After you complete the first draft of your book, I recommend sending it to two or three Beta Readers for feedback. These are people who are in your target market and are willing to read the draft and provide honest feedback. Up to this point, you’re the only person who has read the content (unless you are working with a book coach). Because you’re so close to the work, you’re bound to read what you think the book says rather than what it really does.
Beta readers are extremely helpful in pointing out inconsistencies, missing information, and areas that need more clarity. After getting that feedback, it’s time to work on the second draft of your manuscript and get it ready to engage professionals for editing, proofreading and book layout design.
Before starting the second draft, read through the comments you received from the beta readers and decide what, if anything you want to change based on their feedback.
Working on the second draft is what I call “polishing the diamond”. When a diamond comes out of the mine, it looks like a dull and uninteresting rock. The rough diamond is cut, polished, and put into a beautiful setting before selling it to its ultimate owner. Now the diamond sparkles and shines brilliantly.
Your goal in this step is to do the same thing with your manuscript: cut away unnecessary words, make sure the flow is logical, and eliminate gaps in content. Completing this step successfully is one of the things that separates a professionally written book from one that looks amateurish.
You may be wondering why you should take the time to self-edit when you plan to engage a professional editor. The first reason is to ensure your book accomplishes the promise you gave your reader in the introduction. When I read through the draft of my first book, Maximum Occupancy, I was in tears. The great vision I had in my mind wasn’t reflected in the flow of the book. I had repeated some content and other passages while grammatically correct, didn’t get the point across I was trying to make. I’ve found this is true for most first time authors. After all, you’re not a professional writer.
The second reason to self-edit is to avoid the significant investment required to hire a ghost writer or a developmental editor. When you complete a self-edit, you can engage a copyeditor who will focus on sentence structure and grammar as opposed to re-writing content. To avoid a massive re-write, it’s best to hire a ghost writer or developmental editor early on in the writing process rather than after you’ve completed the first draft.
Below are the steps I recommend to complete a self-edit:
- Read the sections referenced by the beta readers and make changes if needed.
- Decide whether to split or combine chapters. Consider adding more content to very short chapters.
- Check the length of paragraphs. They should be three to five sentences long. If they’re any longer, the reader’s eye gets tired. Remember, every time you start a new thought, start a new paragraph.
- Check sentence structure. Your sentences should ebb and flow, some longer, some shorter. If all of the sentences are the same length, meaning they have the same number of words, they start to sound repetitive and quite boring. Repetition is good for kid’s books but not so much for adults. Create a mixture of short sentences, medium sentences, and slightly longer sentences to keep your text interesting. If you write in a conversational tone, this should happen automatically. Just make sure you don’t over edit and take away the variety.
- Increase confidence with editing apps. I use two editing apps which can be found at Grammarly.com and ProWritingAid.com. These apps are designed to eliminate errors and enhance your writing. Both offer free versions but in order to review your entire manuscript, you’ll need to sign up for one of the paid versions. Using an editing app is optional. If you feel your self-editing is good enough to go to a professional editor to complete the process, you can skip this step.
- Ensure your chapters end at an appropriate summary level. If you’re giving the reader instructions, don’t stop in the middle of an instruction set.
After you’ve completed a self-edit and have a second draft, engage a professional copyeditor to clean up any remaining mistakes. Keep in mind that it’s almost impossible to eliminate every single error. Even traditionally published books with an entire publishing machine supporting them contain errors. As an independent author, it’s imperative you give as much attention to detail as possible and minimize any errors that do creep in.
