How to edit your own book before you hire anyone

Before you start

Take a break. The Scribe Method's chapter on how to edit your book recommends stepping away for at least a week, ideally two, before you start. You need to read the draft as a reader would, and that is impossible while you still remember writing every sentence.

Save a copy of the draft. Name it clearly and do not touch it. You will cut things you later want back.

Write down the yardstick. Two sentences: who the book is for, and what they will be able to do or understand when they finish. Every decision in the passes below gets measured against those two sentences. The same chapter puts it simply: your book is for the reader, not for you.

Start a source log and a style sheet. Two blank documents. The first lists every fact, number and quote with where it came from. The second records your choices on spelling, capitals and numbers. Both get filled in as you go, and both are useful to your editor later. Copyediting vs. proofreading explains style sheets.

The seven passes

1. Pass 1: The whole book

   Read the draft quickly, start to finish, without fixing anything. Then make a chapter map: one line per chapter saying what it does for the reader. Look for chapters that do not serve the promise, chapters that could be shuffled without anyone noticing, two chapters covering the same ground, and gaps a reader would trip over. Make the structural changes now: cut, merge, reorder. This is the developmental edit you do yourself, and it is the pass most authors skip. If it turns up more than you can solve, that is a sign you need a developmental editor.

2. Pass 2: Each chapter

   Now work chapter by chapter. Can you state its main idea in one sentence? Does the first page give the reader a reason to keep going? Read only the headings: do they make sense as an outline? For each story, write down what the reader learns from it; if nothing, it goes. Check that every chapter gives the reader something to do, not just something to think about.

3. Pass 3: Paragraphs and flow

   Read only the first sentence of each paragraph in a chapter. If those sentences read like a summary of the chapter, your paragraphs are doing their job. Split paragraphs that carry two points, add a linking sentence where the reader would not know why one paragraph follows another, and cut throat-clearing like "In this chapter, we will explore."

4. Pass 4: Sentences and voice

   This is where reading aloud earns its keep. The Scribe Method calls it the read-aloud edit; we would call it the most useful hour you can spend on a chapter. Mark everywhere you stumble or run out of breath. Then search for filler (very, really, just, actually), vague words (things, aspects, various) and hedges (I think, sort of). Split sentences that carry two ideas. Above all, check that it sounds like you explaining this to one client, not like a report.

5. Pass 5: Facts and sources

   Go through your source log line by line. Trace every statistic to its original source, check every quote word for word against the original, and confirm the spelling of every name. Mark anything quoted from another work, and every real person in a story, for a permissions check. Fact-checking and permissions covers this pass in detail.

6. Pass 6: Consistency and style

   With your style sheet open, make the book agree with itself. One spelling for each key term. One rule for numbers. Your framework capitalized the same way every time. Headings at consistent levels. Every "see chapter 6" still pointing at the right chapter after the restructuring you did in pass 1. Use your word processor's search for each variant rather than trusting your eye.

7. Pass 7: Final read

   Change how the book looks (print it, or read it on a tablet or e-reader) and read slowly, one chapter per sitting, marking problems rather than fixing them on the fly. Then fix, run a spelling and grammar check with judgment, search for placeholders like TK and XX, accept or reject any tracked changes, and save one clean file.

Do the passes in order. It is tempting to fix a clumsy sentence when you spot it in pass 1, and harmless if it takes a second. But do not start line editing a chapter until you know it is staying.

Tools that help

• Your word processor's search. The most underrated editing tool there is. Search for each filler word, each term variant, each "see chapter."
• Read-aloud. Most word processors and operating systems can read text aloud. Hearing your words in another voice exposes clumsy rhythm fast.
• The navigation pane. If you use proper heading styles, you can see and reorder the structure of the whole book in a sidebar.
• Grammar and style checkers. Useful for catching repeated words and long sentences. Treat every suggestion as a question, not an instruction, because they cannot tell when you have broken a rule on purpose.
• A printed copy. Paper still catches errors that screens hide.

When to stop and hand it over

You are done self-editing when one of these is true:

• Your changes are making the book different, not better. You are swapping one fine word for another.
• You have done all seven passes and the checklist is complete.
• You have found a problem you do not know how to solve, such as a structure that still feels wrong.

Then decide who sees it next. If you are unsure whether the book works, send it to beta readers from your audience. If you know the structure is sound, it is ready for a line edit or copyedit. If you are not sure which, the editor finder asks a few questions about your draft and suggests where to start.