So you’ve written your first draft. Congratulations! Now comes the real magic: learning how to self-edit your book without losing your voice, your plot, or your sanity. That, my friend, is like forging a sword in dragonfire. It’s hot, messy, and requires wild determination. But now? Now we polish. We sharpen. We inspect every inch of the blade to make sure it won’t snap in half the moment someone (say, a reviewer on Goodreads) picks it up.
In this post, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step approach to self-editing your first book, designed especially for indie authors.
Welcome to The First Edit. This is where you go from “Hey, I wrote a book!” to “Hey, I wrote a book that won’t cause eye twitches in professional editors.”
Let’s dive in, step by glorious, grimy step.
Step 1: Let It Rest (and So Should You)
Put the draft down. Walk away. No, really—leave it alone for at least a week, preferably two. Your brain’s been too close to it. Right now, you could be looking at a banana and think it’s a plot twist. Give your grey matter a breather. You’ll come back with fresh eyes and a slightly less delusional perspective.
Pro tip: Do not accidentally start self-editing because you “just wanted to check one little thing.” That way lies madness (and likely, 3 a.m. rewrites).
Step 2: Listen to Your Book – Hear What Needs Fixing Before You Self-Edit
Use a text-to-speech tool like Google Docs Voice Typing, Natural Reader, or Otter.ai. Hearing your work read aloud (especially by an awkward robot) will reveal clunky phrasing, accidental rhyming, and sentences that need to be gently taken behind the shed and put out of their misery.
Fix: Pause and jot down what needs changing. If you cringe, that’s your cue.
Step 3: The Editing Passes – A Smart Self-Editing Workflow for Indie Authors
You’re not editing everything at once. That’s like trying to wallpaper a hallway during a stampede. Here’s the order that works:
Colour-code and track your trouble spots. Highlight different issues with different colours—style in yellow, grammar in red, dialogue in green, plot holes in black (for mourning). This turns editing into a detective game instead of a doom spiral.
Bonus tip: Keep a log of repeat offences. If you overuse “just,” it’s time to go full exorcist on that word.
The Developmental Pass (The Big Picture)
- Check your structure, timeline, and character arcs.
- Is the story making sense? Are the characters acting like actual people (or dragons, or time-travelling detectives) and not plot puppets?
- Are there gaping plot holes big enough to fit an asteroid?
Use: A timeline map, a plot-structure map, sticky notes, or good old-fashioned coloured markers.
The Line Edit (Sentence-Level Shenanigans)
This is where your first book edit really tightens up. Focus on removing filler, awkward phrasing, and repeated sentence structures.
- Clean up awkward phrasing, dialogue tags, pacing issues.
- Hunt down unnecessary adverbs like a bounty hunter.
- Replace “he said softly, whispering quietly” with something a little more punchy. (Also, stop whispering so much—it’s weird.)
The Copy Edit – Final Polish in How to Self-Edit Your Book
One of the most overlooked self-editing tips for authors is: don’t rely solely on apps. Run your manuscript through a tool like Grammarly, then read it aloud for rhythm and clarity.
- Run it through Grammarly, ProWritingAid or Hemingway—but don’t blindly accept changes. Remember: algorithms aren’t as good as humans especially when it comes to the complexities of the English language.
- Fix the basics. Typos, punctuation bloopers, dodgy grammar.
The Format Check (Because Fonts Matter Too)
- Is everything styled consistently?
- Are your headings, scene breaks, and indents all doing their jobs?
- If your manuscript looks like a scrapbook, we need to talk.
Step 5: Use a Checklist and Editing Planner
Don’t just wing it. That’s how hobbits end up in Shelob’s lair. Create a tracker with dates, stages, and tools used. Make it visual—like a kanban board, spreadsheet, or planner app. Accountability, my dear Watson.
Step 6: Proofread the Final Version of Your Self-Edited Book
Only after all major edits are done, proofread it. Slowly. Possibly with biscuits. This is the polish phase. You’re not hacking anymore—you’re shining your story until it gleams.
Final Thoughts
The first edit isn’t about beating your manuscript into submission. It’s about working with it, kindly but firmly, like helping a confused, drunken goose out of a pub.
And remember: done is better than perfect. Edit until it’s strong, not flawless. Then get ready for beta readers or professionals to take it the rest of the way. The more time and effort you put into this the less you will pay a professional editor and the quicker their turnaround time will be. And that’s important when you are panting to get your book published the day before yesterday already.
Your Turn!
Ready to tackle your first book edit like a seasoned story-sorcerer? Contact us for a free Self-Editing Planner at info@harvardink.com, and make a start today. Share your editing war stories in the comments or tag me on socials—we’re in this together!
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