Self-Publishing is an amazing option for so many reasons. You have total control over every aspect of your publishing process and don’t have to rely on others for approval in many areas — such as deciding if your novel is marketable enough to publish in the first place.
One thing to keep in check when you’re self-publishing however, is your budget. When a traditional publisher picks up your work they’ll handle much of the financial end of things and you’ll get a percentage of royalties for your end of the labor. But when self-publishing, you’re covering everything, so it becomes even more important to pinch those pennies where you can.
Prior to self-publishing OR traditionally publishing, you’re going to have to go through the editing process. But it’s a bit different depending on which direction you’re headed.
While traditionally published books will do best with an experienced editor who understands the current literary landscape and can help your book become publisher-ready, the self-publishing writer can have a more personalized approach. And so, the question becomes…
Should You Edit Your Own Novel?
Well, right off the bat you are going to have to do some level of editing on your own. You should always proofread your novel and check for spelling and grammatical errors along with plot holes and really meditate on what needs to stay, what needs to go, and what needs to be added that you missed when you review your first draft.
But, after you feel you’ve done enough in those areas you’ll be looking to further content editing, copy editing, and line editing.
While you can do all of these things, the primary benefit of an editor is the outside opinion. It's rare to avoid overlooking something in your own work simply because you're so close to it! But if you are alright with that sacrifice, then let’s chat about how to edit your own novel.
Content Editing Your Own Novel
Content or developmental editing focuses on the big-picture elements of your story and plays a large role in manuscript development. It addresses such things as plot holes, character arcs and pacing.
Plot holes
This is one of the areas in which an outside eye can help. If you do not want to hire an editor though and still have that outside eye, you can reach out to a beta reader or two to do their thing and give you some general feedback.
To find plot holes on your own, I recommend using the read-aloud option in Word or getting a text-to-speech app on your phone so you can hear another voice dictating your story to you. This will allow you to detach a bit and view your novel from a reader’s point of view.
Plot holes can be a gift if you're looking to expand your novel’s length — fixing them opens up opportunities to explore your world even further!
Character Arcs
Lucky for you, there are plenty of resources online about character arcs. While you don’t have to follow a pre-set pattern to a tee, these tried and true methods work for a reason and are likely to help your novel succeed through relatable characters.
If your character is set to have a transformational act, make notes through your novel of when the following points occur:
Inciting incident
Call to action
Defining moment
Awakening
Moment of enlightenment
Death experience
Transformational moment
Climax
Resolution
If you are missing any of these points in your character’s arc, see if you can work it into your novel. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the change it brings about to the novel as a whole!
Pacing
If you are editing for your own pacing, Save the Cat is the way to go.
The percentages in this method have been especially useful to me personally as it makes the entire process of pacing quite mathematical. If your opening image and theme building up to the catalyst is 50% of your novel for example, you need to edit that down.
For even more connection with how to pace your novel, check out these beat sheets of familiar films where you can see Save the Cat in action.
Copy Editing Your Own Novel
Where content editing may result in expansion of your novel (especially when fixing plot holes), copy editing is for tightening up your work.
Find your trouble words
Let’s start right away with ‘trouble words’. As defined by Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing these are:
a lot/alot
affect/effect
can/may
further/farther
good/well
i.e./e.g.
into/in to
it’s/its
lay/lie
less/fewer
that/who
their/they’re/there
then/than
who/whom
your/you’re
If your eye catches on any of these, wondering “wait… I thought those meant the same thing” then you’re not alone. You’ve just found your trouble words!
Of course, by no means does this include all trouble words, but it’s a good start. Personally, my trouble word (as I’m reminded of regularly by my editor) is ‘led’. I just can’t stop writing ‘lead’! 😅
Find Your Crutch Words
What words do you use over and over again? I’m constantly saying ‘a little’ in my writing. Once you listen your words read aloud you will REALLY pick up on these. Locate them, and do something about it. You don’t want your novel to sound clunky and repetitive. Another good tip is to make sure you’re not using the same word in the same sentence or even paragraph. This is called ‘tautology’ and is jarring to the reader.
Thesaurus.com is out there, and it exists purely for your use. So use it!
Check for Consistency
Do you spell a particular term differently every time you use it? You’re going to want to fix that. Words such as daycare often wind up switching from day-care to Day Care to daycare all in the same novel!
Other words that are commonly inconsistent include:
Organise/organize
Centre/center
Focussed/focused
Recognise/recognize
Analyse/analyze
Pick one spelling for each word—and stick with it! Whether it's US, Canadian, or just different variations of a word, consistency is key. And of course, make sure you're maintaining one voice and tense throughout. In some cases, a switch can be relevant to the story, but if you choose to make that shift, ensure it's intentional and avoid accidental changes.
Additional Tips
Before this becomes an entire course, I’d like to list in point form a few more suggestions for your copy editing process. If you’d like to see more blogging on copy editing, please leave a comment below saying so!
Remove adverbs that weaken your copy (When I finish writing I snap my laptop shut. I do not shut my laptop quietly.)
Be mindful of how the emotional tone of a statement changes when expressed positively or negatively, and choose accordingly. (After reading this, I want you to feel confident as you edit. Another blogger may not tolerate careless editing mistakes in your revisions.)
Check transitional phrasing to see if it’s necessary (in order to, begin to.)
Line Editing Your Own Novel
Working sentence by sentence, line editing takes a deep dive into your prose, focusing on how to use language and communicate with your reader. Sound similar to copy editing? Not quite.
Line editing is the most meticulous of your three major novel editing types as you are looking at small pieces of your writing rather than larger concepts and errors.
Before starting on any editing, it’s a good idea to let your book rest a bit as another way to detach from the words you’ve put down on the page. After a couple of weeks or a month, you can get back in there and tear things up!
Check for Passive Voice
While this can be applied to copy editing, it’s perhaps an even more useful check to do as the first step in your line editing process. Best of all, there’s an app for that making this a minimally daunting way to ease into your detailed edit.
Grab That Thesaurus
This is it friends — if you were keeping an eye out for tautology and crutch words in your copy editing process you can get rid of every last one of them through line editing. Grab your thesaurus or head to Thesaurus.com and tighten on those lines. By the end of your line edit every paragraph should be wonderfully unique from the one before it.
Grab Your Dictionary, Too
Did you throw a word in thinking it would sound good, but if someone asked you to define it you’d mumble your way through? Make sure you know for sure what you’re saying in every sentence.
If you’ve done your job right, when you finish your line edit, your novel will be consistent and concise while retaining its creativity!
Invest Your Time or Invest Your Money
When deciding whether or not to do the full edit of your self-published novel, it comes down to what you’re able to invest: time, or money. Now that you’ve had a glimpse into the world of editing, you can see why editors charge for their services and how valid that charge is.
There are many things in the literary world that you can do yourself, and this is one of them. But you do risk sacrificing quality, experience, and that outside viewpoint especially if you’re new to the game.
Should you choose to edit your novel, all the power to you! It’s a commendable choice and we’re behind you 100%.
Comments