In a traditional publishing company you would probably have two editors working with you. The first would give you feedback on what they expect you to change. In the second step they’d look at the manuscript on a closer level, taking care of issues like unclear sentences and getting rid of redundancies. Once the absolute perfect draft in this aspect is finished, it goes to the second editor: a copyeditor who edits on a micro level, correcting grammar, punctuation and syntax.
When you are self-publishing a book you still have to take care of all these steps. But before it’s important to edit your manuscript to the best of your abilities in order to save money, when you hire a professional editor later on.
Since most writers tend to overwrite, cut every scene, sentence and single word you are not sure you need from your final manuscript. If you calculate how much money each scene or sentence you might cut is worth and think about whether this scene/sentence is worth paying this amount of money, you end up cutting redundant scenes and sentences which slow down the pace of the book. Even if you do it with single words it adds up in the end.
In the next blog entries the different stages of editing will be explored, followed by blogs about how to self-edit your book, concluding with articles about hiring a professional editor.
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