Ways to Determine if Your Manuscript is Ready for Self-Publishing

Every author dreams of having their books published. But the market for traditional publishing is extremely dense. Nearly all publishing houses don’t accept unsolicited submissions, forcing authors to hire an agent. But hiring an agent alone is already an ordeal. They’re the ones who should be working for you, but you have to be the one impressing them.

For those reasons, self-publishing was born, and many authors discovered its perks. When your book is self-published, its sales go straight to you. If you were traditionally published, on the other hand, you’d be earning royalties. Either route can make you earn loads, but that’s if you market your self-published book excellently.

But you can’t market your book if it’s not even worth publishing in the first place. Finishing your draft, with correct grammar and all, doesn’t necessarily make it ready for publishing. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, for instance, was drafted by J.K. Rowling fifteen times before she pitched it to Bloomsbury. Stephen King always makes three drafts for his books. There is no right answer to how many drafts you should make. But you must be willing to write as many of it if that’s what it will take to show your book to the world.

Types of Book Editing

Editing a book isn’t simply correcting its grammar and improving its flow. There are at least four different types of book editing, namely:

• Developmental Editing

A full, substantial, structural, and developmental edit. If you’re hiring a developmental editor, expect to be charged high. Developmental edits are usually the most expensive since it also covers the other types of editing.

You can start hiring a developmental editor even if your draft isn’t finished yet. As long as your outline is complete, your developmental editor can help you write the chapters. Together, you’ll tackle your book’s setting, timeline, characterization, plot, story structure, pacing, presentation, and marketability.

Note, however, that not every author needs a professional developmental editor. You can perform these edits yourself, provided that get feedback from beta readers or critique partners.

• Line Editing

Line editing is a line-by-line edit that aims to improve the flow, transition, tone, and style of a book. Line editors fix redundancies, suggest changes to make sentences easier to read, and remove fluff scenes. Alpha readers and critique partners can help you line edit your book.

• Copy Editing

This is the type of edits that corrects grammar, typos, spelling errors, and syntax errors. You can only perform this once you’re completely satisfied with your book’s plot, story structure, characterization, and the elements tackled in developmental and line edits. Otherwise, you’d be wasting your efforts on the parts that will end up being removed.

• Proofreading

Proofreading is the last step to editing a book for publishing. Proofreaders examine how the words look like in print or e-book form. They ensure that the sentences aren’t split awkwardly so that the first and last lines on every page look appealing.

Beta Readers vs. Alpha Readers vs. Critique Partners

You may enlist these readers before or after editing your manuscript. But if you get developmental edits, you may skip their services.

Beta readers are volunteered or paid readers that read drafts and provide feedback from an ordinary reader’s perspective. Alpha readers, on the other hand, are similar to beta readers, but they can recommend which parts of your book can be fleshed out or removed.

Critique partners react to your book. They’re like developmental editors who can tackle the plot, structure, setting, and such. Ideally, they should also be authors themselves, because their feedback is meant to be invaluable.

Self-editing Tips

Some authors perform all types of editing themselves. If you’ll publish your book with a reputable self-publishing company, you can make that possible because you’d immediately receive guidance from trustworthy in-house editors, as opposed to scouring freelancing websites for editors you know nothing about.

To nail self-editing, give your manuscript a rest after finishing the first draft. Then after a week or so, try to have it read aloud. Hearing the words spoken can help you spot errors more easily.

Next, use a grammar checker or editing tool to spot syntax errors and readability issues in your manuscript. This will help you shorten your sentences, reduce your adverbs, and fix your misspellings.

Find the words you use repeatedly as well. There are apps you can download that’ll let you perform this task. Then examine your punctuation usage. Ensure that your commas, dots, semi-colons, question marks, exclamation marks, and ellipses are where they should be.

Once you’ve polished your manuscript and got the go signal from your publisher’s editors, your book is ready for publishing! Be patient during the whole process; the first Harry Potter book took six years to finish and publish. So cherish the journey, and realize that you’re learning new things every step of the way.

Meta title: Guide to Self-Editing Your Manuscript: Is It Ready for Publishing?

Meta desc: Self-publishing has become a popular method among new authors who’d rather not work with an agent. But it’s not necessarily easier than traditional publishing. Read on to learn how to determine if your manuscript is finally publish-worthy.