The Importance of Editing And Revising Your Book Manuscript

Finally! You’ve finished your book. Next is getting the cover and starting to sell it right? Wrong! In this post, I want to impress upon you the critical importance of editing and revising your book manuscript before you reading audience sees it.

Unless you’re a very experienced writer, you are going to need a good developmental editor.

I’ve heard some new writers say they are afraid an editor will want them to change the voice of the character and maybe the theme of the story. Those are not things an editor does.

What a good editor should do, is help make your story clear and concise and as readable as possible for your audience. Nothing more.

Sometimes editors proofread, but frankly that’s not what makes a story shine. It’s HOW the story is told which determines whether or not an audience will be grabbed by what you’ve written.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a closer look at what an editor really does for your writing and why it’s so incredibly important.

In a nutshell, editing and revising a book manuscript involves;

The flow of your story
The pacing of the plot
The development of your characters
Point out weak spots in the storyline that make it lag
Find areas of inconsistency
Discover the overall mood and feeling of reading your story
Makes sure that each paragraph and chapter contributes to the overall narrative

I’m a writer, as well as, an editor and I can tell you that a good editor can take your story from mediocre to GREAT.

They can do this quickly too. Editors read a lot of book manuscripts that may or may not be fully finished and ready to go the printers. They know the standard storylines and are aware of the character types included.

This works in your favor because they can very quickly – usually within a few sentences – discover whether or not the author of the manuscript knows what they are doing.

Hence, this discovery will encourage them to either read or put the book down.

When I say an experienced editor knows quickly whether the writer is skilled or not, I’m talking about – within sentences – not chapters.

Within 8 sentences to be exact. Yes, they will know that fast.

Check out my Sneak Peek Critiques© here…

So, I would highly recommend seeking feedback from a good editor or beta readers or even joining a writing group to gain valuable insights and suggestions for improvement.

By editing and revising your book manuscript, you can refine your storytelling and create a polished final product.

Thanks for reading and I wish you a very prosperous day, Renee