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Becoming Your Own Editor

graphic of man surrounded by books

If you are a first-time book author working on your first manuscript and getting it ready for publishing, I congratulate you.

You have put in so much effort into actually writing something that you consider valuable. There are so many wannabe authors out there who have dreamt and wished to be in your position working on their manuscript and coming close to completing it. All of them, they wish for it; you, on the other hand, have taken the concrete step. You have pushed yourself, focused hard and actually brought your manuscript to life with your words.

Now comes the next stage. The editing stage. In this stage, you have to edit things in your manuscript so that it reads as well as you want it to read. There will be corrections in words, phrases, sentences, even whole chapters. Are you ready for this stage?

Many authors who have gone beyond the first-time stage and already have a published book in their name seem to think that having a new pair of eyes, aka a new guy, looking at the manuscript helps. I may agree with their thinking. I don't disagree.

But the point is, here I am sitting and looking at you. What are your options at this stage when you are getting all set to be a first-time author?

Now, you can do two things:

  1. Hire a new pair of eyes, also known as a book editor
  2. Be confident of your own skill and become your own editor.

Option 1 will mean that you will have to spend good money to get a good book editor to have a look at your manuscript. You may even need to hire two editors to polish your manuscript so that it becomes as valuable to your reader as you have imagined.

Option 2 will mean that you are confident enough to do your book editing on your own. Or, you may not be confident enough to edit your book, but you have no other choice because of budget. You are low on budget and cannot hire a book editor. This is understandable.

Now that you have put so many hours into writing a good manuscript, you will need to invest a few more hours and days into editing your manuscript to the best of your ability.

Option 2 means becoming your own editor, which may not be very satisfactory for you, but it is the only reasonable choice open to you so that you can publish the book with some confidence.

~ Raza | @bylineraza