Edit a Book

Whether you're editing your own book, or editing a book for someone else, you'll want to do so in stages. Read the text several times, ask questions, and take notes. Make sure the editing you do is appropriate to the stage of composition the manuscript is at. Finally, ensure that a manuscript is properly formatted for its intended press.

Steps

Editing Your Own Book

1. Edit as you write. Every day before you write, go back and re-read what you have already written. Fix obvious mistakes in grammar, syntax, perspective, tense, spelling, and punctuation immediately. When you see something you think needs to be re-written or fact-checked, mark it.
   • By the time you finish your first draft, it will already be in relatively tidy shape.
   • Going back and editing what you have written recently will help you avoid inconsistencies in storyline and style.
   • Don't re-write when you edit. Mark it so that you can return to it later. When you are trying to generate a first draft, it's important not to get bogged down second-guessing yourself.
   • If you can't proofread and make marks without also rewriting, skip the proofreading and marking.
2. Edit each quarter. Having written the whole first draft, break it into sections. These sections should not be your chapters, unless your chapters are especially long. Instead, divide your manuscript into quarters, fifty-page units, or 20,000 word units, whichever feels right to you.
   • Take the next several days to edit one section at a time.
   • Fact-check and rewrite the sections you have marked.
   • Revise for coherence and speed. Does each section of the book do the work you want it to do?
3. Print it and read the whole thing. Once you have the quarters edited, read the whole manuscript from beginning to end. Print it for a fresh perspective, and make notes on the printed manuscript. Ask yourself, does the story happen at the right pace? Does each section set up the next section?
   • This is your chance to delete paragraphs or chapters that aren't contributing to the whole. Anything that feels repetitive or unnecessary should be cut.
   • Make the changes to your document. Keep the manuscript with your notes in case you want to revisit it later.
   • This is not the time to polish every sentence. You're trying to build the foundation at this point.
4. Let it cook. Once you have this second draft written, let it sit. Try to not even think about it for a period of weeks or months. The amount of time is up to you. When the time feels right, return to it. If you aren't sure, look at the manuscript. If you immediately start to rewrite it, you aren't ready.
   • Some authors take six months, and others only take a few weeks.
   • You should have some emotional distance by the time you return. This will allow you to spot and excise weaknesses in your prose, and to have a clearer vision of the work as a whole.
   • If you have people in your life who are willing to read early drafts, you can send them your draft while you wait. Be sure to explain exactly what kind of feedback you want.
   • Don't leave it for too long. While a few months is fine, a year or more might distance you too much from your original ideas.
5. Write a second draft. This edit should take place on your computer, and will probably involve serious changes. Read through the manuscript once, taking notes as you go. When you're done, organize these new notes alongside any other notes you have (notes you left yourself before the rest, notes you got from other readers, notes you jotted while you waited) so that they are in the chronological order of your manuscript.
   • Revise your manuscript according to the notes. After this initial read-through, make the changes your notes point to.
   • Go through again in sections, like you did for the first draft.
   • This stage can take weeks or months, depending on the level of change your book needs.
6. Get outside feedback. When your manuscript is in reasonable, readable shape, having been edited twice and having been freed of typos and inconsistencies, get a few readers together. You can ask for friends, colleagues, and professional editors to read your manuscript. Ask them for specific feedback, and explain exactly what you are going to do with their feedback.
   • For a first or second draft, you might ask for advice on plot, characters, research, or sequence.
   • For a later draft, you might ask more general questions, such as "is this believable? Original? Does it make sense? Were you surprised by the ending?"
   • You can hire professional editors to give you feedback on your manuscript. Look online for "manuscript editors" or call up editing agencies and ask for someone who is experienced at editing your specific genre.
   • Even if you do have friends who are willing to look at your manuscript, professional readers and editors can make a huge difference.
7. Read it aloud. When your book is pretty polished, and you've edited it so many times you can't really hear it anymore, print it off and read it aloud from beginning to end. Reading it aloud will teach you what parts are still not quite working. It is natural, after this much editing, to hate your manuscript. If you get bored by any section, however, you may want to revise it or edit it out.
   • After you have read the whole book, do a nonlinear read-through. Go through and read the first sentence in every chapter.
   • Read the first sentence and last sentence of each section, and of the book as a whole. If you find echoes, but not repetition, your book is exhibiting coherence.
8. Edit on the level of the line. Look through your manuscript for sentences and paragraphs that are too long, too choppy, fragmented or run-on. Make sure your opening paragraph is elegantly written and contains action that will pull your reader in. If you wrote a book of poems, read each line separately and determine that it is worth attention on its own.
   • If you wrote a novel or a play, edit the dialogue for flow, characterization, and style.
   • Read the dialogue aloud to feel whether or not it sounds natural: do your characters all talk the same way? Do they use too much repetitive filler language? Is there vocabulary and syntax consistent with the time and station they live within?
9. Make finishing touches. Proofread and revise one final time. This is a good time to format your manuscript, and add footnotes, endnotes, or epigraphs, depending on the kind of book you are editing. Format your book according to the guidelines of your agent or the press (or presses) you are submitting to.
   • If you haven't yet titled your book, now is the time. Write a title that will catch your readers attention, and that is representative of the content and style of your book.
   • To brainstorm a title, pull language from the book that is representative of its main themes. This could be dialogue, description, a symbolic object, or even proper names, such as the name of a protagonist, a place, or a time/event.
   • The title you give to your draft is called your "working title." Your publishers or editors may want to see several working titles to determine the best one.

Giving Feedback

1. Determine what sort of feedback you are giving. When giving feedback to an author, it's important to know sort of information will be helpful. An author in the early stages of a project might need basic concerns about plot, characters, and concept, while an author in the later stages of a project might be more interested in line edits and proofreading.
   • Ask the author what kind of feedback he or she wants. Request a list of questions the author has, whether they are questions in general or specific questions for you.
   • Invite questions as specific as "does the order of these essays communicate a larger message?" and as broad as "am I insane to have written this?"
   • If you are the editor who is publishing a work, you can also think about what you will need from this round of edits.
   • Write questions for yourself and make notes that will answer them.
2. Read it straight through first. Before you start making notes and edits, read the whole book. Some things that may appear to be problematic at first might end up being important elements of the composition. You can take little notes in your first read, but address them to yourself, not the author.
3. Read it again and make notes. Go through and pick out the main themes. Highlight moments of striking parallelism, thematic development, or plot points. Make notes with your initial thoughts on the way the structure of the book works.
   • Depending on the amount of feedback you have, you can mark up the manuscript, or write a page of separate notes.
   • Be sure to include the page numbers if you write your notes on a separate page.
4. Offer major edits. Don't drive yourself crazy trying to attack every aspect of a manuscript. Unless you're a professional editor editing the very final draft, you should feel free to ignore small details. Concentrate on the elements of the manuscript that you think need the most work.
   • For instance, if you are reading a first or second draft, ignore spelling errors.
   • If you notice that some of the characters seem to disappear, that the main character never goes through any substantial change, and also that not all the jokes are that funny, just give feedback on the characters.
   • When you're finished with your notes, go back and look at the questions the author asked you. If you haven't answered them, do so now.

Preparing a Manuscript for Submission

1. Proofread thoroughly. Use spellcheck to fix your spelling mistakes, typos, and grammatical errors. For words in foreign languages and for slang, use a dictionary and the internet to make sure you are spelling correctly.
   • Edit each sentence so that there is only one space after the period. You can do a find-replace search to determine this.
   • Edit for consistency. Check for consistent tense and point of view, as well as consistent character voice. Make sure the timeline of events makes sense, and that no facts or plot points change without explanation across the manuscript. As a very basic example, a character who has died should not reappear casually.
2. Do a word-search. Use a website to conduct a word-search and learn which words you use the most frequently. Look for overused language as well as overused kinds of language. Do you use a lot of adverbs? A lot of abstract nouns? Search for the words you use frequently and see if they are applied too frequently to the same thing.
   • Review your descriptions especially. How do different characters get introduced? Check for bias. Are all your female characters described in terms of looks? Do you always describe eyes as "glinting" or "bright"?
   • Edit repetitive language to keep your sentences fresh.
3. Format according to recommendations. You are ready to submit your manuscript, but to where? Make a list of the presses and agents you would like to read your book. If you already have an agent, your agent will look at presses for you, and will tell you how to format your manuscript. Otherwise, you should follow the guidelines of the presses you are interested in. This may mean you must format several versions of your manuscript differently.
   • Check the spacing each press requires. Some may prefer single-spaced manuscripts, while others ask for double or 1.5.
   • What sort of margins are allowed? How long should indentations be? Are there guidelines for section headings? Where should page numbers go?
   • Check that your font and font size are acceptable.
   • Format your citations according to the publisher's preference for an academic manuscript.
   • If you are submitting to a contest, check to see if your manuscript must be anonymous. If so, edit your name out of the text.
   • Proofread the format. Are all the titles in the right place? Is dialogue indicated with appropriate and consistent formatting? Are the page numbers in place?
   • If you are submitting online, should your document be a word document? A pdf?
   • Submit according to guidelines. This may be via mail, or over a press's website.

Quick Summary

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See also

• Revise a Piece of Writing
• Get a Publishing Agent
• Become a Book Editor
• Write White Papers
• Copyright a Logo
• Self Publish a Book
• Submit Articles to Publications
• Copyright a Book
• Publish a Book at a Young Age
• Write an Interesting Story

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What links here

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• Self Publish a Book
• Become a Book Editor
• Properly Write and Format a Book
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