Are all your ducks in a row?
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to when the time is right for authors to reach out to editors. But indie authors can control whether (and when) to make contact. Perhaps you’ve got a specific editor in mind and you know they are booked out in advance, so you’re keen to bagsy your slot. But is your manuscript ready? And if it’s not ready now at the time of booking, will it be ready when you’re poised to hit send?
Whether you choose to get your ducks in a row before you reserve a spot in your editor’s schedule, or whether poultry herding comes later in the day, that’s up to you. But do make sure you’re manuscript is as good as it can be before you send it to your editor.
Why? Because you want to get the most out of your edit. Your readers deserve it. You want them to have a grand old time reading your novel, and polish – in the form of good editing – will help you ensure that happens.
Many editors triage the manuscripts that land in their inbox. They want to provide all of the elements included in the level of editing requested, and so the first thing they do is to check whether that’s possible.
As an author, you should pre-empt this triage. Make sure the editor can get on with the intervention you’ve requested. Clear the way for them to be able to make the higher-level tweaks. Allow them to spend their time doing the edits that require professional knowledge and understanding of nuance, context, and conventions. You’ve hired an editor, not a Weed Whacker.
Determining when your manuscript is ready for professional editing is a critical step for indie authors. Sending a manuscript for editing before it’s ready can be counterproductive. If an editor sticks to the booked-in schedule and budget, they might have to jettison some checks due to others taking precedence, or they will get back in touch with you to increase the time allowance and fee.
Now let’s explore seven signs that indicate your manuscript is indeed ready for editing.
- 1) You have a clear vision for your book
Knowing what you want to achieve is crucial. Are you looking to tidy up your writing so that it can be read by friends and family, or are you going for commercial success? Be clear on your genre, your target audience, the tone you’re going for – if you cannot communicate these things to an editor, they won’t be able to help you get the best out of your writing. Project your goal forwards and then work backwards. What do you want to get out of this experience and how are you going to make that happen?
- 2) You’ve let your manuscript rest
Build in wriggle room. You don’t want to feel stressed ahead of sending your manuscript to your editor. Make sure you’ve given yourself time to finish it to the best of your ability, which means building in time for self-edits – see point 3 – with time off in between.
- 3) You’ve completed a thorough self-edit
Before considering professional editing, you should perform a comprehensive self-edit. Attaching a first draft to an email is not going to cut it. You should have been over your manuscript several times. Send your editor a manuscript that’s as good as you can get it under your own steam. And don’t forget our old friend, the spellcheck. It’s a given that you should run your work through a spelling and grammar checker before you send it to your editor. I would also encourage you to complete an audio pass of your manuscript (using, for example, Word’s ‘Read Aloud’ function) since this will reveal all sorts that you may otherwise have missed.
- 4) You’re confident you’ve written a cohesive narrative
How up are you on story structure? Have you studied it? Do you know about arcs and beats? Are you confident on narrative points of view? Are you able to communicate the point(s) of view you’ve written from?
Before they hire a line or copy editor, some indie authors will enlist the help of a developmental editor. Others choose not to. The reasons for this can be varied. Perhaps the indie author is confident in their story craft and they don’t feel like they need this structural intervention. Or perhaps they simply haven’t the budget to stretch to this level of service.
Whether or not you have enlisted the help of a third party to help you with big picture stuff, it’s vital that it’s been considered. At the very least, you need to tell a story that makes sense. Line and copy editors are not the people to be telling you to move chapters about. To change this point of view character. To add in more backstory. It’s too late in the day for these big changes. Line and copy editors want to get at your words, not at your story, settings, or characters. They are poised to tweak punctuation, word choice, sentence variety, and syntax to elevate story, settings, and characters. (Note: tweak and elevate.)
- 5) You’ve had good feedback from someone not related to you!
If you’ve had feedback from beta readers or critique partners – not your mum! – and they’ve provided positive comments, this could indicate your manuscript has reached a level of quality warranting professional editing. Please build support networks with people who will be honest with you.
- 6) You’re happy for someone to get their hands on your work
Are you ready for red pen? (Well, red margin marks.) Some editors are kind enough to change the colour of their mark-up so that it doesn’t trigger that feeling of being back at school. But…whatever colour the edits are in, you are going to see edits. That’s what you’ve asked for. But are you ready for that? Are you in a good place to be able to receive tweaks to your manuscript? Have you placed the reader front and centre, and are you ready to see how an editor can take what you wrote originally and improve the reading experience?
- 7) You’ve done your research on editing professionals
Knowing what type of editing your manuscript requires and finding a reputable editor with expertise in your genre is a clear sign you’re putting your readers first. Anyone can call themselves an editor, but not everyone is good at it; not everyone is trained. Word of mouth recommendations are worth their weight in gold. Ask authors in your genre who they have worked with and how they found the experience.
Allow room for manoeuvre
While it would be tempting to consider the seven indicators above as being a roadmap for success, make sure you’re building in space to pull over and check your route.
Be aware of where you are at any given point in the journey. Check your destination. Adjust your course as required.
For instance, that self-editing stage I mentioned: you’re not going to do it just once. Check your accuracy and the readability of your manuscript before you send it to your betas. Whether they’re paid betas or they’re doing you a favour, make sure they aren’t prevented from evaluating your story by being distracted by typos. Your beta readers will come back to you with feedback, which presumably you’re going to act on. And then you’ll have new content that’ll need a once-over⁺ before you move onto your next stage.
So the key message is not to rush. Take your time. Especially if you’re early on in your writing career. As you get more experienced with this workflow, you can be more confident in moving through these steps, and you’ll have an idea of how long they’re going to take you. Then you can book an editor six months in advance because you know you’ll be ready. Making that call requires confidence, and confidence comes from having ticked all the boxes.
And you will get there. Serious writers do. It’s like anything: you don’t know what you don’t know. I’m here to help you identify what you do and don’t know. I’ve worked with more than thirty authors on more than sixty books. I know the ins and outs of the indie publishing landscape and I can help you make sense of it.
Let me know if you have any questions about how to get your ducks in a row and whether it is indeed the right time for you to reach out to a line and copy editor.*
*Please note: I call my service line and copy editing. The definitions of line editing sometimes blur with those of copy editing. For more information about what is included in the level of service I offer, please check out my services page.
CherryEdits 