Editing Unlocked: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Book Editing Process

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Editing Unlocked: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Book Editing Process

November 6, 2023
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Your Guide to the Book Editing Process

As an indie author it can be tough to figure out all the ins and outs of the self-publishing process. There are a lot of moving parts! I’m Kaitlin, an editor for indie authors, and I hope this guide to the book editing process helps you keep everything straight.

If you’re interested in a .pdf checklist of all the things you need to do as you get ready to self-publish or edit a book, please scroll to the bottom of this page (or any page on my website!) and download my FREE Self-Publishing Planner. 🙂 

I Wrote a Book. Now What?

First, take a deep breath. Then, celebrate!

You wrote a book! Like, an ENTIRE BOOK. That’s amazing! Congratulations!

Tell your community and let them celebrate with you. You’re an author, and being an author is normally a very solitary endeavor—let your community in on your success and watch how they show up for you. You’ll be glad you did. 

Okay, after you’ve celebrated, put your manuscript away. Do not look at it for at least a week. Give yourself space from your story. Allow yourself the chance to think about other things for a little while. Your novel will benefit from your time away. When you return to it, you’ll get to see it with fresh eyes and be able to attack and improve your story in a way you couldn’t before. 

Time to Self-Edit

One of the first questions I ask authors when they send me an inquiry is Who else has read your book? This is because many indie authors believe that once they have finished their first draft, they need to hire an editor. In reality, you don’t want to pay for professional editing services if your book hasn’t been revised. Your editor will just be finding things you could have found on your own! 

This stage of editing is a crucial step of the process. As the author, you are the only one who knows what your story is supposed to say. When you self-edit, you give yourself the opportunity to read your book and decide which elements need to be revised. 

Here are five self-editing tips:

  1. Approach it like a reader first. Just read through your novel, first page to last page. You can scribble notes down as you go, but really just try to experience your book the way your readers will. You will be so surprised at the things you notice and the plot holes you find! Remember, you wrote your book over a period of months, but you can probably read it in a day or two. Reading it all at once will highlight the things you forgot about or didn’t realize as you were writing.
  2. Remove unnecessary words. Stephen King famously said that all writers should try and delete ten percent of the words in their first draft. You can go about removing unnecessary words in a few different ways. Finding and deleting all instances of “very,” “that,” or “really” is a good place to start. Search your novel for filter words. Take note of words you use often and search your book for them. 
  3. Eliminate passive voice. The passive voice can make some sentences hard to follow and remove the reader from the experience of reading your book. This is not a hard and fast rule—it is perfectly fine to leave some passive voice in your draft! It’s your book after all—if you like it, leave it.
  4. Replace adverbs. Using adverbs in your text often means you are not using strong verbs. As an editor, I see a lot of adverbs in dialogue tags (she said quietly, he said casually). Instead of relying on adverbs to TELL the reader what your characters are doing, work to replace them with stronger verbs or phrases that SHOW the reader what they’re doing. 
  5. Start with action. First drafts contain a lot of exposition. That’s helpful to you as the author because it helps you in your worldbuilding, and it helps you get into the mindset of your characters. But that doesn’t mean it belongs in your final draft. Look for areas of long exposition or scenes that begin with boring activities. Things like waking up in the morning, your character’s work routine, what they see as they drive in the car…anything like that. Look at chapters and scenes and ask yourself if the story there is starting with action. If it isn’t, ask yourself how you can adjust it.

Find Beta Readers

Okay, time to get some feedback. It can be scary to put a piece of yourself out into the world without any idea how it is going to be received, but it is time to be brave.

After you have self-edited, find some beta readers and let them read your manuscript. They will give you feedback on the story from a reader’s point of view. 

Some authors don’t give their readers much instruction. They just ask for any feedback the readers have to give. I recommend giving your readers a few questions to answer about the book once they have finished. This will focus their commentary and give you more specific areas to work on or improve. 

What are beta readers? 

Beta readers are readers, responding to your story. They will tell you which parts of your book are working, and which parts confused them. The responses and feedback from beta readers will help you know which portions of your novel aren’t working (and which parts are working really well!). 

Beta readers are not critique partners, they are not reviewers, and they are not editors.

Your beta readers should consist of people in your target audience. If you are writing paranormal romance, you need to find beta readers who regularly read paranormal romance. Why? Well, because if they don’t read your genre or sub-genre regularly they likely won’t be able to make informed comments about certain elements of your plot. 

For example, if you write why-choose romance and your beta readers don’t have experience with why-choose books, a lot of their feedback may be focused on genre elements very common in those books. In other words, it won’t help you very much! If you had gotten readers who understood and loved why-choose romance, their comments would be more relevant.

Give them a couple of weeks to a month to complete their read of your novel.

How do you find beta readers?

The most common way to find beta readers is on social media. You can put out a call on your social accounts and have potential readers fill out a Google form answering some qualifying questions. 

The questions could be things like: 

  • What types of books do you enjoy?
  • Here are the content warnings for my book—are you comfortable reading a manuscript with this type of content? 
  • I need your comments by THIS DATE. Do you have the capacity to complete your reading by then?

The number of beta readers you have is entirely up to you, but I would caution you against using too many. Remember, you are going to need to sift through all of their feedback! Having too many readers at this stage can feel really overwhelming. 

Should beta readers be paid?

You can certainly find readers for free on social media. Many authors do this because it saves them money (and we all know that self-publishing costs can add up!). If you are going to use free readers, I would recommend screening them more carefully in the beginning so that you are confident none of them are going to flake on you. 

There are many professional editors who also offer beta reading services. While these editors won’t be doing any actual editing as they read your novel, their commentary may be more useful to you. Editors are used to providing specific feedback in an accessible, professional, and friendly way. Also, by paying your readers, you can almost guarantee they will not ghost you! 

Not interested in finding your own beta readers? E & A Editing has a beta reading service that might interest you!

Revise and Self-Edit (Yes, again!)

Now that you have all your feedback from your readers, it’s time to revise and edit your manuscript. Rewrite what you need to, add in what’s missing, edit the scenes that just aren’t working, and take your manuscript as far as you can on your own. 

Hire a Professional Editor (or two!)

A professional editor will help get your manuscript ready for publishing. No, this isn’t just about catching grammatical errors! Editing and proofreading are different things, and before you hire someone to edit your book you should understand the difference.

Note that I said “professional” editor. Book editing should not be done by someone who does not have the necessary qualifications. I hope if there’s one thing you take away from this editor’s guide to the book editing process, it’s that it is not a good idea to let your friend Jessica who is a self-described “grammar nerd” edit your novel. 

There are four types of editing, and normally authors go through them until they are ready to publish. I’ll provide a quick overview here, but if you want more details, check out my blog post “4 Types of Editing for Indie Authors.”

One of the most frequently asked questions about editing I get is, “What if I don’t have the money to hire a professional book editor to go through all of the different stages of editing?” That’s okay! The cost of editing a book can be stressful! I recommend assessing your novel with a critical eye and deciding what edits you would benefit most from. 

If you feel really good about your story and plot…skip developmental edits. If you love the language you’re using and don’t want anyone to change your words…maybe a line edit isn’t right for you. If you want help with both line and copy editing…search for an editor that provides a combination of those services—like me! I do suggest always paying for a proofreader. No matter how many times you edit your novel, you will miss errors. A proofreader ensures that the errors in your self-published book are at a minimum. 

Developmental Edit

A developmental editor looks at the big picture elements of your story. This is also sometimes called a structural edit, substantive editing, or content editing. They will not comment on grammar or consistency issues within the text, but instead will talk about character inconsistencies, plot holes, pacing, and more. You will receive an editorial letter from them where they talk about your book as a whole, along with in-line comments on your manuscript. This type of edit is normally the most expensive.

Line Edit

Line editing looks at your story at the sentence level, focusing on style and voice. Think of this as a stylistic edit. Many line editors for indie authors combine copy editing and line editing.

Copyedit

Copyediting is all about the details. Its focus is on grammar, usage, and consistency. Copy editors look at the details of your story (like punctuation and typos, as well as character names, locations, and timelines) to make sure they stay consistent (Are all the names spelled the same throughout the book? What color is the neighbor’s hair supposed to be? When did the main character go to the party? Does the timeline make sense?).

Proofread

Proofreading is the last thing you do before putting your book into the hands of readers. Think of it as quality control. Your proofreader is looking at proofs of your formatted book for any errors that exist. 

Tips when hiring an editor

Hiring a professional editor to help you polish your book and make it shine can feel really intimidating! You’re handing your novel over to someone hoping they like it and can help you make it even better. It’s normally a larger expense, and you are putting your faith in someone you don’t know very well. 

When considering an editor, think about your budget. What type of editing do you need the most? What type of editing can you afford? Look at the prices of editors on social media to get a feel for what services may cost you. Begin your search realistically—don’t expect top quality for bargain-basement prices. 

Try and find your editor before you are ready for them. Many editors book up months in advance. Once you finish your first draft and begin self-editing, start looking for an editor. This will help you stick to a self-editing deadline as well (you can’t self-edit forever!). 

I wrote two blog posts that may help you in your search: “11 Essential Questions to Ask an Editor” and “Do You Need to Hire an Editor for Your Self-Published Book?”

When you book an editor, you will give them a deadline for delivery of your manuscript. Once you have it back, make sure you give yourself a week or two to read through their feedback and make the necessary edits. Don’t schedule your copyeditor for two days after your developmental editor is slated to finish with your project! It’s not enough time to revise and edit properly.

While edits are happening you can...

Your novel is in your editor’s hands for the moment, so you can focus on all the other necessary tasks involved with self-publishing.

Handle the technical aspects of self-publishing a book

  1. Cover art. Either find an artist or create a cover yourself. You need a cover before you can publish!
  2. Formatting. Learn how to format or hire a formatter. If you are publishing on Kindle Unlimited, it is fairly easy to get your ebook formatted.
  3. Book blurb. This is SO IMPORTANT! Do not overlook your book blurb! Remember, it is the first thing people will read when they are deciding whether or not to buy your book! My blog post “8 Tips for Writing a Romance Book Blurb that SELLS” will help if you get stuck here.
  4. Author profiles. Depending on where you are going to sell your book, you will need to create author accounts and profiles. Goodreads, Amazon, and Ingram Spark are good places to start.
  5. Author bio. This can be short and sweet!
  6. Acknowledgments. Create a list of all the people who have helped you and then turn that list into your acknowledgments page. NOTE: American spelling is “acknowledgment” and British spelling is “acknowledgement.”  
  7. Purchase ISBN. You need an ISBN for each version (ebook, paperback) of your book. Read this article for more info.
  8. Copyright page. The copyright page announces you as the owner of the creative work and it goes at the beginning of your book. Here’s a link to a free template you can use to create one.
  9. Headshot. You don’t have to pay a photographer for this! You can just use a nice photo of yourself that you love. 🙂

Create your Launch Plan

No one can buy your book if you don’t tell them to buy it! A big part of being an author is marketing yourself and your books (yes, even for authors using traditional publishing houses!). Create a launch plan in advance so you don’t have to stress about it later.

  1. Find ARC readers. Your ARC readers will read your book before publication in hopes that they will write a favorable review or promote it on social media. THEY ARE NOT OBLIGATED TO DO THIS. You do not pay ARC readers, and you do not pay them to review (this is against Amazon’s terms of service). Reviews of your book on pub day will help you get more sales. (“If they like it, maybe I will!”)
  2. Social media plan. Choose which platforms you are going to use and create plans for them. How often will you post? How many videos are you going to make? How many static posts? Will you run any giveaways or contests? Create a content calendar and start creating your content now while you have the time.
  3. Newsletter promotion. Having an author newsletter is essential to marketing. The people on your email list are already primed to buy your new books, so tell them when and where they can do so! Don’t have a newsletter yet and want some tips? Read my blog “5 Secrets to Growing Your Author Newsletter and Email List.”

Your Guide to the Book Editing Process

Whew! Self-publishing is not for the weak of heart! As an indie author, you manage all the balls in the air, put out all the fires, and juggle all the plates. It’s not easy, but it is worth it. 

If you are in search of an editor to be in your corner as you navigate the world of self-publishing, I would love to talk with you. Please contact me so we can chat about your book!

 

Need help keeping everything organized as you work toward your publish date?

Download my FREE Self-Publishing Planner!
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