A copy edit is imperative. An absolute must. No way around it. A line edit or a content edit is different animals. But choosing that content editor is extremely important. You don’t want someone who wants to shape your story into their story, even subconsciously. Or someone who tried to shape your story to fit in a particular bucket, being genre or a marketable style. That’s why, to me, content or line editing is not always necessary. Think beta readers as a better process. That’s not to say line editing is not a good thing. For the right project and the right writer, yes, it may be a good idea. Still, it’s not always necessary. But again, copy editing…please don’t try to send anything anywhere without good, thorough copy editing.