What do you do after you get edits back?
Whether you’re taking the traditional publishing route or going indie, you need an editor. I recommend three, actually—a developmental editor, a line editor, and a proofreader. That’s three professional writing brains and three additional sets of eyes!
Your editors will take your baby, tear it apart, and give you back awesome suggestions. It’s exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. What do you do next? Where do you start?
(Psst! If you’d prefer to watch the video version of this blog post, find it here and below.)
Step 1: Hit Reply
The first thing you want to do is hit that reply button and thank them for their time and their care with your baby. Be sure to let them know that you may have some follow-up questions, but you’re going to take your time going through all their hard work, and you’ll be in touch.
Don’t just leave them to wonder if you received it. Always hit that reply button!
Step 2: Read the Letter
If you hired a developmental editor, you may have received an editorial letter that discusses the main points the editor wants to get across to you. Read it through, print it, and read it again. Punch holes in it and start a binder for your manuscript. We’ll come back to the binder in Step 4.
After line edits, you may have received a style sheet. Forward it to your proofreader, print out a copy for yourself, punch holes, and stick it in the binder behind the editorial letter. Take a good look because your line editor has taken the time to find out the proper way to write out all the people, places, and things in your book. It would be a shame to let all that hard work go to waste!
Step 3: Go Through the Edits
Set aside a good two hours or more for a date with your mouse.
Even the cleanest documents that get sent to an editor have a lot of mistakes! We don’t see them because we see what’s in our head, not what is on the page.
Your first pass is going to be on the computer, and you’re going to take that mouse and accept or reject all the grammatical changes. Clean up all the stuff that doesn’t require any thinking. Fix those punctuation, grammar, and spelling mistakes. Don’t know the difference between an en dash and an em dash? Just click on through and ask later!
Leave comments that require serious thought for the next round. I know you will want to try to fix other things at this point, but trust me, stick with the plan, and go all the way through with these easy changes.
Be sure when you go through the edits that you’re not changing spellings or grammatical fixes that go against the Chicago Manual of Style or common and accepted grammar rules. If you want to argue about the Oxford comma, go for it, but everything else, leave the way it is!
Step 4: Print Your Manuscript, Grab a Pen, and Break Out the Sticky Note Tabs
You’ll want to print out the entire manuscript with track changes and comments. Punch holes and add it into your binder.
Then, go find a quiet place and take your binder, a pen—any color, your choice—and several different colors of sticky note tabs. It’s time to make notes about the edits and color code your comments and suggested changes.
You may want to write your notes in a notebook or in the margins. I prefer writing in the margins because then it’s all in one place, but do what works best for you.
For my latest work in progress, I’m using:
- Green tabs for really fast changes
- Yellow tabs for things that might require a little bit of thought
- Pink tabs for things that will take me longer to figure out
- Blue tabs for something I need to look up in my series bible or in the manuscript, and
- Orange tabs for the miscellaneous notes—a question I need to ask a professional, whether I have to look up a certain day and time, or a reminder to research some other thing that I can do isolated from any other tasks in about a few minutes.
Step 5: Work Through Your Color-coded Edits
Choose whichever order to work through your edits you like, depending on how much time, brainpower, and creativity you have when you sit down to work.
I like to work through the easiest changes first, and then I’ll move on to the harder ones. Oftentimes, I solve the harder issues while I’m tweaking the easier things!
Step 6: Put it Away
When all your edits and comments have been addressed and entered into the computer, put the binder and the story away for a day or two. You may even want to wait a week. Rest your brain from the story so you can come back to it with fresh eyes.
Step 7: Read and Take Notes
Now print out your story again, punch the holes, and read it in print on paper from start to finish. Make notes as you go. Add your final changes into your document, and then you are ready for the next round!
Best of luck to you and your project!
If you enjoy our free content, please consider supporting Writer’s Atelier on Patreon! Membership starts at $1 per month! We also provide extended versions of some of our videos for Writer’s Atelier Patrons and other awesome benefits!
You can also check out our FREE Facebook group, The Writer’s Atelier Online Community!
Kerry Evelyn has always been fascinated by people and the backstories that drive them to do what they do. A native of the Massachusetts South Coast, she changed her latitude in 2002 to teach elementary school in a sunny climate, and is now a crazy blessed wife and homeschooling mom in Orlando. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s mentoring moms through Mom Mastery University, sharing essential oils, and planning superfun events for her kids and their friends. She loves God, books of all kinds, traveling, taking selfies, and escaping into her imagination, where every child is happy and healthy, every house has a library, and her hubby wears coattails and a top hat 24/7. She is the author of the Crane’s Cove series, and her work can be found in several anthologies. You can follow her on Amazon, BookBub, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
