This post first appeared on my Substack on 15 May 2026.
Has someone told you, ‘This needs an edit,’ and you’re clueless about what you’re supposed to do with that?
If you’re a new writer, you might have come across advice telling you to get a manuscript assessment through your state’s writers’ centre, find a freelance editor to edit it, or get someone to proofread it. If all of that sounds really confusing to you, you’re not the only one!
Manuscript assessments, structural edits, copyedits and proofreading are actually separate stages in the publishing process, and they all do very different things. A generalist editor might do all of these things, and other editors specialise in one or more services.
When you’re new to writing, you might also think you need to try to solve multiple problems at once: structure, clarity, spelling and grammar, narrative, and whether the whole thing is even working. That makes it even harder to figure out what you need for your work, and when you need it.
What each stage is actually for
Before I talk about how to tell what you need, let me explain what each of the stages are.
Manuscript assessment
This is usually the first stage of the process. With a manuscript assessment, little (if any) actual editing is done – it’s about giving you advice and direction where you need it, which you can then use to redraft your manuscript before you invest in having someone edit it. It looks at the big picture, to give you feedback on the premise, structure, language, characterisation if it’s a fiction manuscript, the ending, whether it has a place in the market, and so on.
You’ll get a detailed written report from the assessor, with feedback about the strengths and weaknesses of your draft, and what they recommend you work on. Depending on the assessor, they might offer a phone or video call to talk through their recommendations.
Structural editing
The second stage, the structural edit, zooms in a bit closer, but it’s still very much a big-picture job. This time, the editor will actually make some changes to your manuscript, but they won’t be going into the fine details. They’ll move things around, and they’ll suggest cutting slabs of text and adding more text in some places.
They’ll focus on things like:
structure and flow
whether the information is in an order that works
whether your argument makes sense
reader experience
language and voice for the intended audience
narrative flow
pacing
effectiveness of scenes
characters
world-building
point of view.
With a structural edit, your editor will use Word’s Track Changes to show the changes they’re suggesting, and they’ll add a lot of comments throughout to let you know where scenes need improving, chapters need restructuring, text needs deleting, content needs to be fleshed out, among other things. If your manuscript is being traditionally published, the editor or publisher who commissioned the manuscript (or your agent if you have one) might do this as well.
Like manuscript assessments, structural edits often result in rewriting and restructuring. That can hurt your heart as a writer, but it’s an important step in the process.
Copyediting
Here is where an editor will start looking at the finer details. By this stage, it’s time to focus on the sentence and paragraph level.
During a copyedit, the editor will look at:
clarity
grammar and punctuation
consistency in ideas, characters and world-building
consistency in timeline and narrative
spelling
word choice and consistency in style
dialogue punctuation and formatting
factual errors
anything that might be legally dicey
any cultural or other sensitivity concerns
adding captions and numbering for all images and infographics
formatting citations in the text and adding any that are missing
collating and correcting references and endnotes.
This is the last stage before the manuscript is finalised and sent off to the typesetter or book designer, and it’s the last chance to make any changes to structure, delete text or add more text. If your manuscript is going to be traditionally published, they’ll have an editor copyedit it (even if you’ve already paid for an editor to do it).
The editor will make the changes directly in the manuscript using Track Changes, so you can see what they’re suggesting. They should also be adding comments to explain any changes they’re making, to help you understand their reasoning behind the changes. They’ll also give you a short editorial letter and will usually create a ‘style sheet’ that lists all of the spellings and names used throughout, to make sure it’s all consistent.
Proofreading
Proofreading is what happens after your book has been designed and typeset. It’s everyone’s last chance to find errors and make last-minute corrections (because errors will always slip through). This isn’t when major changes are made – no changing structure, deleting chunks of text or big-picture alterations at this point.
A proofreader will check for:
any spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors that have slipped through the editing process
correctly sequenced page numbers
correct spelling and formatting for chapter headings and numbers
accurate chapter order and page numbers in the table of contents
consistent page layout throughout
any typesetting errors that have misplaced or moved text
correctly placed images and infographics, with captions and numbering if needed
properly formatted in-text citations with matching references
a complete and accurate index.
A proofreader’s skillset is very different from that of a copyeditor or structural editor. They need to be able to focus on small details like individual words, letters and numbers, and page layout problems that someone who doesn’t know what to look for can easily miss. If you’re being traditionally published, the publisher will send you the pages to do a final check as well as having a professional proofread it. If you’re self-publishing, I’d always suggest having someone who didn’t edit your book do the proofreading – by proofreading stage, even your editor might be too close to the text and miss mistakes that a pair of fresh eyes will notice.
How to tell what your draft needs
So, how do you know what kind of editorial help your draft needs at the moment?
You might need a manuscript assessment if:
you’ve finished your first draft and you’re feeling a bit lost, or you’re too close to it to know what needs improvement
you’ve redrafted and want to see if you’re on the right track
you want advice from a professional before you spend the money on editing (a manuscript assessment is generally quite a bit less expensive than an edit).
Remember that you’ll have to do all the work to implement any recommendations, and if you’re not experienced as a writer, it could feel overwhelming.
You might be ready for a structural edit if:
you’ve done a lot of redrafting and you’re reasonably sure you’re on the right track
you feel like you can’t take it any further without professional help
you want to collaborate with an editor at a deep level to improve your manuscript
your manuscript is complex.
With tracked edits and comments, you’ll find it easier to look at what the editor has done and make decisions on other changes they’re suggesting, and you’ll probably see some big improvements in the manuscript. However, the cost of a structural edit reflects the amount of work an editor needs to put in to make those improvements, so you don’t want to be doing it if you’re not sure your manuscript is on the right track. The number of tracked changes in the manuscript might also be a shock to you.
It might be time for a copyedit if:
you’ve done a lot of redrafting and revising, and you’re happy with the structure
you know there are some sentences and paragraphs that feel ‘clunky’ but you don’t know how to fix them
the manuscript needs a ‘clean-up’ before it goes to a typesetter or book designer
you want to make sure you haven’t missed any details.
A copyeditor will catch errors, improve clarity and consistency and make sure it reads well. Remember that they won’t fix problems with pacing, structure, characterisation and narrative (although they’ll probably mention it in their editorial report).
A proofread is what you need when:
the manuscript has been copyedited and a typesetter or book designer has placed the text in book form, with the layout it will have as a finished book
the book needs a final check to try to catch any final errors before it goes to the printer
the layout needs to be checked to make sure it’s consistent and looks the way you want it to.
A proofread happens when all of the heavy lifting has been done and the book is about to go to the printer. All you want at this stage is for someone to catch any sneaky errors in the text or layout.
When you’re deciding which service you need right now, try to think about where you actually are in the process, rather than where you wish you were. If your manuscript still needs a lot of work, you’re wasting your money by going straight to a copyedit. If you’re going to self-publish, don’t skip the copyedit or proofread – an editor and proofreader will know what problems to look for that you might not recognise, and lots of errors in a book you’ve self-published can be a bit embarrassing.
If you’re self-publishing on a budget and you really can’t afford to pay for all steps in this process, or if you’re not an experienced writer, you could skip the structural edit, because a good manuscript assessment will give you a lot of guidance on what you need to do to improve it. I wouldn’t suggest skipping it if you’ve got a really complex manuscript, though.
You might feel ok about skipping the manuscript assessment if you’re an experienced writer who’s confident about your ability to recognise and fix big-picture problems.
Finding an editor
If you’re at the beginning of your writing process, state-based writers’ centres (for example, Writers Victoria, Writing NSW) offer manuscript assessment services.
If you’re a bit further along the path, the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) has a database of Australian editors that you can search and filter according to what you’re looking for. If you don’t care whether they’re Australian, websites like the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP, based in the UK) and Reedsy (their team is all over the world) are other options.
When you’re scoping editors, ask them what their service covers and tell them exactly what you’re looking for, so they can tell you whether they’re right for you. But cost and the service they provide are only two of the important factors to consider when you’re hiring an editor.
Look at whether the editor has much experience, and whether they have experience in your genre. IPEd accreditation can be a good indicator of knowledge if the editor you’re looking at doesn’t have a lot of experience under their belt, but a lot of editors who have worked in publishing for a long time, especially those who have worked in-house, don’t have IPEd accreditation because they just haven’t needed it to get work (I’m an example of this, as are a lot of colleagues I’ve worked with in publishing). That doesn’t mean you should discount IPEd accreditation; it just means it’s not the only indicator of how good the editor is.
Just as important as all of these factors, though, is whether you think they’re a good fit for you personality-wise. If you don’t get along, it will be a stressful time for both of you, and you’ll be less inclined to listen to their advice (even if it’s right).
The takeaway
Take the manuscript as far as you can, then make a decision as to what you need from an editor based on the reality of where you’re at. No stage is better or worse than another – it’s just a matter of where you are in the process.
Then, take your time to find an editor that’s a good fit in terms of cost, personality, and the amount and type of experience.
Following this plan, and having open communication with your editor from start to finish, will help make it a much more pleasant experience, and you’ll get much more out of it.
If you’ve read this article and you’re still not sure what you need for your manuscript, that uncertainty is actually useful information, and a good starting point for a conversation with an editor.
Good luck!