How Long Should a Developmental Edit Report Be?
The answer: it depends.
I’d love to be able to put a numerical value on this, but the truth is there is no hard and fast rule. This can be frustrating for both writers and editors.
A lot of things within writing and editing fall under guidelines, with few actual “rules”. As a result, it can be hard to know what to expect.
Let’s explore how an editorial report (or edit letter) from your editor works and what you need to keep in mind before hiring an editor for your book.
What is an editorial report?
An editorial report is a typed document written by your editor that accompanies developmental edits and manuscript assessments.
The report’s purpose is to analyse the narrative elements of your book and break down the editor’s in-line feedback in more detail.
Some of the topics covered in editorial reports include: pacing, story structure, character development, themes, point of view and worldbuilding.
Why can report lengths vary?
The length of an editorial report can vary depending on three main factors:
The content the editor includes and explores
The level of detail the editor goes into
The level of feedback needed
Let’s look at each of these factors in more detail…
#1 The content the editor includes
As I mentioned, most editorial reports will cover the same basic information. However, there are a few things that can change depending on the editor’s approach...
An editor may focus on one aspect more heavily than others. For example, they might love to break down characters and be suuuuper detailed in this one specific area, more so than other editors.
The editor might include chapter breakdowns, scene breakdowns, Save the Cat beats, etc. This can be in addition to the other general content. As a result, this will bump up the word count.
Some editors may not address certain areas in their report — like prose, dialogue, showing versus telling, etc. Some elements cross into the line and copy editing territory, so some developmental editors won’t cover them.
#2 The depth of editorial feedback
The level of detail an editor goes into is really the biggest factor influencing the length of their editorial reports.
Some editors say their report will be 3,000 words. This may sound like a lot, but in reality it may not be enough words to really dig into the story concepts in detail.
Some editors say they’ll write 15 pages. Pages can be hard to gauge, as a page could have 300 words on it, or 3. This means writers aren’t always sure what a standard page will look like.
The level of depth also ties into how much feedback is required.
#3 The level of feedback needed
Lastly, the level of feedback required is another huge factor. If the book is quite clean and requires minimal revisions, the report will likely be much shorter.
However, a long report doesn’t always suggest the book needs a lot of work, as the book could also be especially complex and layered. A lot of newer writers may need more feedback, as there may be a lot for the editor to address and break down.
Given that the length of a report can vary so much for each book, it’s hard for editors to give an accurate estimate of how long their report will be. That’s why they’ll usually share a minimum or average length on their website. As the writer, this at least gives you a bare minimum of what you can expect.
My report stats
It’s one thing to talk about reports, but it may not mean much if you haven’t received one yourself.
Here are the stats for my longest reports:
30 pages, 18,094 words
43 pages, 19,769 words
40 pages, 20,543 words
40 pages, 23,308 words
See the difference between page count and word count?
On average, my reports are around 22—27 pages and 12—15,000 words.
Final word
At the end of the day, if you’re looking to work with a developmental editor, here is what you should be asking so you know what level of detail to expect.
What is the average word count for an editorial report in my genre? This will at least give you a rough guideline. It’s also important to note that genre and book length can hugely impact the report word count, as a complex fantasy of 100k words is likely to need more feedback than a 40k middle grade novel.
Do you include chapter, scene, or act breakdowns in your report? This will make the report longer and can help give you, the writer, even more guidance. It’s not an essential, but it might be helpful to ask for your own clarification.
Can you tell me the different sections of the report and and the content you’ll cover? This will help you understand which things are being covered and which things are not.
