In our last post, we talked about finishing that first draft of a manuscript and wondering what to do next. You may be considering self publishing, but you need to be sure that the final draft of your book is as good as it gets. That’s where editing comes in. Once you’ve taken a break from the manuscript for a few weeks at least, you need to sit down and read the thing.

When you’ve read through once, you can start the real editing process. Editing is the key phrase here – most first drafts have more words than necessary, and many, many, many can be cut. A great writer once said “don’t be afraid to kill your darlings.” This means cutting unnecessary characters, scenes, even whole chapters, no matter how much you love them.

In short, do whatever it takes to make your manuscript stronger. Sometimes this may mean sending your manuscript to trusted individuals who will give you honest feedback. Words of wisdom: don’t send it to your mom, who will love whatever you write, and don’t send it to the sibling who will hate anything you write. Find a friend or two willing to critique the manuscript and include a short questionnaire of points you’d like them to address. Include questions like “What were the strongest chapters?” “Was there anything that you found confusing?” “Was there anything that you found unbelievable?” and of course “any suggestions for improvement?”

These are straightforward questions that will hopefully garner straightforward answers. Of course, just because suggestions for change have been made, that doesn’t mean you have to follow through. You are the final critic of your manuscript before it enters the book publishing market. You want it to do well, so be sure that you take the time to make your manuscript as close to perfect as possible.

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