How to Self Edit and Get Your Book Published
Ranked #7,721 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #274,914 overall
Getting Your Voice Heard in the Book Publishing World
The first draft of your book is completed. A glorious loaf has been taken out of the oven. The aroma of freshly-baked bread swirls round the house. What an achievement! What a creation! Oh Lord! What happens next? Who can share your delight - and praise your efforts? The world must feel the same way: but it won't. Not yet it won't, or shouldn't. If you throw this raw beast to the world it will chuck it back faster than you can duck.
First, like a joint of meat, your draft needs to 'rest'. Or, to be blunt, or more accurate, your poor brain needs to be parted from its creation for a period (a week at least) so that your critical faculties can be restored to the front of your brain where they belong. For too long they have had to take a 'back seat' as your imagination raced over the keyboard - unshackled by logic or other well-honed tactics that protect you from ridicule and harm.
First, like a joint of meat, your draft needs to 'rest'. Or, to be blunt, or more accurate, your poor brain needs to be parted from its creation for a period (a week at least) so that your critical faculties can be restored to the front of your brain where they belong. For too long they have had to take a 'back seat' as your imagination raced over the keyboard - unshackled by logic or other well-honed tactics that protect you from ridicule and harm.
Contents at a Glance
Book Editing Help and Advice
Self-editing your manuscript - with a refreshed brain.
Editing tips for new book writers
1. On the final manuscript, work from print-outs rather than the screen. It's easier for the eye and you can mark and amend far faster without disturbing trains of thought.2. Read the work out loud. This will ensure your mind tackles the draft in a fresh manner so that the copy makes sense for the listener (you, and the cat?); you should be able to spot inadequate or inappropriate punctuation and foggy syntax in an instant.
3. Wherever you find the slightest difficulty in grasping the flow of a sentence/passage/paragraph, mark it immediately and return later with the shears. If you are having problems comprehending your own drift just imagine how a reader coming to this work afresh will find it.
4. Watch your vocabulary. Long words often nudge out short ones when the creative juices are flowing. Wherever you find a short and a longer word elbowing for attention, plump for the shorter one. Comprehension will be improved and the reader will thank you for it. Your style will not suffer.
5. Punctuate according to the conventions of good publishing houses. New writers need time to acclimatise to the punctuation rules that make reading and comprehension a delight. As you edit your early work you soon absorb these skills. Fiction with dialogue introduces aspects of punctuation that are seldom met in 'social' or standard commercial writing.
6. Prune relentlessly. Assume your readers are literate, intelligent and don't need to be told things twice. They won't always be, but at least they will like the compliment. What they will object to, subconsciously, will be sentences that waffle, confuse, go on too long (even an average sentence length of eighteen words tends to be tedious), convey the same thought more than once and contain too many ideas. Use a fresh sentence for a fresh idea; they stay fresh.
7. Don't ask friends to edit your work: you'll lose them! We writers are sensitive souls; editors are cruel beasts - and often right. But you don't have to live or sleep with them.
Professional book editing services believe that new writers should first self-edit their work to bring the draft to the stage where it doesn't insult the intelligence of publishers. Many new writers benefit from working with independent editors before they submit any work. The investment is modest and can repay itself many times over by ensuring your writing complements your innate knowledge and ability. WriteAway members for example can use the services to be put in touch with professional editors.
eBookIssues
eBook Publishing and Formatting
Not every author knows how to format a book professionally or market their book after publication, but there is help at hand.
Website Design Guide
Concepts and Techniques Demystified For Beginners
This is an excellent reference guide for would-be website publishers. Anyone with a small business, or individuals looking to get an online presence by publishing a website, blog or both will benefit from the information provided in this eBook.
If you are publishing a book and want to know how to set up a website quickly, easily and at low cost to promote it, then this is a great place to start. The author of this book is also a website designer with a 30 year history in technology and he has decided to share what he has learned to ensure you don't make the same mistakes he did when starting out.
If you are publishing a book and want to know how to set up a website quickly, easily and at low cost to promote it, then this is a great place to start. The author of this book is also a website designer with a 30 year history in technology and he has decided to share what he has learned to ensure you don't make the same mistakes he did when starting out.
Website Design Guide for Private and Business Users - Concepts and Techniques Demystified For Beginners
Amazon Price: (as of 06/01/2012)
This is a jargon busting disclosure of what is needed to specify the requirements for a website. Lessons learned have been highlighted so that anyone taking a step towards a brand new website or struggling with an existing website can see how it should be done and avoid the pitfalls.
Self Editing Tips and Comments
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Weblady
Aug 8, 2011 @ 7:57 am | delete
- I have always been a bit worried about even thinking about writing a book, never mind getting it published. Seems such a daunting task and must take special skills. Don't think I will be attempting this personally. Interesting read though.
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Book Writing Resources
- Submissions, Book Publishers, and Painful Rejections
- Coping with rejection from publishers and how to deal with it.
- Becoming an Author - How to Write a Book and Get It Published
- Make it a good read! Ah, easier said than done, I hear you say. Not really. If you have a way with words, and are prepared to tackle this matter with discipline and intelligence, you, too, can write and publish a book.
- How to Start an Effective Creative Writing Piece
- I didn't choose this title, but many aspiring writers did! It happens to embrace a number of hurdles that most face when they set out to become successful authors. A better title might be, 'Why do some books and articles succeed, and others fail.
- Writing Tips - Basic Rules For Punctuation Usage
- Why do teachers spend half their lives terrifying us? I'll tell you. They are inordinately proud of their narrow, intellectual patch and want to reserve it for themselves. Punctuation does matter, especially for new writers trying to impress publishers, and the following steps should ensure you master this aspect of the writing craft in double-quick time.
- Writing and Marketing That Book - The World's Your Oyster
- That's what some adverts promise. Why? Because we are frightened of being sold things - and of salespeople. So copywriters above met the fear head on. Our door-knocker is safe.
- How Your Writing Style Could Be Damaging Your Writing Process
- Writing styles like, speeches or public speaking, take on or should take on their own persona. This is after all how one writer, speaker or communicator is differentiated from another. Without an individual writing style how can writers connect with their own audience and establish a symbiotic relationship. A relationship where what the writer writes his audience wants to read and in a style that satisfies their needs.
- Publishing eBook For Amazon Kindle
- Convert eBooks for Kindle and upload to Amazon in a file format that will be accepted and will work on the Amazon Kindle and in Kindle applications.
- How to Write a Book or Novel - An Insider's Guide to Getting Published | eBookIssues.com
- A book writing reference work by Jonathan Veale. Have you ever wondered what it takes to write and publish that book you've been thinking about for ages?
- Writing a Book
- A quick insight into book writing, how to get started and how to get published. Two of the most important aspects of book writing plus how to recognise bad advice.
- A Gripping Spy Thriller - Terrorism That Imperils European Harmony | eBookIssues.com
- The début novel of Richard Cheesmar, a computer expert who frequents places where the faint-hearted fear to tread. His knowledge and experiences fuel this fast-moving thriller.
These Authors Got Published on Amazon
Fiction or Non Fiction it doesn't matter
Amazon just want good books properly formatted, they don't mind if they are fiction novels or reference works. There is a big market with lots of different types of requirements so get it right and like the books below you could be selling in an international market in a matter of days after you have completed your book.
by blogvicar
I am a writer and book editor who offers help and support to other writers who are seeking information on how to publish a book.
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Happy Hooker by Jonathan Veale
No not that sort, the rugby playing variety
The Happy Hooker: Expat Intrigue - Living with the Enemy in Deepest France
Amazon Price: $18.63 (as of 06/01/2012)
It's a bit like 'Last of the Summer Wine' but an expat version based not in quintessential Yorkshire but in the equally quintessential South of France. The comings and goings of a expats and their French friends in a fictitious French town. Delightfully it is based on the real shenanigans of real people.
How to Write a Book or Novel
An Insider's Guide to Getting Published [Kindle Edition]
How to Write a Book or Novel - An Insider's Guide to Getting Published
Amazon Price: (as of 06/01/2012)
Not only how to start writing a book but also how to actually finish a book. Plus learning the essential skill of self editing and how to avoid the predatory vanity publishers that promise a lot and deliver little.
eBooks and Reviews
Squidlit is a great way to review a book.
