editing

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3 Self-Editing Tips to Catch the “Little” Things

I’m opening up sales for my all-new product, “The Complete Self-Publishing Toolkit: Easily Format & Publish Your Book for Print & Kindle” so I wanted to bring you a few editing tips.

When I was in the middle of editing one of my books, “Pitch Your Tent: A family’s guide to tent camping” I paid special attention to the “little” things that can mean the difference between a professional manuscript and looking like an amateur.

See if you can spot the problems:

  • Most public campgrounds in have paths between sites to the bathrooms, trash, etc.
  • When the sun begins to sweat you’ll get a chill.
  • Fist Aid Kit
  • I recommend packing in a duffle big.
  • And never underestimate the importance of a pair of slip of shoes.

None of the sentences (or chapter headings) above have any grammatical error that will be caught by a spelling or grammar checker. It’s up to a real editor who carefully reads each sentence to find them.

So how do you spot things like this in your own writing?

1. Read the manuscript backwards. I start with the last sentence (reading it from start to finish). And then the second to last sentence; the third to last sentence, etc. By reading the manuscript this way, I’m able to focus on one sentence at a time and my brain isn’t “assuming” it knows what will come next.

2. I print out the entire manuscript, grab my tea and red pen and go to town. Looking at the project in a different format really causes errors to jump out at me.

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3 Questions to Ask Your Self-Publishing Service

110816-champagneYour book is finally done and it’s time to start looking at your publishing options. Yippee! I give you full permission to break out the champagne and celebrate. You’ve earned it!

And now back to business…

Some quick statistics to put your mind at ease about self-publishing:
(these are all about eBooks – but that’s okay!)

  • The Big Five traditional publishers now account for only 16% of the e-books on Amazon’s bestseller lists.
  • Approximately 1,064,000 Kindle eBooks are sold per day
  • 42% of all those books are independently (i.e. self) published

And the last stat you might be interested in… the “Big Five” traditional publishing houses are dwindling. What started out as the “Big Seven” when I started my publishing journey has changed. The Internet seems to be torn right now as to if they’re the Big Five or the Big Four but one fact remains: self-publishing (indie publishing) is taking over.

Is traditional publishing dead? New stats show that self-publishing is taking over! #publishing Click To Tweet

Whew! Now that we’ve covered that, I firmly believe that while you can self-publish your book, that doesn’t mean you should take the DIY route. Self-publishing means that you, the author, retain control of the rights, the marketing, and major publishing decisions. You can retain this control without learning how to code eBooks or set up beautiful layouts for print books!

When you’re choosing a company to help you self-publish your book, there are three things you need to evaluate before signing a contract and making a payment.

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Why Pay for Something You Can Do Yourself?

My folks were camping last week so I was going to their house twice a day to let their chickens in and out and to make sure the drip irrigation system for their garden was working. On one of those trips, I ran into their neighbor, J, who was doing the weeding. (Dad has a mini co-op going on with J’s family – they help with weeding and the two families share produce.)

Somehow, in the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I couldn’t WAIT to hire a housekeeper. (I’ve been saying this for MONTHS – but I haven’t taken the action yet.) I got a really strange look from J. She then shared that last week, when she’d been re-painting some exterior trim on her house, she told her daughter, “Never pay for something you can do yourself!”

When is the RIGHT time to DIY and when should you hire a professional? Click To Tweet

And I thought about that – I really have. On the SURFACE, it looks like great advice, right? It’s using the best helping hand you have – the one at the end of your own arm (a favorite saying of MY mom’s when I was growing up). But let’s look at this deeper:

Should you really be doing something because you CAN but that:

  • Isn’t your area of genius?
  • Is something you don’t like to do?
  • Is something you don’t do well?
  • Is something you’re not 100% qualified to do?

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Create Your Publishing Plan In Just 5 Steps

So you’re ready to get your book published… Congratulations! This is a huge step. Here are 5 steps to help you go from just having the book written to having it published!

Are you ready to chat about your publishing options? I’d love to talk to you. Apply for a Discovery Session here.

030816-Plan1. Clean up your manuscript

Go through and look for idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies. For example, I know I’m a huge fan of starting sentences with conjunctions (and, but, so, yet) and I have an over abundance of phrases in parenthesis. These are my personal writing idiosyncrasies. I don’t want to get rid of them all, but I make sure that each use either furthers the writing or is needed to keep the writing in my “voice”.

I also clean up any inconsistencies. For example, in my cookbook I published, I found that I’ve used the following:

  • tablespoon
  • Tbs
  • TBS
  • Tbsp.

That’s four different ways to say the same thing!

Decide on one standard format and will be keeping it the same throughout the book. (And using the same format for cup, pound, and teaspoon!)

When I edit for clients, this is one of the main areas in which I focus. I don’t really care if you want to say fig. or figure but I want it to be the same throughout the book!

When you're ready to publish your book, here's a 5-part plan to help! #amwriting #publish Click To Tweet

2. Write the “extra” pages

There’s more to your manuscript than the main bulk of the content. You also need your title page, acknowledgement and/or dedication page, copyright message, about the author blurb, and how to get more information instructions – which can be a list of your other titles or even your contact information.

As I work with clients to take their book projects from manuscript to published, I find we tend to forget the all-important “extra” pages that a book will probably have. So after a manuscript is turned over to me, I usually turn around and give the client homework.

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5 Self-Editing Steps for Your Writing – Before Calling in a Pro

I make no secret of the fact that I think ALL books need to be professionally edited before publishing.

Yes, even yours!

But there are some things you can (and should) do before hiring a professional editor.

5 self-editing tips for your #book Click To Tweet

1. Step away from the project

Have you ever noticed that when you re-read your writing after a week (or a month) away from it that typos, grammar or spelling errors, clunky sentences, etc. just LEAP off the page at you?

It’s because your brain isn’t telling you what you KNOW should be there but is showing you what’s actually on the page. Kinda nifty, right?

Whenever time allows, step away from your completed project for a week or more. Then come back and re-read with fresh eyes to catch what was hidden before. In a perfect world, I’d say give yourself 2-3 weeks of “rest” before editing it again; in the real world we rarely have that much time.

021616-Edit2. Grab your red pen and kill a tree!

Set your manuscript up to be double spaced and 12 pt font – then print it out! (Single sided, not double.) Grab a cuppa of your favorite beverage, your red pen, and go to town. At this stage, you’re not looking for commas (the details) but for the broader strokes in the manuscript that might not be working.

And yes, really do print it! Your brain will see things differently on a paper than on screen. Plus, you can’t get “lost” on your computer (research, Facebook, etc.) as easily when you’re not on your computer!

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Self-Editing: Can You Really Do It?

In last week’s class for Backpack Your Book, I talked about when (and how!) to hire a professional editor. Even though I work as an editor for others, I KNOW that it’s impossible to catch every single mistake…

111715-EditsAnd some “mistakes” are really a matter of preference or perception. Like the Oxford Comma!

But the question is, can you really self-edit your manuscript?

Yes…

And no…

There’s a lot you can do to catch things that need to be edited. Especially when it comes to grammar, spelling, or punctuation. But for structural problems, flow, and things not making sense, it’s always a good idea to have a second set of (trained!) eyes.

Let’s see how good your editing skills are! See if you can spot the problems:

  • Most public campgrounds in have paths between sites to the bathrooms, trash, etc.
  • When the sun begins to sweat you’ll get a chill.
  • A fist aid kit is a must for any camping trip; you just don’t know when you’ll get a splinter.
  • I recommend packing in a duffle big.
  • And never underestimate the importance of a pair of slip of shoes.
Three tips for #editing your #book. Click To Tweet

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Why I Love My Printer

052014-Printer

Call me old-school but I love my printer. See, a lot of what I do is editing book manuscripts for clients. And yes, I KNOW it can be done with Word’s “Track Changes” feature. But have you ever tried to review edits that are of the comma, period, and semi-colon variety? It’s really hard to see what it was and what it’s changing to. Plus, if you’ve already USED the feature for other edits (like removing sections or asking the author clarifying questions) the grammar, spelling, punctuation edits get completely buried in the fray.

So I print it all. Double spaced but single sided. Then I get my red pen and a pot of tea and go to town. When I’m done, I scan in the pages and email the .pdf to my client. That way she can really SEE the changes and not be lost in the “Track Changes” multi-colored mess.
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