Over the last few years, I have read a large number of books by present day Indian authors. This did two things: broke my firm belief that all of Indian literature is substandard and brought to light why most of these books aren’t fairing as they should, in the market.

“There Are Two Typos Of People In This World: Those Who Can Edit And Those Who Can’t”  ― Jarod Kintz

India has a huge number of under-rated authors who are really good story tellers. They are under-rated for reasons ranging from lack of publicity to poor language in the books. Let’s face it, if I am writing a book, I would want it to be an absolute hit amongst most readers, would I not? Then why not take the extra step to make it perfect?

Writing is no easy job. It drains you, it takes every ounce of your imagination, concentration and discipline. So if you are a published author, congratulate yourself. You did well!

Also Read: Brand Yourself As Authors Before Your Book Launch

A writer is a human, at the end of a day. A good story teller, albeit a human. And even for people who are very careful with their grammar and language, it can be difficult to spot all the errors, with all their focus on the plot and continuity. Happens. Like for instance, I am writing this post. I might not be able to notice some minor flaw which you might already have. And that’s not all that an editor helps an author with! Your editing package will include everything there is to make sure that your book goes out to the market as a complete, polished product – content wise.

Here are the reasons!

• An editor reads your draft as a reader would. So, along with editing and proofreading, you also get first hand reader review on how the plot is.
• As someone who has experience in dealing with plots and giving the correct treatment to them, your editor can help you give the right direction to your plot, if you ever lose track.
• It’s always good to have a second pair of eyes. And, mind!
• It’s difficult (not impossible, but sure is difficult) to edit your own work. Your brain is tuned such that it will read whatever you wrote the first time, as correct.
• You have a story to write. While writing, you are bound to move from past to present, active to passive, first person to third person in your narration. So, do you pause your writing and take care of all this, or do you write the story waiting to be told? You write the story. Let the specialist bring it all together.
• Grammar. Most small publishers (at least in India) don’t care about editing and almost all authors who get their books published through these publishers, are handed the final product with very poor or no editing at all. Don’t depend on your publisher unless one of the big names has signed you or the website specifies editing. Even in the latter, know what standard of editing to expect and ensure that you get that. This is a risk you should not take.
• An editor helps you keep your emotions away from your manuscript. If your favourite character needs to die for the sake of the plot and its readability, your editor will tell you so. If your favourite sequence is absolutely redundant in the plot, your editor will chew your brain until you delete it or re-write it altogether. Yes, we are a bunch of harsh taskmasters, but all for the sake of your wonderful book!

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide To Hiring A Beta Reader

A book is an author’s baby. Would you give your child a mediocre life while preparing her for the future? No, you will give her the best you can. Then why shape your book in a mediocre way and drop it in the market, totally unprepared? Invest in a good editor. Your book deserves only the best.

And don’t forget, mistakes cost money. A well-edited book would earn you lots more. There is an essential checklist you should have handy when selecting an editor for your manuscript, I shall write a post on that very soon!

If you are reading this post and have reached this part, it is a given that you know I am a professional manuscript editor. If you want your manuscript edited, evaluated, help with ideating or writing, or even a ghost writer – drop me an email to editor@samarpita.in and we can have a conversation. There is so much I want to share about writing, editing, and social media for authors – I have so many informative posts planned for the next few weeks – hope you find them helpful. If you do, or if there are things under these topics that you’d want me to write in detail about, leave me a message in the comment box and I promise I will create that content for you.

You can also hop over to author.to/Samarpita and check out my ebooks on how to write better and make a social media presence before your book hits the market. The books are FREE on Kindle Unlimited.

If you are looking for an excellent manuscript editor, someone to create content for your business, or an expert to help build your personal or professional brand on social media, then look no further and connect with me at editor@samarpita.in I can be followed on instagram at @samarpita and on twitter at @samarpitadotin.

I will be honest about why I am writing this post on self-editing. It’d been brewing inside me for a while now. I have been witness to an acute lack of knowledge of the need for self-editing in authors, fresh and seasoned, alike. I won’t go into the reason behind the lack of self-editing. Instead, let’s try and understand why your manuscript needs it, how can you go about doing it easily, and what happens when you send the manuscript ahead without a round of self-editing.

UGHHH, No!

Writing a book is no easy task, even for those who have successfully written and published many books. And once the book has been written from cover to cover, the sense of accomplishment is high. I get it. Going back to what you have written and gone down the rabbit hole of finding faults in your writing is not always a pleasant idea.

Also Read: Reasons Why You Need A Professional Beta Reader For Your Manuscript

I have seen few established authors say that they don’t self-edit. I cannot comment on that, but what worries me is that this is read by new authors and possibly followed as a part of their writing process – and that is how people get misled with half-information.
This post is just to throw some light on why every manuscript must go through at least one round of self-edit done by the author, and how beneficial it would later prove to the process of actual editing.

But, it’s a waste of time!

Self-editing can be a drag. I know, I understand. I cry when I have to self-edit. (I shall have to self-edit this post before publishing it and I am already dreading it.) It can get boring. And what is worse is that during self-edit you might want to trash the entire manuscript, hate it, hate yourself, decide never to write again, and go on a royal trip on imposter syndrome.

Also Read: A 5-Step Basic Guide To Editing Your Own Manuscript

Don’t let this scare you. If you find parts in your manuscript that you don’t like, that is actually to your advantage. Now is a good time to reimagine and rewrite the section that doesn’t seem to be working for you.
As a rule, the editor should not be handed the rough draft that you have just completed and haven’t gone through. Editing is not a cheap process and for the money your editor shall charge, it is only wise that you use their expertise rather than have them correct spellings, remove extra spaces, format the document, put header/footer/margins, and other necessary yet mundane jobs that don’t require an editor’s expertise.
When I receive manuscripts that have not gone through self-edit, the entire first round of editing which is also the most crucial round of editing is spent in correcting things just to make the document readable and edit-able. The actual editing that is also done on the parallel is impossible to be 100 % because attention gets divided.

Also Read: 10 Things To Remember When Your Manuscript Is Being Edited

One would say how unfair that is to a paying customer and they’ll be finding me agreeing to it very vocally. It is unfair. When you send manuscripts without basic self-editing, you do many disservices to your manuscript by dividing the editor’s attention and skills and diverting part of it towards correcting silly mistakes.

Don’t let laziness or the overwhelming idea of what self-editing might make you do, put you off this important step in publishing your book. Here is a read-reckoner you can refer to every time you are about to begin this step. Tick all the points below, and your manuscript is ready to be sent to the editor.

Ready-reckoner for self-editing:

* Once you know that the manuscript is ready and you have nothing new to add, step away from it. Close the file and don’t open it for at least a week. Let the story get old, it shouldn’t be fresh when you start reading it. This gap is important, my advice is to not hurry here.

* After 7-10 days, return to your draft. Now start reading it as a reader, not as its author. This will help you look at it as an outsider, someone who has no attachment to it. Your eyes and mind will start spotting mistakes. Disassociating from what you have written is also a good way to critique the writing.

* Run a spell-check. Read each correction suggested as depending on the system you are working on, the suggestion could be conflicting with the kind of English (US/global/Australian etc) you are writing in. Make note that the entire manuscript has the same type of English. (Your editor will also be checking this for any stray spelling that might be left uncorrected, but expecting them to locate and correct every such word is too much).

* Delete extra spaces. There are bound to be a few left behind and your editor/proofreader will spot them. But a manuscript with 100 or so extra spaces throughout will waste the editor’s time. Such things usually happen if the story or parts of it are written in notepad or apps other than MS Word/Spaces, and then pasted to these applications.

.

* Read out loud. Listening to the words helps register better and at times our ears catch what the eyes miss. Sometimes it might be errors and at other times you might want to change a sentence/paragraph/section after hearing what it sounds like. Don’t get ruffled, this is good. If it doesn’t sound right to you, the author, chances are it wont sound right to the reader as well. So go ahead, read it out loud until you like how the words flow.

* Check adverbs. Here is a small exercise – spot adverbs in this post and see how you could have written those sections better! There are bound to be some adverbs in your writing – the essential ones, that justify their existence there. But apart from that, use precise verbs and nouns so that you don’t need to use adverbs.

* Always choose active voice. The subject of the sentence should be in the front part of your sentence. If you have time in hand, try to spot passive words in this post and rewrite them in active voice. Let me know in comments, and we can have a chat about how to handle these easily, if you wish!

Also Read: How To Become A Pro At Content Creation Right From The Beginning

* Just self-editing isn’t enough. You could be brilliant in the language but the fact is that an experienced editor can do magic on any manuscript, and your draft is no exception. Find one that suits your requirement and see what they can do for your manuscript.

If you are reading this post and have reached this part, it is a given that you know I am a professional manuscript editor. If you want your manuscript edited, evaluated, help with ideating or writing, or even a ghost writer – drop me an email to editor@samarpita.in and we can have a conversation. There is so much I want to share about writing, editing, and social media for authors – I have so many informative posts planned for the next few weeks – hope you find them helpful. If you do, or if there are things under these topics that you’d want me to write in detail about, leave me a message in the comment box and I promise I will create that content for you.

You can also hop over to author.to/Samarpita and check out my ebooks on how to write better and make a social media presence before your book hits the market. The books are FREE on Kindle Unlimited.