Release it Clean

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of self-publishing (for two main reasons: control over your MS and short time to market). Such readers will also know that I believe your book needs to be delivered with perfect text i.e. error free. Many readers have written to ask about my approach to ensuring errors are close to zero. Tomorrow we’ll look at that but first it’s useful to understand a little terminology as there are different levels of editing or preparation.

There is line editing Aide-mémoire: “How does it sound?” → Improves flow, voice, rhythm, style (sentence by sentence)

There is copy editing Aide-mémoire: “Does it make sense?” → Fixes clarity, grammar, consistency, logic

There is Proofreading Aide-mémoire: “Is it clean?” → Catches typos, spelling, punctuation, formatting

And the order is Line edit → Copy edit → Proofread or Sound → Sense → Spots

TBC