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Editing is one of those processes that can go on forever, and I must admit to being a little addicted to it lately!
I have been working through a number of edits from my agent on Pentecost, my first novel in the ARKANE series.
Yes, this book is out and published (and available on all ebook stores!) but it is also being pitched to New York publishers by my literary agent in Sept/Oct. It's a book I know well and have read several times so editing it again is difficult.
It has already had a number of edits:
* Pre-publication – multiple drafts, self-editing, editorial review, and then a full line edit and then a proof-read, plus beta readers. More articles here about all that editing.
* Post-publication – fixing up of some minor errors/typos found by the first readers
So I am absolutely happy with the book as it stands now.
BUT when I re-read it again, as I work on the 3rd novel in the series, there are things that I want to improve.
Danger zone: every time you read a book you will find things you want to change!
There were some changes I wanted to make, plus some edits from Rachel, my agent so I have spent a few weeks going back through the book and tweaking. Here's my process:
(1) I printed it out on paper and went through it with a pen, writing on the pages and then updating the master file in Scrivener.
(2) I went through it again directly on Scrivener with the changes that Rachel, my agent wanted.
(3) Then I was sick of the book but I wanted to re-read it once more to make sure I was entirely happy. So this time, I exported it to Kindle format and read it on the Kindle device itself, adding annotations with the Kindle commenting functionality (see above left picture). It was amazing to see what popped off the page when reading in this different format. For example, repeated words were more easily spotted. Check the above example, where the word ‘tried' appears twice near the number 35. In the edit, I changed one of these words to attempted. I have also changed some of the sentence structures to vary the rhythm.
(4) Then finally I went through making those changes in the Scrivener master file and exported it for submission.
Of course, if the book/series is bought by a publisher, I will have more edits based on what they want, so it is truly an ongoing process.
What do you think about editing books that are already published?
How do you edit your books, especially when you know them inside out and need new eyes? Please do leave a comment below as this is such an important topic for authors.
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1 2 3 4 Next »At work, editing the first book in my series as well. I have actually stopped working on the third book until I finish edits from the first one. Now that I'm half way done with book 3, some more clarification was needed in the first two books. Pain in the ass but necessary.
I know I rushed to publish my first book (even though it took over 3 years to get to that) and have taken it through several post-publishing edits. I'm okay with doing that at this point. I haven't had a lot of sales and I'm learning. If I do seek and find an agent, I know it will need much more editing and probably shortening. I made a commitment at this point to not change the story so I can write the next two, although there are areas that need to be tightened up. What a process! I used my Kindle, too, and I spotted lots of things I never saw before.
So glad to hear I'm not alone in this! I'm having a real problem with the editing, as I, too, am slightly addicted to it. Not only do I love tweaking my WiP's: I'm a perfectionist, and can spend days on one scene, adjusting and rewriting until it sounds jjjjjust right - I won't stop until it's spot on, which, admittedly, can take forever. I haven't yet finished my WiP, but I'm now in the situation that I HAVE to tell myself that this is the last session of editing (after about a hundred rounds!), or I will simply go on forever. To get a fresh perspective on my writing, I print it and have a go at it with my red pen. It's the last stage in the process, and meant only as a means to refine my text, not really to change anything major.
How I edit depends on where I am in the editing process, but for proofreading I use multiple formats, including audio. For my last proofing pass, I read the entire book out loud. It's a great way to catch clunky or awkward phrasing. If I can't read it smoothly, I make fixes. And if I get bored, I also make fixes. You can also let your computer read it to you. If the changes after reading it aloud are extensive enough, I read it aloud again. It's time-consuming, but worth it.
I also find that it's important to disrupt the reading experience when proofing. So I'll proof chapters out of order, hopping around the book. I also recommend -- although this is really difficult and I don't always do it myself -- proofing the whole thing backward. You can go page-by-page but I've even used word-by-word. You'd be astonished at the typos you find when you can manage to focus on just the words, not the flow of the words.
When I worked in traditional publishing, every book we published had multiple rounds of editing. A development editor, a copy editor, a technical editor, and a production editor looked at every file, with the author reviewing between rounds. Once the book was laid-out, it went through two, sometimes three, passes of proofreading, with two or three people reading each pass. I see people say, "oh, you must hire a professional editor" but unless you can hire multiple professional editors, the only way to replicate traditional publishing is to do many rounds of editing, in as many ways as possible, with as many eyes as possible. To do that, I try to have fresh readers for each stage--alphas, betas, and the just-before-publication readers. On my second book, I had five people reading/proofing the final version and a typo still slipped through. (It's been fixed now.)
I also read the book out loud, certainly before it goes to beta readers - more here
http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/10/03/7-reasons-why-you-should-read-your-book-out-loud/
I also do multiple rounds of editing - my structural editor is different to the beta readers and also to the final copy editor - plus all my own editing. I agree that we have to try to emulate the editing and high standards of (the best of) traditional publishing.
I feel that reading outloud from a printed manuscript, not the computer screen, is a vital form of editing. For me, it really catches the flow of the story. I write in the same style as I speak and I want the reader to hear my voice just as if I'm telling them the story. Not showing them the story. :) I also have an acquaintance read the manuscript back to me and I follow along, making notes as to how I feel that a reader would be processing it.
Joanna, thanks for the tips on using Scrivener and editing on Kindle. I'm going to try this.
Garry
I try to use as many different methods as possible, too, and I always catch new things with each pass. After reading a book on my Kindle, I go through it another time with the Text-to-Voice, letting the Kindle read it aloud to me. It amazes me what I'll miss until that robot voice repeats it!
I did the Kindle editing step for Seen Sean?, and it helped tremendously. I plan to do this also when [title redacted] is ready.
I find it very difficult to re-read a book I've written. I always want to change things...a word here, a phrase there. But, like children, our books are the products of our ideals and maturity at that moment. Thank goodness I didn't start having children until I was 35, and didn't publish my first book until I was 45!
Great insights Joanna! Hope the sell goes well!
I personally have come to really enjoy the Adobe app on my iPad for editing. It allows me to comment, underline, annotate, highlight, and mark up my document almost as if it were paper. I used it to edit my current novel and found it to be very helpful, especially since it gave me a break from the distractions of my computer!
I also recently finished a proofing job for a previously published book that is being re-released as a second edition, although I did use word's track changes for that project.
I'll take a look at that - sounds like an interesting option - although as I use Scrivener as my master file I have to make any changes back in that.
What do I think about editing a book I've already published?
Hell yes.
Asymptotically approaching perfection, but never reaching it. As long as I have that capability I'd be stupid not to use it.
Caveat: print editions may not get updated as frequently...