You’ve finished a draft (or your fifth revision) and you know it isn’t there yet. So you go searching for help. And what you find is a pile of options that overlap: book coach, developmental editor, manuscript critique, manuscript evaluation, and more.
The titles blur because the work does. Book coaches review manuscripts. Developmental editors give feedback that may sound a lot like coaching. So the title doesn’t tell you much. What will is the kind of help you’re actually getting. Here’s a guide to help you sort it out.
The short version
Ongoing coaching is a relationship over weeks or months while you plan, draft, or revise.
A developmental edit (also may be called a manuscript critique, assessment or evaluation) is a one-time read of your whole book, with written feedback on the big-picture issues: structure, character, pacing, etc.
A manuscript diagnostic is also a one-time read of the whole book. It’s a more structured version of that, built around why the book isn’t doing what you want.
What does a book coach do?
A book coach is a working partner for your process. Most meet with you regularly, often every other week or monthly, and help you set goals, keep deadlines, work through sticking points, and decide what to do next. A book coach often reads pages and gives feedback along the way.
Coaching is a great fit when you’re planning, drafting, or revising and the hard part is momentum, structure, or confidence (or all of the above). It fits less well when you have a finished draft and need to know what’s wrong with it, because the relationship is built around your process, not around analyzing the whole manuscript. (Learn more about book coaching here.)
What does a developmentalal editor do?
A developmental editor reads your whole manuscript and gives you written feedback on the big-picture issues, usually in an editorial letter. They also often comment in the manuscript itself. A manuscript critique, assessment, and evaluation are often the same thing under a different name. The review and feedback you receive may vary significantly in depth and length, so be sure you understand what the deliverable(s) are and that they align with what you are looking for.
NOTE: This kind of review isn’t a line edit or a copyedit. When you still have structural issues to solve, you don’t need that yet. (Why polish prose that may change significantly or become a dead darling?) Those steps come later, once the structure is settled.
Most good manuscript reviews (regardless of what they’re called) don’t try to cover every element of craft, because that would be overwhelming. They focus on the biggest problems and may note a few smaller or more mechanical things along the way.
Different editors work differently, though. Some may suggest specific changes, some frame the decision and leave the answer to you, and some include a call while others don’t.
It fits when you have a complete draft and want an expert read on the biggest issues, with some notes on the smaller ones.
How a diagnostic differs from a developmental edit
The overlap is real, and some editors work the way I do, just less formally. What I call a manuscript diagnostic is one defined way of doing a one-time read. Here’s how mine typically differs from a standard developmental edit:
A typical developmental edit
Organized around: the big-picture issues as the editor sees them
How many issues: the biggest, plus a few smaller notes
Each one includes: the problem, and often a suggested change
Level: big picture, plus some mechanical notes
Format: a letter, margin comments, or both
A manuscript diagnostic
Organized around: the promises your book makes, on the plot and emotional tracks, and where it stops keeping them
How many issues: three to five findings
Each one includes: the problem traced to where it starts, where it shows up in the manuscript, and the framing and questions to work out what you want the book to do
Level: structural; line-level notes aren’t part of it
Format: a structured report, inline notes, and a call
For example, if a thread gets introduced and then dropped, the report names it and gives you the framing to decide whether to build it up or cut it. I don’t rewrite scenes or hand you a to-do list.
I wrote up how it works in What Is a Manuscript Diagnostic?.
How to choose
If your problem is getting the pages written, or staying on track while you revise, ongoing coaching fits.
If you have a complete draft and want an expert read on its biggest issues, with some notes on smaller ones, a developmental edit fits.
If you’ve revised more than once, the same problems keep coming back, and you can’t say why, and you’d like the causes traced and a way to think through what to do about them, a diagnostic is built for that.
It isn’t either/or. Plenty of writers use more than one, one after another. A common order is to find out what’s wrong, revise (alone or with a coach), and then bring in an editor for a polish.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone
Whatever the title, these will tell you more than a sales page:
What exactly will I receive? Ask for the length and format, and whether there’s a call.
Can I see a sample or an anonymized example?
How do you read my book? What lens do you use, and how many problems do you usually cover?
What do you do and not do? (Line edits? Rewrites? Ongoing support?)
What happens after you deliver? Is there follow-up, or is that the end?
How do you give feedback? If you need it blunt, or need it gentle, say so.
Not sure which one you need?
If you have a complete draft and want to know why it isn’t working yet, take a look at the Manuscript Diagnostic. The rest of what I offer is on the Services page.
If you can’t tell which fits, fill out the Contact form and we’ll set up a free 30-minute call to figure it out.