Beta-reading, Editing and Proofreading

What’s the difference?

 

You’ve finished your manuscript. Nice work! So many people don’t even get that far. But what happens now?

Here are the basics around editing and getting your book ready to either submit to an agent or traditional publisher, or publish independently.

 

Structural Edit

This is advice on the overall shape of the story, pacing, character arcs and setting. You might do this yourself, or hire someone.

  • Books like “Save the Cat” or “The Novel Project” give good advice on how to manage your story’s structure, even before you start writing.
  • If you’ve already written your manuscript, try to identify the acts of the narrative, the characters’ arcs. This will help you when it comes to blurbs and synopses too.
  • Who is your target audience? Are you familiar with the tropes of your genre and will your story meet reader expectations?

 

Beta readers

These might be fellow writers, often from a writers group, with whom you can ask to give feedback. They might also be readers, particularly those in your book’s genre.

  • Be specific with the kind of feedback you want:
    • does it flow?
    • Do my characters’ motivations seem realistic?
    • Did anything jar you out of the story?
    • Were there any parts you especially liked?
    • Were there any parts you especially disliked?
    • Was the tone consistent?
    • Was there anything that confused you?
    • Was it too fast/too slow?
  • Be realistic and specific about time-frames (remember, they are doing you a favour).
  • If multiple readers raise the same issue, it’s probably needs fixing.
  • But! You will likely have a better idea of how to fix issues than your readers, so don’t feel you have to adopt their suggestions on how to fix it.
  • It may also be advisable to give a brief summary to the beta reader if they don’t know you or anything about the book. For instance:
    This book is a time-travel adventure novel, targeted at YA-New Adult audiences, written in 3rd person past tense.

 

 Line/Copy Edit

This is the nitty-gritty, pick apart sentences and put paragraphs back together work. It should improve flow, clarity and readability. It should also pick up internal plot errors (eg. She had blue eyes in chapter one but in chapter five they are green…)

  • Get recommendations before you hire someone.
  • Make sure they edit in your genre.
  • See if they’ll edit a sample for a smaller fee so get a feel for working with them.
  • Set expectations with regards to payments and timeframes.
  • They might pick up typos/grammar/punctuation but that’s not their primary focus.

 

Proofread

This is the final step. Typos, grammar, punctuation.

  • They don’t need to give feedback on the story.
  • They don’t even have to enjoy the story.
  • Set expectations with US/UK spelling beforehand so you have consistency.
  • If you are submitting to a publisher, follow their formatting guides EXACTLY.

 

Want more hints? Download the checklists for Covers and Graphics or Loading up Books to Online Platforms.

Have a question? Shoot me an email at authorjodielane@gmail.com

 

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT DEFINITIVE OR EXHAUSTIVE. It’s a starting point based on things I’ve learnt as an Australian independent author. Help improve it by giving feedback and sharing with other authors.