Editing 1, 2, 3

EVEN MORE THAN THE PROCESS of writing a first draft, I actually enjoy editing. For me, editing in all its phases is akin to polishing and refining a rough gemstone until it shines.

Like any craftsman, I take the work one stage at a time, gradually changing my manuscript into what I hope will be a jewel worthy of my audience. The progressive stages of editing range from looking at big-picture issues to checking grammar and punctuation. Each step leads me closer to a finished product.

As in all things that lead to a finished book, editing is not a solo process— it is a team effort that includes my editor, my beta readers, and myself.

The names of the different stages and types of editing can be confusing, but each has its special role in creating a manuscript ready for publication.

• Developmental editing (also sometimes called substantive or content editing) begins after the first draft of the manuscript is complete. This first-stage editing evaluates the story’s organization, plot, character development, narrative flow, pacing, and other overarching issues. Some authors use beta readers to evaluate these things or a combination of beta readers and an editor.

For Ashes and Ruins, I used beta readers for the first section (Book I takes place in Germany) and my editor for the full manuscript when it was completed. My beta readers and my editor agreed that the diary sections of the manuscript weren’t working. Also, several plot lines needed clarification. This input led to months of rewriting.

Making the diary entries more accessible to the reader was the most difficult task for me. I have never actually kept a diary and felt at a loss. At my editor’s suggestion, I reread The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societyand sections of The Diary of Anne Frank. I was elated when, after reading the reworked manuscript, my editor wrote saying, “What a difference! It’s interesting, balanced, and flowing!

• Line Editing (sometimes called copyediting)is the second step in the editing process. It tackles writing style, language use, readability, sentence structure, word choice, clarity, and tone. A good editor can help with all these things while allowing the author’s distinctive voice to remain. This phase also deals with grammar, punctuation, and consistency and ensures the writing conforms to the rules of a style guide, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, a publishing industry standard.

For me, this is the fun part. I start the process myself by searching for overused words . . . and I have quite a list of words I use repeatedly in my first drafts. With the help of Microsoft Word’s “find” function, I root them out and replace them. Just (this word is my personal worst offender) can be replaced with simply, merely, only, or (just) deleted. Large transforms into gigantic, huge, massive, vast, substantial, ample, spacious . . . and it can also often be deleted. My editor finds more problems to correct―repeated words, confusing sentences, puzzling descriptions. I love how each improvement makes a positive difference.

Most publishers have their own style guide rules used in conjunction with the Chicago Manual of Style. As an independent publisher, I can decide on a few style rules of my own. To make a clear distinction between the narrative text and the diary entries in Ashes and Ruins, I created two different sets of rules. The diary, understood to be written originally in longhand by a young woman, has no quotation marks or italics and uses OK rather than okay. The narrative segments, on the other hand, utilize standard style guidelines more strictly.

At this stage, my two previous books were submitted to an additional editor for a fresh set of eyes. The “backup” editor read the manuscript as a kind of combination copyeditor and proofreader. However, for reasons unknown (impatience? overconfidence?), I skipped this step with Ashes and Ruins. This was a mistake! So many things that could have been caught by “fresh eyes” ended up in the PDF created by my book designer.Making edits in a PDF is more complicated and involves the book designer having to incorporate the actual changes into the file. I will not neglect this step in the future.

(see post “Inside a Book” https://kathrynslattery.substack.com/p/inside-a-book).

• Proofreading is the final stage of editing. It should catch typos and spelling and formatting errors―all the little things that can slip by even when (or especially because) one reads the manuscript over and over. Proofreading usually happens after formatting and before the file is sent to the printer.

Finally, after two read-throughs by both my editor and myself, we have completed the arduous task of proofreading the book design PDF. Ashes and Ruins is finally ready to be printed as an ARC (advance reader copy).

The ARC, an actual prepublication facsimile, will undergo additional proofreading by myself and a dedicated proofreader to catch any remaining tiny errors. The ARC (or an eBook facsimile) is the format sent to potential reviewers, accompanied by a note that indicates it is not intended for sale and may still contain typographical and layout errors “not to be present in the final book at release.”

Editing a book to make it “publication ready” is a long and complicated process. Even the most vigilantly edited books can end up with errors that were missed by every member of the team. In some ways, computers and digital publishing have made editing simpler, but the ease of moving things around also makes it more likely for little errors to remain behind.

How many times have you read a book or a magazine article and found a stray typo or missing word? Some sources say that one error for every 10,000 words is an acceptable target for a clean, professionally edited book. So, if a few editing mishaps remain in a full-length novel, a reader can still rest assured that the editing team worked diligently to make the book as flawless as possible.

Now on to the next step: asking for reviews!