Struggling Writers discussion
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Heather Farthing
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What to do after the manuscript is finished?
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Heather
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Dec 30, 2014 04:53PM
When the manuscript is done, but before it hits stores or websites, what do indies do? What's the best way for an indie to have a novel edited, and to submit it for advance review copies?
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If you have time go over it for obvious errors, then find someone who can (depending on your budget) edit, copy edit, and proofread.I've heard people say you might get services done for free by using college online bulletin boards, but I never really saw a way to do that.
You can offer a few people alpha-reader status (to gain initial feedback) but it would be wise to make it clear the manuscript has not been edited yet.
Good luck
Set it aside for a week or two, then proofread it and edit it yourself. Then, set it aside for a while longer and perhaps start working on your next project, and proofread it again. No need to get someone else to edit it for you (and needlessly throw away money for finding mistakes you could have found on your own), at least not for the first few rounds.Proofread it however many times it takes until your comfortable with having other eyes looking upon it. Then, you can search for beta readers.
I agree 100 percent to put it aside a few weeks or months. Along with that it helps to print it out on paper when you are looking at it a second time. Our eyes get used to the same font type and placement of our words after looking at them too long in the same unformatted word processing document. Printing and reading usually reveals much more for me. Then pay a prof editor of course. You simply can't skip that if you are serious about your work.
I agree 100 percent to put it aside a few weeks or months. Along with that it helps to print it out on paper when you are looking at it a second time. Our eyes get used to the same font type and placement of our words after looking at them too long in the same unformatted word processing document. Printing and reading usually reveals much more for me. Then pay a prof editor of course. You simply can't skip that if you are serious about your work.
I tend to do the editing myself.You should try and keep the writing and editing separate, so one way I have found that works is to work on something else in between.
You need a bit of time to divorce yourself from the document, so when you edit you can be ruthless about deleting things if they don't work. Sometimes whole scenes have to go!
I normally do two or three edits, to check spelling and the way the book reads. And I have found that if you change anything it is always worth running the spell checker again.
HM Reynolds
