23.6 Editorial Letter

An editorial letter is a comprehensive written document, typically produced by a professional developmental editor, that presents a structured analysis of a manuscript's strengths and weaknesses along with specific guidance for revision, delivered as a standalone piece of writing rather than as scattered comments embedded throughout the manuscript itself.

Purpose and Function

An editorial letter is designed to give an author a coherent, holistic view of how a manuscript is functioning as a whole, addressing large-scale elements such as plot structure, character development, pacing, and thematic coherence rather than sentence-level prose concerns, which are typically handled separately during line editing or copyediting. Because it is delivered as a single continuous document rather than as marginal comments scattered across hundreds of manuscript pages, an editorial letter allows the editor to present patterns and connections across the manuscript that would be difficult to convey through page-by-page annotation alone — for instance, tracing how a character's motivation shifts inconsistently across several widely separated chapters, a pattern that individual marginal notes on each instance might not fully connect into a single, actionable observation.

Typical Contents of an Editorial Letter

An overview of the manuscript's core strengths. Most editorial letters begin by identifying what is already working well in the manuscript — a compelling voice, an effective structural choice, a strong central relationship — establishing what the subsequent revision should preserve and build on rather than inadvertently damage while addressing other issues.

A diagnosis of the manuscript's central problems. The letter identifies the most significant issues affecting the manuscript, typically prioritized by importance rather than presented as an exhaustive list of every minor issue, on the reasoning that revision is most effective when focused on a small number of high-impact problems rather than diffused across many minor concerns simultaneously.

Analysis organized by craft element. Editorial letters commonly address distinct craft categories in turn — plot and structure, character development, pacing, point of view, worldbuilding, thematic clarity — providing a systematic account of how the manuscript is performing in each area rather than an unstructured stream of observations.

Specific examples drawn from the manuscript. Rather than offering only general assessments, an effective editorial letter typically grounds its observations in specific scenes, chapters, or passages, illustrating a broader pattern with concrete instances the author can locate and examine directly within their own manuscript.

Suggested directions for revision. While an editorial letter generally avoids prescribing exact rewrites, it typically offers direction — questions to consider, possible approaches to a structural problem, alternative ways a scene or character arc might be handled — intended to guide the author's own revision process rather than dictate a single correct solution.

Editorial Letters Versus Manuscript Annotation

An editorial letter is usually delivered alongside, rather than instead of, a manuscript marked up with more localized comments, addressing specific lines, scenes, or passages directly within the text. The two forms of feedback serve complementary purposes: the editorial letter provides the big-picture diagnosis and priorities, while in-manuscript annotation provides granular, located observations tied to specific moments in the text. An author typically reads the editorial letter first, to understand the overall shape of the feedback and the priorities for revision, before working through the more detailed annotations scattered through the manuscript itself.

Editorial Letters Outside Professional Editing

While the term is most closely associated with professional developmental editors, the underlying format — a structured, comprehensive written overview of a manuscript's strengths and weaknesses, addressing craft elements systematically rather than as scattered notes — is sometimes adopted by beta readers, critique partners, or writing group members asked to provide especially thorough feedback, particularly when reviewing a complete manuscript rather than incremental chapters. In this broader use, an editorial letter functions as a format for organizing feedback clearly and comprehensively rather than as a credential specific to professional editorial services.

Using an Editorial Letter During Revision

Because an editorial letter is typically organized around priorities rather than presented as an undifferentiated list, authors commonly use it to establish a revision plan, addressing the most significant structural or craft issues identified first, since fixes to lower-priority concerns made before higher-priority structural issues are resolved risk being undone or rendered irrelevant by the larger changes still to come. The letter's function as an organizing document for revision, rather than merely a record of an editor's reactions, is often considered one of its primary values relative to less structured forms of feedback.