Check Your Work

The Editing Process (And Editing Help)

There are a variety of resources out there for correcting typos and grammatical issues. There are even more books and articles you can read online that promise to teach you how to edit. 

None of them can beat out the help of other people.

I know, I know it's frustrating. You don't want to show other people your unfinished manuscript. You want to keep it hidden away safely until it's flawless.

If you do that, you'll never actually reach perfection. (You still might not. I'm not sure any novel could truly qualify as perfect, but that's another story.)

Well, if you're stuck asking other people for help—because let's face it, that's what this boils down to—you have a few options to choose from. You could:

1. Ask some friends to read it over. This is especially helpful if they fit into your target audience, meaning they're your focus age and gender, they read your chosen genre, and you're willing to listen to their feedback. It's best to ask plenty of people to read and critique your writing because they will become your beta readers. They aren't looking to edit your book, but they'll tell you if there's a particularly confusing spot or if you missed a typo in exchange for getting free early access to your work. Plus, you may get a few loyal readers out of it. It's a win-win!

Do be careful when selecting beta readers, particularly from people you know personally. If you wouldn't trust them to give honest feedback, you should probably look elsewhere.

2. Find an editor. This may be someone volunteering to edit your book, or you may want to pay for an editor if you think you may consider publishing your book on KDP or traditionally. Editorial work falls under several categories:

A. Developmental editing. This is the earliest stage of editing. It focuses more on big picture issues such as character development, the overall story arc, how the conflict plays out, and a myriad of other areas. It's best to do this early on if you plan on having any proofreading. Otherwise, you may end up with large sections of text that are more polished than others, which would be offputting to readers.

B. Editorial Report. This is not necessarily the next step in the editing process because it takes a different approach than every other step. Instead of editing section by section or line by line, an editorial report is given after an editor reads through your entire manuscript. It functions as thorough feedback from a beta reader who is (hopefully) knowledgeable—and in the case of professional editors, highly qualified. I would still do this fairly early on, though, in case the editor decides that there are major developmental issues with your manuscript.

C. Copyediting. This is the most important stage of the editing process, in my opinion. Unless you're looking to publish your book, the greatest hindrance won't be your plot. (there are tags on this website, people generally have a guess at where things are going anyway.) It's almost guaranteed that someone will think your plot is awesome, but if your prose is impossible to follow, they're not going to stick around to read it. With copyedits, your editor will work line by line to clean up your writing while preserving your writing style as much as possible. They'll also often correct minor inconsistencies, issues with tense, and typos (though the exact details vary from editor to editor—this step is fairly flexible, as you can see).

D. Proofreading. The most well-known type of editing and the one that is most easily replaced with computer software. I would still highly recommend choosing a real person whenever possible, though, because no program is able to catch every error. Proofreaders are able to understand things in context, as opposed to systems like Grammarly that refuse to believe that some people do not use the UK version of English.

Every step of this process can be immensely helpful, so if you have the opportunity (either by budgeting or by having an unfairly generous friend) I would try to complete each step.

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Okay, now that I've gone over what editing is, let's talk about how to find editors.

Okay, I'm kidding. This is almost entirely self-promo. (Does it count as self promo if I'm not charging anything?)

This section's real name is Abby is Upset that We Don't Have Forums Anymore.

Why?

Because, while it obviously wasn't perfect, it allowed authors to connect with editors within Wattpad. Many of these editors were and are volunteers, but without the standard format, there's no good way to find editors. (And for people who want to work with authors, there's no way to ask without sounding at least a little pushy or rude. I've tried.)

That being said, I want to set up a (small) forum for editors and authors to connect in the next part. It'll probably take a while to get going because, well, people have to actually find this book. It'll be fine.

Here's my editing profile for an example:

Name: Abby Anonymustache

Preferred Genres: Romance, Teen Fiction, Fanfiction (only if I'm familiar with the canon)

Non-negotiable: I won't edit adult/mature content or any toxic or harmful relationships. I also reserve the right to say no to any request, though I'm happy to talk about it with you.

Payment: I really just want you to credit me as your editor (preferably tagging me as well), but if you were to stick around and read some of my books, I wouldn't argue.

Here's an example of an author profile (I'll use myself again, though I'm not looking for an editor):

Name: Abby @Anonymustache

Preferred editing type: Copyedit, but open to other feedback

Book Title: Have Faith 

Work done so far: I picked this book back up and am partway through my first round of edits in several years. It may still need a second set of eyes, though.

I will only be posting editors' profiles, but this example should help authors figure out what info to share. Editors will probably want to talk with you more before deciding whether you're a good fit, though.

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If you want to be posted as an editor on the next part, comment here.

If you're an author or editor and want to go ahead and reach out to other readers, comment here.

And if you think you might be a good fit for me to edit your book, comment here and I'll try to get back to you soon.

Save this book to be notified when the editorial page is posted.

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This isn't the actual beginning, but the prologue doesn't fit this section, so it's staying in the drafts for now.

Any criticism is greatly appreciated. (I said criticism, not hate. I trust that y'all know the difference.)

Thanks for reading, y'all!