e-Book writers all over the world have one major complaint: after you finish your e-Book, editing and finding an agent is a nightmare. While there is a simple and widely available solution for your e-Book writing and publishing needs, the same cannot be said for editing.
Yes, there are numerous free online tools to choose from, but how do you know which ones to use? Seasoned editors spend years in the field writing and reading to figure out what to ‘edit out,’ but they still struggle to edit their own work.
This is simply due to your emotional attachment to what you’ve written. You might be able to find errors in your e-Book if it was ghostwritten, but finding errors in your own work can be as difficult as finding a jawbreaker frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Although online tools can help you identify grammatical errors, they usually do not consider the form, i.e. the big picture. That is where a human touch is required. You need a second set of eyes to help you with everything from making sure the story adds up to keeping an eye on other aspects of your e-Book.
However, we stated that editing your work is difficult, but not impossible.
It’s definitely doable with a few calculated steps and clever tricks. Here, we’ll go over how you can avoid paying an external editor by using these clever ways to edit your eBook in 2023.
So let’s roll up our sleeves and turn your rough draught into a finished product!
1. Don’t Go at It in One Go
e-Books are not the same as articles. Dedication and planning to complete it is one thing, but editing it is an entirely different beast. An e-Book requires a significant amount of work to edit; for example, an e-Book writer’s editor must go through a ghostwritten e-Book at least three times to ensure there are no major issues. The fine-tuning comes later.
The first read addresses story elements. Perhaps it was daytime in the previous paragraph and nighttime in the following, while the story continued in the former? A change in gender between paragraphs is also not unusual. Because the mind moves faster than the fingers when writing, you’re bound to overlook some details.
The following run corrects any grammar issues. Here you should concentrate on commas, overall structure, formatting, and everything in between. The third run is simply going through the book to ensure that everything makes sense, that everything is in its proper place, and that there are no plot holes.
This is you looking at the big picture rather than acting like a superhero and fixing everything all at once. Because you’re a writer, you’ll come across story-related issues every time you read through. Always resist the urge to make changes.
2. Read Through Before Writing the Final Chapter
Following narrative gaps, one common error e-Book authors do is adding the same material over and over again in their enthusiasm or possibly carelessness. This might be you over-explaining a theory, repeatedly detailing the protagonist’s attire, or just going too deeply or repeatedly into a case study.
This will only help to deter your viewers and take them out of the spell that your e-Book was meant to put them in. This error is particularly typical among authors who work on their material for months or even years.
Unless you’re penning anything like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
To prevent this, go through your e-Book before diving into the last chapter. Don’t read it with the purpose of editing; instead, read it to correct it. Make or note any errors now to aid you later. But don’t spend so much time on it that you lose sight of your conclusion.
3. Go Online!
You may use some good online e-Book editing tools to make your eBook authoring task simpler. Here are a few to think about:
• Grammarly: This is a popular editing tool that helps you structure sentences and repair grammatical errors.
• Hemingway App: Another excellent tool for checking grammar and sentence structure, the Hemingway App offers more free features than Grammarly.
• Custom Essay: Custom essay, as presented by UK writing, is yet another technique for detecting grammatical errors and plagiarism.
• Paper Writers: If you just need another pair of eyes to go over your book, Paper Writers is a terrific place to share it and receive critical criticism.
There are numerous different web programs you may use as a weapon, but they all have one flaw: they only look at the structure of the text, not what’s within. In other words, remember how we spoke about looking through your e-Book many times? These techniques are incapable of identifying such elements.
4. Choose Your Changes Wisely
As previously said, since you are the creator of your work, you will notice changes every time you read over it. I’ve been down that rabbit hole, and it’s not pretty. To begin, just go through your book and make a list of revisions. Make none at this time (minor corrections are fine).
• Alter the opening (but don’t)
• Change the conclusion
• Switch chapters
• Merge chapters
• Remove a chapter (be very careful)
When you’ve outlined all of your modifications, choose three or find three and work on them.
5. Take a Breather
It’s natural to want to publicize your work as soon as you finish assembling it. Waiting would seem to be pointless, and every bone in your body would encourage you to rethink. But, put your writing away and stick to your strategy.
Let it be at least a week before picking it up again since this will give you enough time to forget certain minor facts. As you write anything new, a portion of it stays in your brain, causing you to skim over what you’ve written. Because of this, errors are often overlooked.
Distance provides e-Book authors’ perspective, which you will need while editing your e-Book. Just take a pause, relax, and then go back to work.
6. Print Your eBook
When it comes to editing, nothing beats the old pen and paper, despite technological improvements and how far we’ve gone in terms of books, educational, non-fiction, fiction, and elsewhere. Sure, many e-Book editors continue to use Microsoft Word for authoring and editing, but are they editing their work?
Printing your e-Book provides you with a “material” version of your book, which you may use to highlight typos and other errors. We know from experience that printing a book causes errors to pop out of the paper.
Plus, there’s something special about circling or noting errors on paper that Word’s track changes tool doesn’t provide. That gratification will keep you working long after the average editor (on a laptop) has given up.
7. Crutch Words – Get Rid of Them
Just like individuals have a favorite term that they use often while speaking, writers have a favorite word that they use repeatedly – even when it isn’t necessary. Read your book and hunt for similar phrases.
J. K. Rowling, for example, often used the word “nasty” in her writings. And, of course, the most often used word in her works is “Harry.” She used the name even when it wasn’t necessary. Find your crutch word and eliminate it.
You wouldn’t want your novel to be remembered as “You’re a wizard, Harry!” would you?
8. Edit –But Do Not Over Edit
Without editing, writing is like cooking without salt. You can have your book published and perhaps even sell it without having it edited, but it may not sell well. Your book is guaranteed to have typos and plot difficulties that will disrupt the flow of the reader and stymie your efforts to become a best-seller.
But, overediting is just as harmful since you will begin to find problems where none exist. It occurs when you spend too much time working on your book and finding problems in everything. Even the plot concept!
The grass is always greener on the other side, and if you wait too long, you’ll start comparing your writing to others, which is never a good thing.
There is a distinction to be made between editing and proofreading. While you may be able to readily proofread your work, editing may be a little more difficult. You’re near to finishing your novel, therefore you may have difficulty letting go of certain parts of your tale that you believe are important but may not contribute much to plot growth.
Although it is feasible, it is not advised to edit your own work. Hiring a friend or employing a professional online e-Book writing service to assist you to edit your manuscript may go a long way towards ensuring that your eBook takes form exactly as you imagine it while keeping industry expectations in mind.
If you have any concerns with the editing process or just want to share your ideas, please leave them in the comments section. We’d love to hear your thoughts on how to edit your own e-Book!
Also Read: Writing A Book | A Step-by-Step Manual
