So, you have completed your manuscript and you are thinking about sending it to the publisher. But wait! There are a few steps before publishing. Make your book go through all those processes correctly so you can publish it. In this blog post, we will discuss how an edited book looks and how it differs from your manuscript.

Why is Editing Necessary?

When you complete your book (draft), it is not called a book. It’s a manuscript. It contains errors, though it is providing great value to its readers. But you think this way, a reader doesn’t. When he reads it and finds mistakes and errors, he doesn’t continue to read it. No writer would want his reader to leave reading their work halfway through. The time and effort they put into their work for months or years would go in vain. Whether you are traditionally publishing your book or self-publishing it, it needs to be edited and error-free. To avoid these scenarios, if a writer invests some more time in editing his book, it would be super beneficial for him.

Different Types of Editing

1. Structural Editing

The foremost type of editing is structural editing. In structural editing, your whole content is read from the perspective of a reader. The improper structure of the book, the wrong way of repetition in your writing, the flow, the pace, the voice, tense, and consistent writing style throughout the book, are corrected in structural editing.

It may not be a one-time process and requires multiple revisions by either you or an editor. However, you can edit your book yourself first before submitting it to the editor. It is looking at the overall structure of your volume. You are a writer and you can do structural editing too. Leave the grammatical errors and readability for the copy editor to correct. Editing it yourself in the first stage can save you a lot of money too. If you think you need a structural editor since you want each step by a good professional editor, you can reach out to good book editing services, and they’ll assist you in making your book perfect.

Bonus Tip

After you finish your book, put the manuscript aside and leave it completely for some time. Do anything but work or think about your manuscript. Go out in an open atmosphere and spend time in nature. This will refresh your mind. When you will open your drawer to take out the manuscript after a week, you could focus on it better than before. This can help you in self-editing of your manuscript in the first stage. You can read online articles and blog posts on how you can edit your manuscript. However, don’t rely on it solely. Consult an excellent editor too.

2. Line Editing

It is the line-by-line editing of your manuscript that checks the language in which you’re talking to the reader. It checks if there are inconsistencies, unevenness in the flow of writing, or unclear language. Line editing is the most responsible editing. A line editor, when checking the content line by line, needs to do it perfectly. If not done in the right way can change the tone and style of the writing which an author never wants.

3. Copy Editing

Copy editing deals with the technical part of the editing that includes grammar, spelling, and typos corrections. It doesn’t deal with how you communicate with the readers.

4. Proofreading

It is the final editing round of your book. It comes when your book is ready to be published. A proofreader reads your manuscript the last time to only fix grammatical errors, punctuation, and typos in case they were missed in the previous stages of editing. The proofreading phase comes at the end when all other types of editing take place. Your book will be ready to get published after proofreading.

Traditional publishers usually make the books, go through all stages of editing to bring out the perfect form of it. Then publishing house distributes your books in physical stores and online websites. Then people buy from there. Pass your books from all phases of editing, whether you’re traditionally publishing your book or self-publishing it.

Also Read: How to Write a Book Title

Final Word

To publish your book is like films getting edited before they’re released. The crew has done their job, actors have performed well, the direction was good, but imagine watching the raw film they’ve shot. Imagine if they release it as it is. Would you get emotional while watching sad scenes? Would it bring you a thrill? No. It will not have any impact on the audience. They might leave the theatres without watching the film.

But an edited film has background scores, special effects added to it. How much do people enjoy it then? That’s how a film becomes a blockbuster. Similar is the case with a delightful novel or any book. It needs improvements to excel. However, editing should not be done in a way that the essence of the writer’s words fades away. This affects writers and editors and becomes the bone of contention between them. That’s why talented editors are very valuable.

Always keep the first manuscript with you. Don’t lose it. Even though it is not a published piece, it has a lot of value. It’s the raw material that you first wrote. It can help you in the future if you decide to write the second edition of your book.