Me Write Pretty Someday: How Indie Authors Can Save Time & Money by Understanding 5 Types of Editing & 1 Storytelling Secret

Two Common Mistakes Made by Indie Authors​

Have you just written your first novel, memoir, or other nonfiction manuscript and feeling eager to press the “upload” button to have your book available for sale around the world? With the ever-increasing ease and speed of self-publishing, it's tempting to take the approach of “I’ll just put it on Amazon and see what happens.”

​Unfortunately, many indie authors do this without taking into consideration that there is a lot more that goes into the production of a successful book than simply typing THE END and uploading to KDP. Thankfully, most authors understand the need for some type of editing before hitting that submit button. The problem is that they often start with the wrong kind of editing.

A professional editor will give honest, constructive feedback.

It’s very common for first-time or self-publishing authors to come to me asking for copy editing and/or proofreading as soon as they’ve finished their first draft. When I ask these writers whether their manuscripts have had any other type of editing, such as a developmental edit or manuscript assessment, or if they’ve gotten feedback from beta readers or writing groups, almost always the answer is no. And usually, the only other people who have seen this author’s first draft is a family member (who, not surprisingly, has given positive feedback).

As a freelance editor, I want you to hire me, but I don’t want you to waste your money (or time) by focusing on grammar and punctuation before looking at the story and structure. No matter how clean and polished or beautifully written the sentences are, that won’t matter to readers if there are major plot holes, flat characters with unclear goals, confusing timeline jumps, or pacing problems. And for first-time authors, it’s almost a guarantee that the manuscript will have at least one of these big-picture issues, and usually more than one. (More often than you might expect, I work on novel manuscripts that don’t have a clear protagonist. I’ve even seen many writers pay for a cover design before any editing has been done.)

There are two main reasons for this common mistake with novice authors:

1. They don’t know the many stages of the editing process, or are confused about the different types of editing. It’s understandable that this confusion exists. There are no standardized definitions for the various stages of editing; different publishers or freelance editors may define or name their services differently; and there is some overlap between stages.
2. They don’t understand what story really is, or how to structure one. This is also understandable because writing and structuring a successful story are not intuitive. As readers, we see the edited, revised, polished versions of manuscripts, in the form of the finished product: the beautifully written, engaging, entertaining books we hold in our hands or swipe through on our electronic devices. This leads aspiring authors to believe that pretty writing is what captivates readers, rather than an engaging story with complex, relatable characters.

This isn't to say that you shouldn't try to write pretty at some point; just that your primary focus should be on story, and the polishing and fine-tuning can come later. Below is a list and broad definitions of the various editorial stages. This will hopefully help you identify which editing service your manuscript is ready for and will save you oodles of money and time. I’ve also come up with a little mantra for you to keep in mind as you pursue your writing and publishing dreams:
Solid story before polished prose.

Catchy, right?  
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After that, I will tell you the secret to successful storytelling and provide a mini editing checklist and a few resources. The topic of “what story is” is much too complex to tackle in depth here, so this will just give you a few points to get you started. I promise to address the elements of story in more detail in future posts. 

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Stages of Editing for a Book Manuscript

Before most traditionally published books make their way out into the world, whether through a Big Five publishing house or small independent or academic press, there are several different types of editing that a manuscript will go through, and sometimes multiple rounds at each stage. If you’re planning to self-publish, it would behoove you to follow (most of) these steps, to ensure that your book looks professional and has the best chances for success. If you’re planning to go the traditional route, it’s not a requirement to hire an editor for any of these stages. However, keep in mind that literary agents and publishers are inundated with manuscripts every day; to help yours stand out in the “slush pile,” you might still consider working with a book editor at one or more of the stages as well.

The main path that you want to follow is to start with the big-picture, story-level, or macro editing before focusing on the sentence- and word-level micro edits: solid story before polished prose. (Or, start with the forest before the individual trees, then branches and leaves, if you like that metaphor better.)

A developmental editor looks at the big picture first.

Manuscript Assessment
(a.k.a. Editorial Assessment, Manuscript Critique or Evaluation, Professional Beta Read)

This is exactly what it sounds like, but from a professional editor rather than your loving mom or your friend who's really good at spotting typos in books. It’s not about good grammar or proper punctuation; it’s about the fundamental elements of story and structure. This is not an essential stage of editing, but it’s a great way to get some low-cost, general feedback on what’s working well and what areas could use some attention to make your story or writing stronger. Your editor may also comment on the marketability of the premise and give you resources and guidance for how to proceed. This can be a huge time and money saver before moving on to other types of editing. For example, you may learn that your first two chapters could be deleted because it’s all backstory, which would reduce your word count significantly (which would lower the cost of the next stage of editing because freelancers usually charge by the word or hour).

If you’re interested in a Manuscript Assessment, I would love to work with you! Learn more, or schedule an initial Crit Chat meeting to get started.

Developmental Edit
(a.k.a. Substantive, Structural, or Content Edit)

​This is the most in-depth type of macro edit that will focus on all the big-picture aspects of your story, such as character and plot development, narrative arc and structure, pacing, organization, point of view, voice, scene relevance, the dreaded theme, etc. You will get detailed feedback on what’s working well, and specific, actionable suggestions for how to fix problem areas. This will be the most expensive type of edit, but it’s also the most important. This is one of the stages that may take multiple rounds, but again, the money and time you devote to this stage will save you money and time in the long run by ensuring the content of your manuscript is sound and set before moving on to a micro-level edit of words and sentences. (Solid story before polished prose!) You can also think of it as an investment in your writing career: the guidance and suggestions you receive to make the current manuscript stronger can be applied to future projects as well, and will help you learn to do more and more self-editing and revising as you continually hone your skills.

If you’re interested in a Developmental Edit, I would love to work with you! Learn more, or schedule an initial Dev Chat meeting to get started.​

Line Edit

This is the step you’ve been dying to get to: polishing the prose! Once the content and structure of your manuscript are finalized, the micro editing can finally begin.​ This is a stage of editing that focuses primarily on the language, voice, tone, rhythm, syntax, cadence, and flow of the story. A line edit is all about the readability of your text, to ensure that your meaning is coming across to readers accurately, as you intended. Your line editor will also do fact-checking, and may make suggestions for reorganizing paragraphs or chapters. They may create a style sheet, a document that keeps track of all the style decisions specific to your project. There is often some overlap with a developmental edit (pacing) and a copy edit (word choices). ​Many editors consider this type of editing to be the same as copy editing, or may call it a "heavy copy edit." Other editors may do a line edit and copy edit simultaneously. 

Copy Edit

This is the stage where the mechanics of the words and sentences are reviewed and corrected. A copy editor will make sure your grammar is good, punctuation is proper, your meaning is clear, and other elements of style are accurate and consistent, such as capitalization, treatment of numbers, spelling, hyphenation, formatting, etc. This is all done following a specific style guide, such as Chicago Manual of Style, and dictionary, and usually in MS Word using Track Changes. Your copy editor may also do light fact-checking and should create a style sheet, if not already created by the line editor. The style sheet can then be given to your proofreader (see below) to make that job quicker and smoother (which will also save you money, if paying by the hour); if your book is part of a series, the style sheet can come in handy to ensure consistency across titles. Most professional copy editors will implement all the revisions and do a final document clean-up that will be ready to send to a proofreader or graphic designer for interior layout.

A line or copy editor will help polish the prose and set the style.

If you’re interested in a Copy Edit for a novel, memoir, or other nonfiction book manuscript, I would love to work with you! Learn more, or schedule an initial Copy Chat meeting to get started.

Proofreading

A proofreader does the final check before publication.

This is the final micro-editing stage. The proofreader is the last pair of eyes before publication to check for typos; to ensure accuracy and consistency based on the style sheet, style guide, and dictionary; and to catch anything the copy editor may have missed. In traditional publishing, this is usually done after the interior layout has been formatted, so the proof is done in the PDF file. This allows for checking that all design, formatting, pagination, and folios elements are accurate as well. For e-books, the proofreading can be done in the Word document, before converting to EPUB files, or you may want to have the proofreading done after file conversion to ensure the text and style display properly in the new format. For print books, it's a good idea to have the proofreading done after the interior layout is designed and in PDF format, especially if your book has photos or other non-text elements.

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If you’re interested in Proofreading for a novel, memoir, or other nonfiction book manuscript, I would love to work with you! Learn more, or submit a Manuscript Proofreading Inquiry to get started.

The Secret to Successful Storytelling

As I noted above, another reason first-time or indie authors jump ahead to the copy editing or proofreading stages is because writers are kind of tricked into thinking that they must craft beautiful sentences with elaborate metaphors, creative descriptions, and obscure synonyms in order for their story to be successful. But, as Lisa Cron so eloquently and thoroughly discusses in her book Wired for Story, readers care more about how a story unfolds than about the specific words that are used to tell it. A fully engaging, compelling story is like a drug that delivers doses of dopamine as we’re reading, which has been scientifically proven in brain research. 

Brain research proves readers prefer solid story before polished prose!

This is why it’s so important to focus on solid story before polished prose. But one of the biggest myths of storytelling is that a story is a series of events that happen to someone or a group of someones. In other words, most people think that story is the same as plot. This is simply not true!
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Stories are about change, usually the transformation of one character—the protagonist—brought about by the external events of the plot, and the obstacles they face trying to achieve a goal. (This is true for memoir, just as much as fiction.) To sustain reader engagement, there must be plenty of tension and suspense along the way. And this is where structure comes into play. There is no one right way to tell a story, but as Jonathan Gottschall explains in The Storytelling Animal, all stories are about trouble; and he posits that there is a “universal grammar” of story that has been passed down through generations around the world, and that the fundamentals of successful storytelling have not changed at all since the early days of oral tales. There is a certain way that readers expect stories to unfold. 

​And the most successful stories are ones that have the power of narrative transportation, where readers feel a deep emotional connection to the characters and quite literally feel like they are experiencing the events of the story as if they were really happening. (Again, proven by science.)
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This is where that old saw “Show, don’t tell” comes into play, but there are many other factors that go into a page-turning, unputdownable story, such as well-developed characters with specific, tangible goals; distinctive and consistent point of view and voice; appropriate pacing and constant forward momentum; logical, believable actions and events  with a cause-and-effect relationship; genre expectations; and so much more! It’s a lot to keep track of, and sometimes difficult to see in your own work. Hiring a developmental editor or book coach can be extremely beneficial to ensure that these big-picture, fundamental elements of story are in place first.
​Say it with me now: solid story before polished prose.

And one more time for good measure:

Successful stories have protagonists who face obstacles while pursuing challenging goals.

 Solid story before polished prose!

Editing Checklist & Storytelling Resources

In conclusion, if you’ve almost or already written your first draft, here is a little checklist of the basic editing stages, in order, that you might consider, especially if you are planning to self-publish:

1. Manuscript Assessment (a.k.a. Evaluation/Critique; optional)
2. Developmental Edit (a.k.a. Structural/Substantive; may require multiple rounds)
3. Line Edit (may be the same or included with copy edit)
4. Copy Edit
5. Proofreading

If you haven't yet finished your manuscript and feeling stuck, or have some ideas for a story but not sure how to start, you might consider working with a book coach.  A book or story coach can help you start and finish your first draft by offering accountability, support, inspiration, knowledge, feedback, editing, guidance, and resources.

If you’re self-publishing, there will be many other tasks before publication, such as writing front and back matter, cover design, back-cover copy, purchasing ISBNs, file conversions, and interior layout. Self-publishing is a DIY process, but it doesn’t mean you have to, or should, literally do it all by yourself. There are plenty of professional freelance editors, project managers, and graphic designers available to help you put your best possible book out into the world. If you’re not sure what all the steps of self-publishing are, or if you’re not sure which publishing path is right for you, you might be interested in a Choose-My-Path Consultation, a Self-Pub Planning Session, or an Ask-the-Editor Consultation. These one-on-one consultations are another way to save time and money by getting all your questions answered, setting up a clear path, and avoiding unnecessary steps or wrong turns along your writing and publishing journey.

There is no shortage of resources for writing, editing, revising, and publishing on the internet. I have many listed on my website for writing craft and publishing (self and traditional). Below are a few that I highly recommend*, related to this blog topic:

Books
In addition to Wired for Story and The Storytelling Animal, a few other books on self-editing and story structure for novels and memoirs are:

• Intuitive Editing: A Creative & Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing by Tiffany Yates Martin
• Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book by Allison K. Williams
• Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody
• The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne

Free Articles & Low-Cost Classes

• Jane Friedman's blog offers a plethora of free articles and information about writing craft and publishing. Most of her online webinars are only $25, usually 90 minutes long, and cover various aspects of writing craft and publishing; taught by various instructors and include a money-back satisfaction guarantee and a link to the recording for later viewing.
• Creative Live offers a variety of online writing craft classes, including some taught by Lisa Cron. Prices vary, but every week, they offer a selection of free classes, if you’re able to watch during the live-stream broadcast.
• Lisa Cron’s website offers a variety of free resources on storytelling and writing craft, including the article “Why It’s Crucial to Write Ugly.”
• The Reedsy Blog offers lots of free resources and articles on all aspects of writing and publishing.
• WriteOnSisters is a fun blog full of helpful information on writing craft, the road to publication, and the writer's life.
• Virtual Bookish Events is a free newsletter with a weekly list of free and paid online events for readers and writers, such as writing craft workshops, self-publishing webinars, book-launch readings, author chats, and literary discussions.
• FoxPrint Editorial is the website of Tiffany Yates Martin, author of Intuitive Editing, that offers practical advice for writers; newsletter subscribers get her guide "10 Tips for Editing Your Own Work" and 10% off her Working Writer Courses.

​Thank you for taking the time to read my very first blog post, after ten years of freelance editing! I hope you found the information helpful and inspirational. Please share with anyone else who might appreciate the content. If there are specific topics on writing, editing, or publishing that you'd like to see covered, please let me know in a comment.

*I have no financial interest in promoting any of these informational websites, newsletters, or classes. Book links will take you to Bookshop.org, where I may make a small percentage of the sale if you order through there. Bookshop.org is the only online book retailer that is dedicated to supporting, promoting, and partnering with independent booksellers; profits from every purchase on their site are donated to over 1,600 indie bookstores throughout the US, UK, and Spain.

Image Credits:

Boy with Book - Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Forest Overview - Photo by Venti Views on Unsplash
Magnifying Autumn Trees - Photo by Steven Wright on Unsplash

Magnifying Ferns - Photo by Nicolas Houdayer on Unsplash
Brain on Books - Image by freepik
Mountain Climber - Photo by Sylvain Mauroux  on Unsplash