There are several types of freelance book editing services in the market, and the four below are the most popular ones:

• Developmental editing: This is the process of editing the main plot, the characters, the logical point, and the whole work for a smooth and consistent story flow. It is the most important and the first step in the book editing process. 

• Line editing: This is the process of editing sentence structure. It helps effectively deliver your ideas in words, improve the use of your voice and tone, get rid of repeated words, etc.

• Copy editing: Copy editing assists the book author on fixing grammar & typo errors, punctuation, ensuring the whole work has a consistent format or style guideline, etc.

• Proofreading book editing: This process is always the last step in the book editing cycle for it will ensure the book is completely free from minor mistakes such as typos, format, layout, and consistency.

All of the book editing types above are actually separate steps that play  different roles in the book editing process. In fact, a freelance book editor will often take charge of these four steps in one service package. However, you should also ask them first for clearance so there won’t be any misunderstanding in terms of responsibilities later.