As a new author, what editing services do I really need? Can anyone explain the difference between proofreading and developmental editing?

Editing is improving the read.

Proofing is finding the goofs.

What needs editing is usually a lot more obvious than the goofs are.

‘Developmental’ is just one of range of editing service people do, but I don’t pay any attention to.

Editing is editing. It’s about smoothing the read, finding any actual errors or contradictions, and filling in a bit of extra detail. Sometimes taking things out which just don’t work, or reads so badly that you can’t massage it into a better read. Sometimes taking out the rabbit hole you went down that doesn’t really have anything to do with the story. Removing filler.

Part of having someone else do it is them seeing past your blind spots, and pointing out that what you’re trying to do doesn’t work.

A good example of that, and it wasn’t editing, was I was asked to read the start of a novel by a new Space Opera writer. After picking up on strange words being used a few times which didn’t fit the setting, about chapter 3 the shuttle hits an asteroid. She goes on for pages after that in how they save themselves, but I stopped and told her they were all dead. They were unconscious in 20 seconds, and dead 20 more, just from her description of the shuttle.

A good editor tells you when you use wrong words for the setting, and when you just did something totally wrong that most readers will be bounced out on.

Needless to say in this case, she took it badly, because I wasn’t her editor, but a good editor would have said the same thing. I even supplied her with an easy way to fix it. Nope. Butt hurt.

Proofreading is finding the missing words, the duplicate words, the use of 2 words instead of 1, 1 word instead of 2, spelling mistakes, typos, and formatting errors. Sometimes pointing out where a sentence is just hard to read, or you contradicted yourself and the editor didn’t find it.

Editing comes first. Proofreading comes last, and last, and last, and last.

Until you learn to edit effectively, you need an editor who knows your genre, and how to make your mess into something readable.

Once it’s been edited, and then you edit the edit yourself, then you need a good proofreader who spots errors naturally when they read.

Both should be giving you a list of issues.

You do ALL the changes yourself, because that’s the only way you learn.