Get the manuscript as good as you can make it alone, send a sample and a synopsis rather than the whole book, pay for a paid sample edit before committing, and agree in writing what the report will cover. Most disappointing edits are briefing failures, not editor failures.

How to get a developmental edit that's worth the money

Ask these before you pay a deposit

A good editor will answer all nine without hesitating. Any hesitation on scope or deliverables is the warning.

  • What exactly will I receive — a report, margin notes, a call, or all three?
  • How many pages is a typical report for a book this length?
  • Have you edited in this genre? Which titles, and may I see a sample report?
  • Will you do a paid sample edit of 3,000 words first?
  • What is your turnaround, and when could you start?
  • Does the fee include a follow-up conversation once I've read it?
  • Is a second pass after my revision included, or charged separately?
  • What do you need from me — synopsis, character list, what I already suspect is wrong?
  • If the manuscript isn't ready for this edit, will you tell me and refund?
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A structural review of your opening chapters

Send the first three chapters and we'll email a structural read: the through-line, where attention drops, and the two things to fix first — plus the nine questions to ask any editor before you pay a deposit.

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We'll email it, then a short series on finishing and publishing a book. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.

Or see how it works first

First: is it ready?

A developmental edit on a first draft that you know is a first draft is money spent on being told what you already know. Before you commission one, you want to have done the pass you can do alone, and ideally to have had three to five readers through it.

The signal that it is ready: you can no longer see the book. You've read it so many times that you're moving commas. That is the point at which an outside structural read is worth its price, and not much before.

Where to find one in the UK

The CIEP directory — the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading. Members list specialisms and rates, and Advanced Professional Members have been assessed. This is the most reliable starting point in Britain.

Reedsy — a curated marketplace, largely ex-trade editors. More expensive, and the vetting is real. Reedsy's own published averages sit around $2,880 for a developmental edit of an 80,000-word book.

Referrals from authors in your genre. The best route, and the slowest. Ask in the acknowledgements of three self-published books you admire — many name their editor, and many editors will take a referral over a cold enquiry.

Avoid anyone who quotes without seeing the manuscript, offers a package price for 'editing' without naming which edit, or promises a publishing outcome.

What to send, and what to say you already suspect

Send a one-page synopsis, the full manuscript, and a short note on what you already think is wrong. Authors resist that last part, believing it biases the read. In practice it does the opposite: a good editor uses it to check whether you're right, and it stops you paying £2,000 to be told about the middle act you'd already identified.

Also say what you want the book to do. 'I want this to sell' and 'I want my grandchildren to have it' produce entirely different edits, and both are legitimate.

Reading the report without wrecking the book

Read it once. Put it away for a week. Read it again with a pen.

Then sort every note into three piles: things you know are right, things you disagree with, and things you don't understand. Act on pile one. Go back to the editor about pile three — that is what the follow-up call is for. Leave pile two alone for a fortnight; about half of it moves to pile one on its own, and what's left is usually where your book is being deliberately unusual.

Do not start rewriting on the day the report arrives.

How Your Book Pro fits into this

Your Book Pro is a British book-writing platform. You bring a book — an idea, a folder of notes, half a draft, or a finished manuscript written somewhere else — and it gives you the editorial process a publisher would run: a plan, structured feedback, a simulated beta read, a line edit, a proofread, a cover, a blurb and a print-ready file. You can type it, upload it or speak it. The tools sit in one place and work on the same manuscript, so the feedback compounds instead of arriving as twelve disconnected opinions.

The practical use here is sequencing. Detailed Editorial Feedback gives you a whole-book structural review for 600 credits — inside your free welcome credits — which is enough to find and fix the problems you'd otherwise be paying a human editor to point out. Authors who do that first tend to get a cheaper quote and a better report, because editors price on the state of the manuscript.

Upload the manuscript wherever you wrote it — Word, Google Docs, Scrivener, a stack of chapter files — run the review, fix what it finds, then commission the human edit if the book still needs one. And when the human report comes back, you can bring it in and work through the revision here with the same manuscript in front of you.

Run a whole-book review

Upload a manuscript written anywhere

Email me the review

Questions people ask

How much should a developmental edit cost?
£1,500–£4,800 for a full-length book in the UK, depending on length and condition. CIEP suggested minimum rates are the sanity check; anything dramatically below is either a different service or an inexperienced editor.
Is a sample edit worth paying for?
Yes, and pay for it. A free sample edit selects for editors who need the work. £75–£150 for 3,000 words tells you whether you can hear this person's voice for six months.
Can I get a developmental edit on a partial manuscript?
On an outline and three chapters, yes — that's a plan critique and costs £150–£400. On half a book, no. The structural questions cannot be answered without an ending.
What if the editor and my beta readers disagree?
Look at what they agree on. Where they diverge, the editor is usually right about cause and the readers are usually right about effect.
Do I need a second developmental edit after revising?
Rarely. A shorter follow-up read of the revised structure is often included, and is usually enough. A full second edit means the first revision went in the wrong direction.
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