1. When do you ask someone to edit your book?
The best time is when you have read, reread, and amended it many times. In other words, when you, as the author, are sick of the sight of it. Okay, so now you think “I need someone to read this, baby.” Some experts suggest this is the time to engage an editor, but in many cases, it’s better to send it to beta readers.
2. Who are the best beta readers?
Although you could choose one or more of your relatives, beware there is a bias here. Your mother loves you. Is she going to tell you what has taken your blood, sweat, and tears to write a load of brown stuff? Probably not. The same goes for your significant other. They may believe they are unbiased and will tell you the truth, but it is human nature to want to please. They could, however, be your alpha readers. Alpha readers are the first people to read your work in progress and give feedback on how they did or didn’t enjoy it.
So, what do you do? Announce on social media that your latest masterpiece requires beta reading? Possibly. This is how I started beta reading. My motivation was to satisfy my addiction to lesbian fiction for free. However, I was determined to give honest feedback to the authors. They did not pay me, so it was unbiased in every way.
3. What do you do once you have feedback from your beta team?
Depends on the feedback. Betas are not editors or proofreaders. Choosing different beta readers is also vital, for they will form the foundation for your process. Their feedback will depend on their own experiences, their likes and dislikes. Some authors send their beta readers a questionnaire to follow ask questions on character chemistry, strengths or weaknesses, etc. Not a bad idea!
Now the author can accumulate all the information from the betas and decide the next steps. Some authors go straight to publishing (this is not recommended as an editor is still very beneficial); some send to their chosen editor or scrap the book altogether.
4. What types of editing are there?
There are several types of editing. According to Butcher’s copy editing (the classic text for copy editors), “aim to improve the overall coverage and presentation of a piece of writing, its content, scope, length, level and organization”.
Developmental editing involves the editor looking at the structure of the work in progress (WIP). This can also be described as an overview or helicopter view of the WIP. This type of editing may require the author to rewrite the WIP. Often this will be done at the beginning before copy editing, and if the author is part of a writing community, this can be done by another author familiar with the genre, as quid pro quo..
Line editing is a term often used for copy editing. It indicates that each line of the WIP is studied by the editor looking for spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors. Other terms that are used are; mechanical, substantive or text editing. Mechanical editing is to ensure that the language is correct and consistent. Substantive editing overlaps with developmental editing. Text editing is the same as line editing.
5. What is the role of a copy editor?
According to Butcher’s copy editing (the classic text for copy editors), “copy editing aims to remove any obstacles between the reader and what the author may wish to convey and find and solve any