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I’m convinced that writing the book itself is not the scary part. The scary part is what comes next: that moment when you have to show your writing to other people, be it alpha or beta readers, friends, or family. The urge to make it perfect is real. But the stakes feel so much higher when you pass it off to your editor for the first time. So to make things a little easier on you, here’s a short checklist of things to do to your manuscript before you hand it off to your editor:
Do One Final Pass of Self-Editing
There are very few scenarios in which one’s first draft is so perfect and polished that it’s ready to go to an editor. Perhaps some writers have self-edited their way through, and by the time they type “The End,” it’s perfect, but those writers are few and far between. For the majority of you, don’t give your editor your first draft—you probably need to do a little more revising first. Only after you’ve finished up that second draft and made sure that everything is just as you want it, are you be ready for editing. And more realistically, that might be a third, fourth, or even fifth draft—there’s no magical number of drafts required.
Run Spellcheck
Nothing tells me that an author probably isn’t taking their novel seriously more than not running spellcheck. If I open up your final document—or even your sample—and see tons of errors, I’m going to assume that you’re lazy, just don’t care, or expect the editor to do all the mundane work for you. And I’m not talking about finding a small handful of what are clearly typos. I’m talking about dozens of words with those annoying little red squiggly lines. That squiggly line tells me that spellcheck would have forced your attention to these typos and you could have cleaned them up quickly. So before you hit send, run spellcheck and make sure your manuscript is ready to present.
Start a List of Questions
I know you probably have dozens of questions you’d like to ask your editor, so keep a list of them! I love when an author is so focused, so determined to learn from my edit, that they come to me knowing exactly what they want me to tell them. Not only does this help me know what information you’re looking for, but it ensures that you get what you want in the first place. Most editors won’t shy away from your inquiries, so utilize this opportunity while you can.
Decide What to Work on Next
You might find yourself working on any given writing project for months if not years, so when it comes time to pass the manuscript off to your editor, it can be difficult to leave it alone for the duration of your project together. Inevitably, you’ll be thinking about your story, maybe even getting ideas for scenes that are already done, and it’ll be so tempting to open up that manuscript and just make a few changes.
But don’t do it.
For the entire length of the editing project, your job is to not touch the manuscript. The last thing you want to do is change the manuscript that’s already in your editor’s hands. So instead, come up with a list of things you can work on next. If you still want to stay immersed in this particular writing project, I typically encourage my clients to spend the next month or so preparing for publication—writing a query letter and synopsis if traditional publishing, or finding formatters and designers if self-publishing. Keep yourself busy doing the things you’ll need to work on later anyway. Alternatively, this might be a great time to schedule a vacation, focus on other creative projects, or take a break from writing altogether. If you prepare for this up front, it’ll be much easier to keep yourself busy later.
Did you like this checklist? Curious what else you do before handing your manuscript off to your editor? If you want more on the subject, check out my free resource, available below.
