Structural feedback on plot, pacing and characters.
The conductor, a thin man named Pell, nodded as she passed. Mara kept her bag on her knees and her eyes on the platform clock.
She thought about the night her father left, the shouting, the slammed door, the suitcase she had packed in a hurry, and how every choice since had led her to this train.
The carriage was nearly empty. A man slept against the far window. Mara did not notice the woman across the aisle until the whistle sounded twice, and then she was suddenly very aware of her stare, and it made her feel very uncomfortable.
The woman wore a green coat, she held a paper cup in both hands, like something warm she had been given to keep. Neither of them spoke.
The doors hissed open at Aldgate. “Mind the gap,” said Mr. Peel, and no one moved.
Mara counted the stops on the map above the door. Six more. She had allready counted them twice.
The silence stretched between them like an endless ocean of unspoken sorrow. She pressed her thumb into the seam of her bag and waited for the next announcement.
She looked at the window instead. Her own face looked back at her, pale and tired and small. Behind it the tunnel wall went by in long grey streaks.
The woman in the green coat stood, and Mara's stomach turned over. But she only crossed to the door, held the rail, and got off without a glance.
Mara let out a breath she had not known she was holding. Then the doors closed, and the train moved on.
7 suggestions reviewed across 2 pages. Every accepted change uses your own words, and your voice match held steady.
Developmental editing looks past grammar and word choice to ask the harder questions: does the story work? Every manuscript gets an AI-powered structural pass tuned by 100+ years of combined publishing experience, with a real human editor a request away whenever you want a second opinion.
See what's includedDevelopmental editing happens before line-level polish, focused on whether the story itself works. Every note is shown inline, with a reason attached, so you decide what to accept.
Feedback on whether your plot holds together: setups that pay off, stakes that escalate, and structure that supports the story you're telling.
Flags scenes and chapters that drag or rush, and points out where tension needs to build or release across your manuscript.
Tracks whether your characters change believably, and catches motivations that go missing or contradict themselves along the way.
Checks point-of-view consistency and narrative distance scene by scene, so the reader always knows whose story they're in.
Surfaces where your themes land clearly and where they get muddled, so the throughline stays intact across the full manuscript.
Evaluates whether your opening pages earn the reader's attention and set up the promises the rest of the book needs to keep.
Checks that your ending resolves what the story raised, with nothing major left dangling that the reader was led to expect.
A chapter-by-chapter editorial letter summarizing strengths, structural issues, and specific recommendations for revision.
Nothing changes without you. Every note is inline and reversible, with full undo/redo as you work through revisions.
No mockups here, just the real flow, screen by screen. Pick a plan below to see its own process end to end.
The editing screen opens on three plans. Pick "Free" and you're in, no card required, this is a real developmental pass on your own opening pages, not a locked-down demo.
Drop in a .docx, .pdf, or .txt file, or auto-load one already saved to your account. Developmental is checked by default; add any of the other passes if you want them run at the same time.
Every suggestion on your free pass works exactly like the other plans: original line, suggested rewrite, the reason it's flagged, and a check against your own voice fingerprint.
Text past the opening 500 words is blurred and locked, no matter how long the manuscript is. That's the whole free plan; nothing charges automatically.
Folio only edits the opening 500 words for free. Upgrade to Standard to cover the rest.
Liked what you saw? Unlock Standard to run the same passes across the whole manuscript, or hand it to a dedicated human editor instead, both pick up right where the free pass left off.
Pick Standard and the whole manuscript is in scope, however long it is, with no per-chapter add-ons.
Drop in a .docx, .pdf, or .txt file, or auto-load one already saved to your account. Choose which of the six edit types to run and how intense a pass you want, then continue to confirm your order.
Before anything runs, you review your manuscript and plan. Check out by card, or contact a consultant first if you have questions.
Each suggestion shows the original line next to what's suggested, why it's flagged, and a check against your own voice fingerprint, across the entire manuscript, not just a sample. Accept, keep the original, or skip and come back later.
Once you're through, see how many suggestions you accepted, how many you kept as-is, and how the result checks out, then export as Word or PDF, save it to your account, or carry straight on to formatting and publishing.
Skip the software entirely and hand your manuscript to a real, experienced developmental editor who works through it page by page.
A short form: manuscript name and genre are optional, your page count and contact details set up the call, and you pick a date and time that works for you.
You review your manuscript and page count before committing. Check out by card, or contact a consultant first if you have questions.
A real, experienced developmental editor works through your manuscript personally, then sends you the finished draft, by email or straight to your Folio dashboard, whichever you'd rather use.
Download your edited manuscript from the dashboard whenever you're ready, and ask your editor for as many rounds of revision as you need until you're happy with it.
Developmental editing is included in Standard, along with every other tool. Edit it yourself with Folio's software or hand it to a real editor. No subscriptions, and your book always stays yours.
Developmental editing looks at the big picture: plot, structure, pacing, and character arcs, and happens first. Line editing works at the sentence level, on prose and voice, and makes the most sense once the structure is settled.
No, it's included in Standard, the $150 one-time plan that unlocks every pass and tool for your book. If you'd rather have a human editor work the structure directly, that's available with Humanize, at $3 per page.
Both. Each note explains what's flagged and why, and most come with a concrete suggestion for how to address it, like where a clue could be planted earlier so a later scene feels earned.
Yes. The structural checks, including pacing, arcs, thematic coherence, and openings and endings, apply across fiction genres, and the same lens adapts to nonfiction narrative structure and argument flow.
Yes, every developmental pass includes a chapter-by-chapter editorial letter summarizing strengths, structural issues, and specific revision recommendations, downloadable alongside your inline notes.
The AI pass is ready in minutes, regardless of manuscript length. If you bring in a human developmental editor, timelines depend on manuscript length, and your Pipeline page shows an estimate once it's underway.
Upload a sample and see the developmental notes for yourself. No card, no commitment. Standard unlocks it for your whole book, along with every other tool.