While hiring a professional editor is a great route to take, perhaps that isn’t an option easily available to you. Or perhaps you want to edit your own work before it goes to your professional editor in order to get the most out of the money you invest in editing. No matter the reason, knowing how to self-edit a book is an essential skill for all writers.
Self-editing can sound intimidating. After all, a writer isn’t automatically an editor. In fact, most writers have the hardest time editing their own work. Below are a few tips for self-editing your book.
1. Proofreading versus Editing. Often times, writers assume that giving a book a final “once over” looking for grammar and spelling errors is an edit. In actuality, that would be considered proofreading. While proofreading is valuable and essential, just checking for minor typographical errors isn’t enough to constitute a true edit and revision of your manuscript. Self-editing is a much more detailed and thoughtful process.
2. Take your Time. Slow and steady is the way to go with self-editing. As mentioned above, you’re not proofreading, you’re editing. Editing means really thinking about what the writing says. It means taking your time and really evaluating each paragraph, each sentence, each phrase. You’ve gotten through the hardest part—getting the words on the page—now you just need to make sure that those words are saying exactly what you want them to say. Nobody knows better than you do that your manuscript deserves the appropriate amount of time and energy.
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