Did you finally finish your first book? Congratulations.

There is something incredibly satisfying about finishing your novel. You might even think the hard part is over. If that is what you’re thinking, then I’m sorry, but its time to burst that thought bubble.

You have just stepped into the realm of editing. When I first ventured into this spot, I thought that it would be simple. Get some grammar and spelling cleaned up, then try not to let the mobs break down my door as they tried to all get my book at once.

Turns out, there’s more to it than that.

Who Should I Have Edit My Book?

There’s a few do’s and don’ts here. You could have your family help you with this. Maybe one of your relatives is an English teacher, and you think they’d do a swell job. However, you might want to reconsider that for a minute.

This is not yet the stage where you get somebody to cleanup your grammar and spelling. This is where you clean up your structure. For that, you really want somebody who does this for a living.

Now, you might be able to learn this on your own, but I suggest you hire somebody when you’re first starting out. I’ve had 3 or 4 different editors work on my books in the past. I learned a lot from each of them when it comes to structure.

Yes, they will charge you for their services, but think of it this way: If you were an accomplished writer, and had an agent and a publisher lined up to sell your book, they would run it through an in-house editor too. This editor would check things that you might have overlooked, things that might be essential to making your book actually sell.

Now if you don’t care that anyone reads your book, you just wrote it for yourself, fine. But most of us writers hope that all the love and attention, not to mention hard work will be enjoyed by others.

For that to happen, there’s a bit of craft that we have to work on.

Since your first book is not likely to find a big publisher right off, you need to find yourself a freelance editor. With recent inflation, I don’t know current pricing, but it is dependent on how many words your book is. In the past, I’ve spent up to and over $2000 for my books to get edited per round.

I typically just go one round with the editor, but there are times when its helpful to do more. However, as you get going there are a few different types of edits that you can hire out for.

Types of Edits

For most of us, when we think about editing, we think about proofreading. However, the one I think is most valuable when you start editing, is called copy editing.

Copy editing is where somebody goes through your book, looking at everything from continuity to structure to how you actually tell the story.

When I get a copy edit back, I find it has a lot of changes made to it, but also a lot of suggestions. They might say things like: In chapter 10 your character is wearing a backpack, but in chapter 3, when she left school, she grabbed her notebook instead. This is called a continuity error, and there’s likely a bunch of things like this.

They will also create a character sheet, and if your character does things that don’t match with their character, they can let you know. This is especially helpful if you’re doing a series.

They will also tell you if chapter 4 needs to be removed entirely, or moved for better flow. The worst is when they tell you that one of your darling characters is distracting from the meat of the story and needs to be erased from the novel.

Sometimes they just remind you to show, not tell about your surroundings. For instance, you could say that young Jack and Jenny were walking down the busy street, when a more descriptive explanation would have painted the picture better. Something like:

Jenny paused a moment over one of the many rank smelling sewer manholes, not an ideal spot to stop along this crowded sidewalk, but the sound of tires and engines put her mamma-radar on full caution mode. Quick as a flash, she looped a finger in Jack’s denim backpack to hold him back as a yellow taxi sped through the red light, causing men and women to shout, annoyed at the careless disregard for pedestrian traffic. “What’d I tell you about looking both ways, Jack,” she warned.

See how that might bring a scene to life? You don’t need to get purple with your prose, but you do need to transport your reader into the world you’re creating.

Process of Editing

Here’s how I go about editing. After I’ve written my book, I go back through and do my very best at a copy edit. I might do this more than one time, up until I can’t find any better ways to fix my book.

Then I’ll send it off to a copy editor, and have their fresh eyes work on the book. When they get it back to me, I’ll go through it and make a judgement call on all of their comments and fixes.

After that, I’ll go through it a couple more times, honing and shaving, until the story is as sharp as it can possibly be. If I like it, then it’s on to proof editing. If I don’t like it still, I’ll send it back for another copy edit, with instructions on where I’m stuck. Sometimes I even put the book on a shelf for a couple months, so I can review it with fresh eyes.

For the proof edit, this is where you could have your English teacher friend or family go through it. However, you can also hire this out, or do it yourself. Keep in mind, that if you do it yourself, it’s more than just running it through spell checker.

It’s hard, because you may not realize this, but when you read, you don’t always see every word and letter. Your mind glazes over things and fills in the blanks. I’ve heard of some people who will read their book backwards, so they don’t get caught up in the story while they’re proof reading.

At the same time, you don’t need to maintain perfect grammar. You can have a voice, but try to be deliberate about it. Don’t accept bad writing, just because you don’t know any better.

Most readers will notice when your writing is in a particular voice, versus when you just sound stupid, as if you didn’t know what you were doing.

By the time you’re done, you may have gone through your book over a dozen times. Congratulations, you just might be done. Now what?

Stay tuned, as I discuss the next steps in writing your first book. If you’d like to see my YouTube commentary on this subject, please visit:

If you’d like to read any of my “Trunk” novels, check out my books that I did under the pen name of B.C. Crow. Keep in mind though, these are called trunk novels for a reason, and that’s because I should have left them buried in a trunk, rather than risk you reading my earlier works. The books I publish now, under my own name, Brent Lindstrom, are much better, and as you get more experience, your future books will continue to get better also.

Till next time, keep writing.

By the way, check out my short video I did to go along with this clip at: https://youtu.be/hy9jZHKy5i8