You finished your book! Now what?

You finished your NaNoWriMo project, or you are reading this later and finished your book! Congratulations! A first draft is an achievement worth celebrating, so sit back and enjoy it! Take a few days or weeks off. You just dumped fifty thousand words or more out onto a Word document (or Google Doc or whatever) and you might have fried your brain a bit.

But what about after the celebration is over?

Well, for some, this adventure might have been practice. It might have been to prove to yourself that you can, indeed, write a book. Or, you might want to get that thing published. While most of you will revise before submitting to editors, publishers, or agents, others might get too eager, and I receive a few requests for editing that I turn down for one simple reason: editors are not here to edit your rough drafts.

We’re here to edit your final rough drafts. 😉

Your rough draft hasn’t even been read by you yet, so why would you send that to someone else to read it if you won’t? An editor’s job is to catch errors and help you chisel out those rough edges, but you want us to find the things you can’t. You need to read through and fix simple misspellings you see, take out chapters that you remember only using as filler, and fix that weird scene that you forgot to work on because you were trying to reach your word count for the day. Fix what you know to fix. Make it the best you can make it. Work with beta readers, and take breaks in between. After that, you can start looking for an editor. 

But, isn’t it an editor’s job to fix my story?

We’re not going to find all the weeds if you haven’t even mowed your grass.

How can we try to make this experience the best it can be? How can we meet in the middle and show our best work and expect the best in return? Revisions. Trust. Honesty. Take your time. The scary part is over, but the hard part is beginning. Editors can help you improve and polish your story, but you will only be spending more money than you need to if you’re hoping your editor will find what you could find yourself. And if you hire an editor to do that, you’ll have to hire another editor to find more.

This list of steps is a best-case scenario and not everyone will follow it. As an editor, I offer developmental editing, which addresses things like structure, organization, character and plot development, etc. So you may be coming to me after step two because you want a professional to look for the things you know you struggle with or the things you can’t find. Or, you may follow all of these steps and still want a developmental edit, or perhaps just a line edit or copyedit.

Every project and author will be different, but based on all the available options and for those who may not have the funds to hire an editor (or for those who want to go the traditional route), this post will help you dig out those big crumbs of dirt so you can feel more confident in what you have.

What’s the first step?

Step one: breathe. You’ve finished writing a book. Now, most of you may have reached that fifty thousand words, but your book isn’t done yet, so in that case, your first step is to finish writing, obviously.

But when your book is complete, you must relax. If you dive into revisions, everything is still fresh in your mind. Not only have you written a book in such a short amount of time, but all those plot holes, character arcs, and inaccuracies you thought of while rushing through your word count are all at the forefront of your memory, glaring at you in your notes. What isn’t glaring at you are the things you didn’t have time to think about.

And with a fresh story only days old in your head, you’re unlikely to find those missing pieces in your read-through.

Step two: take it from the top

Read your book after taking your break. From beginning to end. Take notes on the questions you present then mark them when they’re answered, write down the elements of your character that will be addressed or developed later, and take note of the things that you inserted that changed in your story.

Delete nothing. Add nothing. Change nothing.

If you can avoid it, taking notes first can help you to think less like an author. Creating a pdf helps because you can’t go in and change it. You don’t want to linger too long in one place. If you change it now, you’ll work on something else. Then something else. Then another thing. Then that thing you just remembered.

And you won’t read your book. Not everyone can work this way, but if you can, it may help you identify things as they occur rather than escaping your thoughts because maybe you mentioned it…or you thought you did…or did you add that thing that you wanted to add the other day?

Step three: revise

Now you can take those notes and do your thing. Depending on the type of writer and reviser you are, you may read your book several times, changing different things each time. But no matter your preference, the point is that you take the time to give your book a good long look. Fix those typos and everything as you are revising and reworking things in preparation for step four.

Step four: find an alpha reader and/or work on queries

Alpha readers are excellent first readers. They go into this journey with you early on, maybe even in step two, and they don’t usually have a full concept in mind, which means they’re fresh. They know nothing. And they’ll point out the big issues that will help you learn your weak points as a writer and find those broad issues that you are too close as the writer to consider. It’s your story, after all. You know what it’s all about.

Don’t be rude if your alpha reader is a writer. Be willing to do an exchange. It’s only fair.

If you feel antsy about taking a break because you’re still excited and nervous and into your project, get the hardest part done: write your book summary. The query, book blurb, jacket copy. That thing that ends up being more difficult than anything else. And write your elevator pitch, too. Fifteen words to sum up a story? Good luck.

And that synopsis. How fun. Sometimes that’s easiest to do if you summarize each chapter then read through the document and put it all together that way. At least by doing that, you’re not struggling to stretch out a query that you spent three weeks condensing.

Step five: revisions (again?) and betas

After you receive feedback from your alpha readers, you’ll work on revisions, then you’ll want to look for beta readers and repeat a similar process. The thing about getting people to read your book is not so they can pat you on the back. If you truly want your book to be the best it can be, it needs a lot of attention. Even I have an alpha reader, and my book will go through another reader while I’m working on more revisions before I reach out to another beta. And I’m an editor.

Yes, editors need editors, too. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Organize a more specific list of questions and concerns for your beta readers. They will have things to say already, but they might not look at the things you’re thinking about. They’re not editors, after all. Unless you hire a professional or hire an editor for a manuscript analysis.

Step six: revise and prepare…for an editor

This will look different for everyone. Some of you won’t hire an editor for developmental editing because of all the betas and revisions, and some will have used an editor every step of the way after their initial revisions. You may just need a copyedit after your editor works on your sample and you make an educated decision. Or, you may be planning to send your manuscript to publishers and agents, in which case…

Start sending your manuscript to agents and publishers. Query, query, query, and submit, submit, submit. If you’re self-publishing, look for multiple editors and get samples so you can choose the one who fits you best. Yes, different editors will fit different projects.

The big key is not to rush. You finished a book in a month (or a little more than one), but just because you finished that in record time, it doesn’t mean you should publish in record time, too. There are multiple paths to success in the publishing industry, and as long as you put in the work to get there and have a quality project that reaches an audience (yay…marketing), you’ll realize how valuable your dedication is. You’ll see the fruits of that labor because you didn’t throw out a handful of unread pages that you hope others will be willing to read. Even though you weren’t.

Again, congratulations. You have truly done something great by completing your project. Even if the only part of your journey I partake in is through this blog post, I am glad to have been able to help. But if you want an editor at some point, whether it’s a NaNoWriMo project or not, I encourage you to reach out to me, and we can talk more about your goals. I offer a free sample edit, and I book months in advance. Even if you aren’t ready for editing yet, starting the conversation will prepare you for when the time comes.

If you need help with direction, consider my Red Pen Consultation, a manuscript analysis for those who are struggling with the revision process or for those who need a professional beta reader.

You can find more details about it and all my other services here.