Simple Steps to Editing Success
Editing Your Final Draft
Whether you’re self-publishing your book, sending to an editor, or to a publishing company — ideally you want to send your ultimate best work — even if you’re having someone else edit it for you prior to publishing.
I have done a lot of editing. Editors are people too — just like you. They’re not superhuman and it’s not their job to perform miracles, though some are capable — they sometimes have lives and just simply don’t have the time to do so.
For Initial Polishing and Revising See These Posts:
- Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part One
- Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part Two
- Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part Three
For Editing Prior to Your Final Draft See These Posts:
Why should you edit your own work as much as possible before sending to someone else to edit?
- it’ll cost you more — in both time and money
- you don’t realize just how many mistakes you’ve missed
- the more mistakes and editor has to correct — the more errors likely when they’re finished
- it’s your work — no one should have to correct your tone, extensive wording, or ideas
- it’ll save you a lot of frustration, negative feedback, and delays in the long run
Here are three simple, easy steps to follow that will save you, an editor, your publisher, readers, and your work a lot of time, money, and frustration.
3 Easy Steps to Editing Your Own Work — Simple Steps to Success
This should be done before you start designing your cover, concerning yourself with ISBN numbers, how you’re going to publish, or with whom.
This will create a finalized First Draft — a beta version.
Do ALL of these steps thoroughly before sending your book to anyone to edit, publish, or even beta read, your book.
This should be done after all revising and polishing.
Related: Fine Tuning Your Manuscript
1. First, run your MS through Word, Grammarly, or any other word processor Spelling AND Grammar tool. Please check both spelling and grammar — in Word you must make sure this setting is turned on. Run it through completely and thoroughly — at least twice is preferred.
2. Print out your MS and read it to yourself — get a highlighter, a fun colored pen — or whatever you love the most to mark your pages and go to town on it — read it, mark it, and read it again. Then go through your digital version and fix the mistakes. Run it through another spell/grammar check after you’ve done this — just to be sure.
3. Print it out again and now — read it out loud. Read it out loud to yourself, have a pizza party with some friends and take turns reading it, have your family read it out loud while you listen, record yourself reading it out loud — whatever it takes to be sure you can read through it entirely with everything sounding just as you want it to. Then, again — mark it up, fix your mistakes on your digital copy — and run it through the spelling and grammar check once more.
Related: Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part One
This is where the real work is, and the real fun — polishing, refining, and making it shine. And it should be done on your own time before you send your work to anyone else.
