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Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

6K views 52 replies 49 participants last post by  Picky Cat Editing 
#1 ·
Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

I have been told over and over again that it's a big no, no. However, I'm not really in the position to hire a professional editor anytime soon.

Has anyone here done it? How did it work out for you?

I guess I'm really terrified of self editing and my book coming out horrible.
 
#2 ·
Not started off, but did with book 3. But by then, I had a list of things I normally did wrong, and used it as a starting point for editing. You do get better as you go on.

If you do self-edit out of the gate, you need beta readers.
 
#3 ·
It's almost always better to have more than one pair of eyes on a work. If you can't afford professional editing, beta readers are a lot better than nothing, though they can't be expected to provide as extensive feedback as an editor would.

We are all different, so yes, there are a few people who can edit their own material. That number is probably quite low. When I started out, I'd been teaching high school English for over thirty years, so I figured I could edit my own material. After all, I'd spent countless hours going over student essays with a fine-tooth comb (and was known for detailed feedback). Nope! On my first book, I missed an incredible amount, even though I'd gone over it several times. I finally had to hire a professional editor to make sure the manuscript was the best it could it be. Of course, in terms of establishing an author brand, it would have been much better to have done the editing before publication. I probably lost some readers I'll never get back.

Timothy is right in saying people do get better at self-editing--but partially because they've learned from editors.

Editors aren't infallible, either, and they have different preferences, just as readers do. On those occasions in which I've involved more than one editor in the process for a particular book, I've gotten very different feedback from each one. Needless to say, I didn't agree with all of it. However, I have found that even the observations I don't agree with are useful in getting me to rethink the manuscript.
 
#4 ·
I still do, along with Beta readers. At first, I ran into the problem when editing my own stuff of my mind filling in mistakes with what I expected to see, but once I began using an app that reads text aloud, that hasn't been an issue anymore.

That said, I have always had an almost instinctive feel for grammar and structure, since I was very young, probably because of how much I read as a kid.
 
#5 ·
Bill Hiatt said:
It's almost always better to have more than one pair of eyes on a work. If you can't afford professional editing, beta readers are a lot better than nothing, though they can't be expected to provide as extensive feedback as an editor would.

We are all different, so yes, there are a few people who can edit their own material. That number is probably quite low.
Spot-on, in my opinion. Not everybody can do it, but some can. There are a lot of closet self-editors, including many who post here.

That said, my personal reccomendation would be to have it edited or reviewed by others unless/until you know you have this capability...
 
#7 ·
I'm thinking that the word editing has different meanings to different people. For me, my editor is the person who reads it and comes back to me with feedback about story structure, where dialogue doesn't work, where I've messed up the timeline, where something doesn't make sense, that kind of thing. But some of the people here are talking about catching missed words which I would call proofreading.
Editing comes first, then a proofreader is the last thing that happens.

I had no editing done on my YA stuff, but always always got a professional proofreader! They are far far less expensive. I sold some clothes on ebay to pay for proofreading when I was first starting out. It was shocking how much I had missed. Never underestimate their value to your finished product.
 
#8 ·
I have self edited all my books with only one beta reader for the first four.  My first book has lots of reviews stating it needs an editor but my later books are better.  If you can afford to pay an editor, I'm sure that's best.  I wasn't willing to invest anything in my books when I started out because I had no idea if I'd ever sell any.  I published four in twelve months with low sales.  My early covers were free, from CreateSpace.  I spent very little on marketing.  But, I then got lucky and gained some fans who liked my stories and when I saw sales for those four books suddenly taking off, I did pay for new covers.  Books five and six have done well, triggering more sales for the entire series.  I now spend moderately on marketing but, as is so often stated by others in this forum, the best marketing is to continue publishing.  I wish I could write faster!  We'll see!
 
#9 ·
TimothyEllis said:
Not started off, but did with book 3. But by then, I had a list of things I normally did wrong, and used it as a starting point for editing. You do get better as you go on.

If you do self-edit out of the gate, you need beta readers.
I have looked into getting beta readers, but I honestly don't know where to start with that either. I have heard you can find them on Goodreads, but how do you make sure they're legit?

Evenstar said:
I'm thinking that the word editing has different meanings to different people. For me, my editor is the person who reads it and comes back to me with feedback about story structure, where dialogue doesn't work, where I've messed up the timeline, where something doesn't make sense, that kind of thing. But some of the people here are talking about catching missed words which I would call proofreading.
Editing comes first, then a proofreader is the last thing that happens.

I had no editing done on my YA stuff, but always always got a professional proofreader! They are far far less expensive. I sold some clothes on ebay to pay for proofreading when I was first starting out. It was shocking how much I had missed. Never underestimate their value to your finished product.
I would really like to get a proofreader. I know they are less expensive, however that's something else I'm not necessarily sure I could afford right now. Although, I am seriously considering how I could penny pinch in order to get one.

Acheknia said:
I have to edit mine, I can't afford to pay anyone for anything :)

I would pick out any & every mistake in your book, so it's easy to do my own, right? Wrong. :)

It wasn't until I tried it that I realised how easy it is to miss your own mistakes, your brain knows what should be there, so it skips over many of the bits that are wrong.

Missed a word? You'll pass right by as if it's there, took out half of a sentence & replaced it? You could leave behind a word that should've been deleted, or maybe take out a word that should've been left in.

There are all kinds of mistakes that could be left in, even if none of them are to do with spelling etc.

I now do my 1st edit through Word, then run it through Grammarly, then listen while I read with text to speech.

If it's still not perfect, then at least it's as close as I can get & may still be better than some I've read where a professional editor has had at it :)
I'm also going to have others go through it with me, as well as using text to speech. I'm hoping it will allow me to get by for the time being.
 
#10 ·
If you do this, I strongly recommend letting the book sit for a long time (6 months) before you pick it up and begin editing. You need to entirely forget what you wrote to be able to see the mistakes. Once enough time has passed, print it out in an entirely different font and using a different page size to help trick your brain into seeing it differently.

Even then, you might not catch certain stylistic twitches or issues that are ingrained in your writing (e.g. passive voice, awkward phrasing, certain slang, punctuation errors you learned incorrectly, etc).  Some people are developed enough writers that they can get away without developmental editing; others need the tutoring and guidance of a good editor. Which are you? Can you differentiate between "voice" and bad writing? How clean does your writing need to be? Some genres can tolerate more typos and stylistic issues than others.

A book I'd recommend is "Self-editing for Fiction Authors" by Renni Brown and Dave King. Even if you use an editor, that book offers some great advice on identifying common issues.

Two additional tips: Once you've scrubbed the work, let it sit AGAIN. Then, have MS Word or Adobe Acrobat dictate the text and listen for errors.  Once that is done, do a final proofread by reading the text backwards (sentence by sentence) to catch typos such as homonyms. If this sounds painful, it is. That said, if you have more time than money and can't barter editing services with another author, this might your only option to achieve a reasonably clean text.

I was in a similar situation when I started and could not afford an editor. Today, putting this much effort into editing (versus paying someone) is honestly energy better spent writing the next novel.

A final note of caution -- you only get one chance to make a first impression. With millions of books available, many readers will click away at the first sight of a typo or poor writing. There are simply too many other choices. Choose carefully.
 
#11 ·
At least two of my full novels and all of my novellas were never looked at by another human before I hit publish.

I wouldn't say I did things this way 'from the start' because I don't know where the start is. I wrote blogs and online articles with no editor for a couple of decades. I had an indie publisher who hired content editors I consistently disagreed with, and proofreaders who found almost no mistakes. I write really clean NOW, but I didn't always.
 
#12 ·
At the very least, invest in a good editing software. There are some good ones out there - - some better than others. And if you can't afford that, there are also some free online ones, though you usually have to do one chapter at a time.

I use several different ones before I give my manuscript to my editor. What I've learned is that they often flag some weird thing that totally doesn't apply. But if you analyze the sentence, something does need to be done. So don't discount "weird" advice from the software.

Also, there are some proofreaders on Fiverr . . . you might be able to get some good recommendations here on that.
 
#13 ·
I sold over 100,000 books that were self-edited by yours truly. I'm a perfectionist (in some ways, at least) so I had the patience and anal-retentiveness to do it. But I do recommend a good copy editor to everyone, including myself. My editors miss stuff, but I miss stuff too.

About 3 years after putting out my first novel, I got an email from someone pointing out a continuity error. It was very kind of them and I appreciated it, but I laughed long and hard over the damn thing. A good editor would've caught it. My brain didn't.
 
#14 ·
SaraConklin said:
Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

I have been told over and over again that it's a big no, no. However, I'm not really in the position to hire a professional editor anytime soon.

Has anyone here done it? How did it work out for you?

I guess I'm really terrified of self editing and my book coming out horrible.
Yes, I have self edited my own books.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
#15 ·
SaraConklin said:
Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

I have been told over and over again that it's a big no, no. However, I'm not really in the position to hire a professional editor anytime soon.

Has anyone here done it? How did it work out for you?

I guess I'm really terrified of self editing and my book coming out horrible.
Sure, partly because I can't afford an editor, and partly because I have a lot of years of journalistic copy-editing behind me. I have a trusted beta reader who goes over it once I've finished, and she's caught things I've missed. So yes, it's possible, but having at least one other pair of eyes on it before publishing is always a good idea.
 
#16 ·
I don't recommend self-editing, but if you can't afford a real editor, ask trusted friends and/or family members to edit your work as best they can. As others have mentioned, if you don't know you're making a particular error, how will you know How to fix it?

As for beta readers, are looking for someone to proof your book or critique it? These are two very different things. You cannot rely on a beta reader to proof your book.
 
#18 ·
If you plan/need to self edit your book, I say do it the best way possible.

1) Check out the book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. It's a valuable and hands on guide on how to go about self editing your work. I highly recommend it.

2) Check out software alternatives to handle/flag some of the rote edits. Some people use ProWritingAid. There are many to choose from. (http://blog.bookbaby.com/2017/10/nine-manuscript-editing-software-programs-reviewed/) I use Serenity Editor (https://www.serenity-software.com/) I believe it's a personal preference.

3) Have software read your book aloud to you. I find a ton of errors this way. What you need is a text to speech app/program. Google Docs, Windows, Mac all have ways to do this--sometimes built in. If you'd prefer a free Windows program -- search for Balabolka, that's what I use.

4) Some people swear by beta readers. I don't use them. Again, I think the value you get from Beta readers depends on the quality of the people you choose.

If you do the things above, I think the quality of the self edit you do on your manuscript will be the highest possible YOU can do.

That's my two cents worth, I hope it helps. :)
 
#19 ·
Deke said:
Depends what you mean by editing. Reading, spell-checking, etc. .....yes. But you still need other eyes to tell you where the story works and where it doesn't and needs more clarity.
Well some of us do... I'm the exact opposite. I have no need for content editing, just proofing.
 
#20 ·
Editing and proofing are both skills that can be acquired with time, hard work, and a focus on serious learning....and some people will still be much better at it than others.

If you don't have a lot of experience with either and don't have the money to hire qualified professional help (the qualified is important!), then here are some things to do and tricks that may help the proofreading process. (Editing for story, do ask some people to be betas for you.) Start with number 1. You can do all the other points in any order. Sometimes tackling it in different ways at different times is helpful.

1. STUDY books on editing and grammar. Those that offer checklists of things to watch for may prove helpful.

2.  Look for lists of commonly overused words (my personal favorites: just, really, very, and any word I happen to like a lot for that particular book  ;) ).  With those lists as reference, put your manuscript in Word and do a global search to see how many times you've used each word. You'll be amazed at how often those suckers creep in. Edit out as appropriate.

3.  Of course, run Spell Check and grammar checker. Those won't always be right, but work at understanding why things are being highlighted, especially for grammar.

4.  Print it out, double spaced, and edit by hand, starting both at the beginning, and, for more detailed looks at punctuation, etc. from the end and working forward  (If you're starting from the end, you can't get caught up in the flow and so can see what's actually on the page more clearly.) Also, when starting at the back, you'll be looking at each sentence. Here's where the books on grammar and sentence structure and word use are important....look at the sentence, not just the message it adds to your story, but the way the words and punctuation actually fit together. Ask yourself if that sentence can be shorter, clearer, more powerful. If it's just filler, take it out.

5.  Format it as an ebook and send it to yourself to read on your Kindle or your phone, NOT on your computer.  Take time to format it properly first (Scrivener makes that easy), because you're more likely to spot problems if you're reading a "book" as a reader and not a writer looking at a manuscript.

6. Set it aside and let it rot for a while.  Gremlins get in and ruin your brilliant work. It's easier to spot their damage if you've got some distance from the creative effort.

7.  Set it aside again....then do it all a few more times.  Accept the fact that even if you know what you're doing, it's going to be a substantial amount of work and a lot of time, and the less skilled you are, the more time and effort will be required.

Good luck. It can be a steep learning curve, but it's a skill you need to acquire anyway even if you eventually can hire the best professionals, so you might as well start learning now.
 
#21 ·
SaraConklin said:
Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

I have been told over and over again that it's a big no, no. However, I'm not really in the position to hire a professional editor anytime soon.

Has anyone here done it? How did it work out for you?

I guess I'm really terrified of self editing and my book coming out horrible.
Well, I didn't start off that way -- my first books were published by Doubleday, so they did the editing. (Not very well, IMHO.) But all my self-published books were edited by Susan and me. However! We both worked as editors for many years, for a university publications office, for regional publishers, and for various organizations on a freelance basis. And we both have more or less committed the Chicago Manual of Style to memory.

When I see the posts on the KDP community forums, I am horrified at the thought that those people are WRITING BOOKS. Ouch.

You will find on this forum offers of proof-reading (I assume that's what they're offering, not line-editing) for $30 and even $15. Anyone can afford that!
 
#22 ·
SaraConklin said:
Have any of you started off by self editing your own books?

I have been told over and over again that it's a big no, no. However, I'm not really in the position to hire a professional editor anytime soon.

Has anyone here done it? How did it work out for you?

I guess I'm really terrified of self editing and my book coming out horrible.
Started off? I still do, I always have; nobody knows my books as well as I do.

You will find as you get more experienced, that there are certain authors who believe that if they can't do something, then no one else can. Therefore, they tell everyone that they should pay out for editors that they possibly don't need.

I'm not saying everyone is capable of doing it; in fact, from what I've seen, many people aren't. But if you can do it, then don't let anyone tell you that you can't.
 
#23 ·
I believe every writer, even those who hire editors, would benefit from knowing how to self-edit. If you don't know how to edit, how do you know if your editor is doing a good job? And I've seen way too many indie books that have an editor credited where I can't figure out what exactly the editor supposedly did, from spelling-punctuation-grammar mistakes to misuesed words to unreadable sentences to major structural and plot flaws.

Also, self-editing your work before sending it to an editor can save you lots of time and money.

Besides the resources already mentioned, here are a few for addressing the larger-scale issues:

https://hollylisle.com/one-pass-manuscript-revision-from-first-draft-to-last-in-one-cycle/ (three notes: 1 - you will not actually have a publishable manuscript after just one revision; that's for a longtime professional author before she sends it off to her editor. But you'll save a lot of work with this method. 2 - make all your revision notes before you actually start marking up the manuscript. 3 - don't bother separating your manuscript into different piles.)

http://susandennard.com/for-writers/ (scroll down to "Revising your novel")

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/02/at-home-workshop-revise-your-novel-in.html

ETA: and a couple of resources for brushing up spelling and grammar skills:

https://www.englishgrammar101.com/

http://gradespelling.com/spelling-vocabulary-word-lists/
 
#25 ·
cecilia_writer said:
Yes, I have always self-edited. I've developed a multi-stage process through the years that seems to work
But I agree that people need to be fairly confident about their spelling and grammar before deciding to do it this way.
What Cecelia said.
Basically I don't need other people's opinions on my work, as they may differ from mine.
And I'm an excellent proof reader.

But that's why I am here, to fill in those areas where I truly know nothing with good advice from smart people (marketing, Amazon lore, etc.).
 
#26 ·
My first book, I ran it through the full Word grammar/spell check, I ran it through Autocrit, I had my partner go through it, I had a friend read it, then I put it on a kindle and made a note of anything else. Note that I also worked in publishing, so I may have a better eye than most people. When it made money (yay!), I got an editor to do another pass, which was mostly comma usage and things that most people probably wouldn't notice, but is worth doing.
 
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