Each month I join forces with fellow indie author Michael La Ronn to co-host a new self-publishing show that’s part of the Alliance of Independent Authors’ weekly broadcast schedule. In each show we’ll take a look at a specific part of the self-publishing journey and delve into it in more detail in order to help beginning indie authors achieve their author and self-publishing goals.

The topics covered in this month’s self-publishing podcast were focused around the book editing process – specifically aimed at beginning authors who write fiction or non-fiction:

Editing Topics in our Podcast

• Three steps to manuscript editing: Self-Editing, Beta Readers and Professional Editing
• Definition of the different types of editing
• Developmental Editing
• Copy/Line Editing
• Proofreading
• Editing Tools (like Grammarly, Pro Writing Aid, Hemingway)
• Editing Challenges
• Working with a book editor
• How to find a book editor
• How to find a vetted editing service via the ALLi Partner Member listing
• How to get book editing discounts from ALLi Partner Members

Show #2 Podcast: All About Editing

Our Show’s Podcast Playlist

Subscribe to our Ask ALLi podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Player.FM, Overcast, or via the RSS feed

Our YouTube video will broadcast the 3rd Tuesday of each month, and the show summary and podcast will be available on the Friday of the same week.

You can read the full show transcript or watch the video over on the Self-publishing Advice Centre blog that is hosted by the Alliance of Independent Authors.

Transcript Excerpts:

Considering Your Budget

Jay:  It’s kind of the chicken and the egg thing you know, as a beginning author you maybe don’t have the money to spend on a big editing budget, but if you don’t spend any money on getting your book edited, it will go out there and it’s poorly edited, or not even proof read. You’re going to end up with some bad reviews on Amazon or Goodreads and people are quick to point out when there’s lots of grammatical mistakes or when there’s holes in the plot and everything. Those reviews don’t go away, so…

Michael:  That’s true, they don’t go away unless you un-publish your book, and nobody wants to do that right, you know. At a bare minimum you know when you’ve got a competent editor when in your book reviews, no one says anything about typos. That’s when you know that you’ve got an editor that has done their job.

Beginners’ Books about Editing and Self-Editing

Jay:  Have you read any good books about editing or self-editing or anything around the editing process that would be good for beginners?

Michael:  Oh yes, I’ve got a big, nice long list here actually. So, a couple, I’ll just pick from it. The one I would recommend first that a lot of people start with is:

• Self-Editing by James Scott Bell, now James Scott Bell has written, he’s an award winning writer, he’s written a ton of writer’s digest books. All of his books are great, but that is one I would recommend that you start with.
• Self Editing for Fiction Writers, by Rennie Brown and Dave King, that’s also another go to book that you will hear about on a lot of writing blogs and podcasts.
• And the final one that would read to help you stay out of editing purgatory would be The Pursuit of Perfection, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It’s more of a treatise on why the pursuit of perfection is a bad thing and why spending the time on fifty drafts will hurt you in the long term for your career. And it gives you some tips on how to get through your editing faster without sacrificing that quality right, because that’s important.