Editing. This is the part. This is the… is the time where you feel you are trapped in a Stephen King novel. I mean there are people that do love editing. Others drink a lot or cry themselves to sleep.
What is editing? Editing is where you proofread, correct things like grammar, punctuation spelling, or fix overall structure in your manuscript.
There are different routes on this and its pros and cons. Some people like to edit while they write, which will help them have a semi-polished version of the manuscript before rolling their sleeves to the dive deep editing. On the other hand, they could take a long time to finish their piece. Another way that many recommend is to write like there’s no tomorrow and worry later about editing. This would help to get to the end faster but then covering your eyes when you see horrific grammar and punctuation marks.
Either way, there are solutions. You should stick to what you are good at. Is it the creative part? Then just write. There are people whose M.O. is to edit manuscripts. Line-editing, proof-reading, content, etc. Like everything, it comes with a cost, I mean these people got to eat. You have from cents to a word, or from a couple of bucks per page. Remember this would add up eventually. An 80k word book can be around $1500. So you need to figure out, what is your budget for this.
What if my book is being published traditionally? Usually, if you get accepted a book to be traditionally published, you have a very polished book or the concept, and/or story is so good that they won’t mind putting the hours to make your book sparkle. Either way you want to look professional when presenting your piece. Usually traditional publishing would help you with the editing, but also can choose or change things in the story. In that case you would have less control of the creativity part of your book.
Can I skip editing? Argh, no. The truth is, we writers go through a rollercoaster of emotions while writing. One day you think you can take J.K. Rowling in the best sellers list, and other days you think only your mom would buy your book out of pitty. Have a fresh pair of eyes to look at what you are doing. Our eyes get fatigued by watching the computer or your medium for writing. Simple things like punctuations can harm your work. You don’t want your book to be put down on bookshelves. You need to get the best version of your manuscript out there, and more so that there is a new wave of new writers publishing each day.
So what if I can’t afford an editor? These days there is software that can help you. Besides that those software also provide to review of your book by a person. Examples of software :
- ProWritingAid.
- Grammarly.
- Scrivener.
- AutoCrit.
These are to name a few. For example, Grammarly has a free version that can help you with punctuations, check, or change words that don’t follow the correct syntaxis. In the paid version you can choose a style, it can check if you are overusing words and will suggest to change that word for a synonym and even advise you to change the whole sentence. I never said it will be out. Even if you have the software free or paid you to have to do the work. Either way, it helps you train your eye and be on the lookout for errors in your writing.
The biggest thing to take from all this is, that even if there are ways to protect your budget, a human eye should always take a look at your work. Why is that? Well even if the software will help you to polish things like grammar, punctuations and tell you that your paragraphs can sound better by changing words here and there, a professional editor can actually help you with a second opinion. An example of this can be, the line structures look good but maybe if you change the POV it would make your story POP or would have more sense. Criticism like that can only be found by professionals at the time of this post be written. So again, give yourself a chance to work with editors, so you get the best version of your book.