Richard Bradburn

Self-editing for Self-publishers: Incorporating: A Style Guide for Fiction Richard Bradburn Large type / large print edition

What is self-editing?

Self-editing is a vital stage of the production of a book. It's usually either ignored by "how-to-write" books, or treated as part of the creative writing process. Both of these approaches can result in a poor end product.

This book suggests an innovative, clear and easy-to-follow three-stage process that mirrors the editing process that a traditionally published book undergoes. Broken down into structural, sentence level and proofreading stages, each section is copiously illustrated with before-and-after edited examples.

Find the answers to frequent questions like: "How long should a chapter be?" "Should I have a prologue?" "How do I punctuate dialogue properly?" "How many characters are too many characters?" "Is editing software any use?" "How do I write a synopsis?" "Is passive voice always wrong?"

Save money. It's always a good idea to get a second set of eyes on your work, but if you've already worked through this book before handing your manuscript over you could save thousands on professional editing fees. Why pay them to fix things you can sort out yourself?

Written by a professional editor, this book will give invaluable help to indie authors looking to self-publish. It will also help authors looking to polish their manuscript for submission to traditional agents and publishers, and might just prove the decisive factor between securing a publishing deal and languishing in the dreaded slush pile.

Good luck, and happy self-editing!

The author is a professional editor running a full-service literary consultancy based in Ireland with a client list spanning four continents. Working with both traditionally published and self-publishing authors, he draws on his experience of editing countless amateur manuscripts, running several popular writing websites and moderating some very popular writers' groups on social media. He's a professional member of the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders in the UK, and a member of the Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders and Indexers in Ireland. He has written on editing and writing in publications like the Irish Times and the Arts and Letters Daily, and presents regularly at conferences in Europe and the UK.