Novel and book editing and proofreading

I saved this post as a 'draft' about a year ago with very little content - since then I've edited about a dozen novels, books, fiction and non-fiction manuscripts, including several science fiction, fantasy, self-help, spiritual, and dissertations.

Whether you're a writer or an editor of any kind of book, you're going to be called upon to make it as good as can be. As a writer, you simply cannot avoid the task of self-editing. As an editor or proofreader, it is of course your job - your reputation is on the line.

This post will describe what I find to be the most useful, and most necessary, tricks and tips for properly editing a very large manuscript (50k+).

1) Focus on the forest, not the trees!! Far too often I've gone through a manuscript, fine-tuning every sentence, clarifying the writing, the spelling, the grammar and punctuation, only to find out at the end that the author has said very little, the organization is poor, the whole project, in fact, stinks. There's nothing at all wrong with this; many book ideas start out bad... the trick is how to make them good. But why waste time and money fixing all the little things - the big things are much more important!! Ask the author if they would be willing to undergo a 2 stage process, or at least warn them that the big things are in more dire need or attention that the little things.

The best way to edit a book or manuscript is to skim through for ideas and content, repetition, organization, main points, etc. Get a feel for what the author is trying to say; the story they want to tell; they idea. Is the book, in itself, successful? Why or what not? What needs to be fixed? Be very critical in addressing these needs, for if the forest doesn't work, the trees don't matter.

2) Once the author has been given time to reflect on these big ideas, has rewritten it several times, skim again and see if the book is in fact better. Ideally it should all hold together; it should 'hold water'. Individual words, bad writing, cliches, can all be fixed once the book is strong in itself. Hopefully, by now, it is.

The next step is simply to clean it up. If you've taken care of the big issues, this part should be time-consuming but also much easier, as you're dealing with simple things like spelling and grammar instead of major rewriting or content (proofreading, not editing).

3) Finally, and very last, polish it to make it look good visually. This means checking font text and size consistency, spacing, title headings, etc. If you're editing a manuscript to submit to a publisher or agent, keep in mind that they will have their own specific requirements (12pt Times New Roman, double spaced, etc.)

Following this order will produce a much more profound manuscript, guaranteed for success.

For more editing and proofreading tips or services, visit http://www.paper-perfect-editing.com.