Thanks for the Dr. Doyle ref. So, just to be sure, what is developmental editing? That term never even came up in graduate school. (which might say a lot about my graduate school, lol).
I used the term "developmental editing" to mean the big edit: the one where an editor goes through your book and highlights everything that doesn't work, or things that can be tightened. For example, she'll find plot-holes, see if the story arc is working, she'll look at characterisation and setting, see if you've got loose ends which could be usefully tied up, and so on.
Copy editing comes after, and looks at grammar issues, punctuation, spelling, and so on: the smaller things. There's no point doing this until you've done the big edit, because the big edit is likely to introduce more errors which you'll then have to look for with another copy edit.
Proof reading can only be done once you have final proofs, so it's not something you do until you're on the verge of publishing and have laid-out pages.
Thanks, Sarah. The thing is, I was looking into author services to prepare the book for submission to an agent and subsequently, a publisher. I've not been considering e-publishing, though I may if nothing pans out along the traditional path.
Agents and publishers won't expect your book to have been professionally edited: they'll just want it as clean as you can get it. They want to see your work, not anyone else's; and a good publisher will edit your book for you, at no cost to you, so there's no need to duplicate that work at your own expense now.
However, if you're not confident that your work is up to standard and you'd rather seek professional help, there are several good editorial agencies which will help you improve your book. Dr Doyle will do the job well for you, as will others.
