailed.”
Now, let’s take a look and see what improvements can be made:
• The first sentence is long and unwieldy. Make it easier for readers to read, break it up and condense the language. Maybe something like: “While walking to the internet engineers’ union meeting, Pedro noticed colorful flyers being passed out on every street corner. He wasn’t able to clearly make out the lettering, but could tell it had something to do with Maria’s investigation of union busting.”
• Unnecessary repetition. You don't need to write “Maria’s investigation of union busting” right after mentioning “the union busting Maria was investigating.” Also, since we know Pedro is the subject in the passage, we don’t need to repeat his name in the last sentence.
• As well, in the last sentence there is no need to have “also” and “similarly.”
Here is what a more concise stylistic edit of the passage could look like:
“While on his way to the internet engineers’ union meeting, Pedro noticed colorful flyers being passed out on every street corner. He wasn’t able to clearly make out the lettering but could tell it had something to do with Maria’s investigation of union busting. He knew her investigation had been compromised and suspected the union meeting was about to be similarly derailed.”
Contact me today to discuss your English line-editing job.
Spanish line editing works on the same principles as English line editing; however, you need an in-depth knowledge of the Spanish language to be successful. I began studying Spanish close to 40 years ago and have been in love with the language ever since.
Over my years as a line editor, I’ve line edited numerous Spanish-language novels, journals, and web pages, and I’ve even completed Spanish projects with large publishers, such as HarperCollins Publishing. You can trust me to handle your line editing as well.
Contact me today to discuss your Spanish line-editing needs.
Read about how I can help you with my Spanish and English copy editing service.
My Spanish and English proofreading service just might be what you’re looking for.
If you would like your novel translated to Spanish, I can do that too.
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Read comments from satisfied clients I have helped with my bilingual editing and translation service.
Scroll down the page just a wee bit to see some of the works I have helped make better.
If you are ready to start the line edit of your English- or Spanish-language novel:
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