FREE: Ask a talented and/or nerdy friend for help

When I wrote my first book, I didn't want to spend the money to hire a professional editor (liiiike, that's what I do 🙃). But luckily for me, my talented lawyer BFF Emily Hickok offered to help me catch small errors I may have overlooked for free.

If you have any friends who:

• Are total writing and grammar nerds
• Love you and want to see you succeed
• Have some extra time on their hands (not to say that Emily did...she was very kind to help!)

...then it’s definitely worth approaching them to see if they might want to edit your book. Or even design your cover if they are talented with graphics.

My personal suggestion, so it doesn’t come across as “Hey, will you work for me for free?” is to offer them something non-monetary in exchange.

Book Editing Bribe Ideas

1. Do a professional work exchange.

• Is there any work you could do for your friend?
• Do they need help optimizing their email list?
• If you’re a photographer, maybe you could do a free photoshoot.

2. Put aside a weekend to help them with a big household chore.

• Have they been putting off painting their living room?
• Is there a closet of forgotten sweaters that desperately needs organizing?
• Could they use some babysitting so they can get something done for themselves?
• Help take something off their shoulders.

3. Take them out for Starbucks or to a nice meal after all their hard work.

• Or cook them a delicious meal even!
• A gift card to their favorite store/spa/class/etc. would be well received.

I love nerdy friends!

DIY: Do It Yourself

Of course, you can edit it yourself, if you already consider yourself a strong writer. And there are a ton of great resources for editing books on your own.

Here’s a link to National Novel Writing Month’s free revision resources--as you can guess from the name, they’re skewed towards novel-writing, but the same principles apply.

One of my favorite tips for editing any giant chunk of words is to do it from big picture to small picture.

In other words, don’t get caught up editing the grammar for a section of the book you might cut entirely [Tip: Install the Grammarly plugin for free to catch errors as you write -- upgrades available for more features].

Here’s the scoop...

Three Rounds of Editing

1. 1st Round Of Edits: Does the book, as a whole, make sense?

The first time you go through the manuscript, you’re looking to make the tightest book possible.

• Does everything make sense where it is?
• Are there chapters out of order?
• Are there chapters or sections that don’t actually serve the book?
• Are you missing chapters?

These are the problems to iron out first. This is your continuity edit.

2. 2nd Round of Edits: Could the writing be clearer (and/or more clever)?

On your next pass-through, edit the writing.

• Are there areas where things are badly explained?
• Sentences you think could be funnier?
• Stories that could be tightened up to be more impactful?

Circle those and fix.

This is your personality edit.

3. 3rd Round of Edits: Spell-check and grammar

Your last pass-through is your spell-check and grammar edit.

Ideally, at this point, you’re not moving around your chapters or deleting entire sentences/paragraphs anymore, so you’re not wasting time spell-checking words that will go away completely.

• My advice is to run it through a few different spell-checkers, including Grammarly.

This is your small details edit.

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The biggest downside to doing it yourself is it’s going to take a LOT more time--especially because you’re going to need breaks from looking at your own work.

You know that feeling where you’re making something, and after hours and hours of the same thing, you’re thinking, “I can’t even tell if this is good anymore”?

That’s when you put your manuscript in a drawer, focus on other things for 3-5 days, and then come back to it with a fresher eye.

But I did it for my 2nd book...it can be done DIY.

Pay Someone to Help

• Fiverr
• UpWork
• FreeeUp
• Thumbtack 
• "Gee" Gertrude Nonterah: gertrude.oppong@gmail.com

Types of editing you can hire:

Ghostwriting

This is when a person writes your book for you. But you are still involved! Usually, the ghostwriter interviews you about your vision for the book overall, prepares targeted questions, and then interviews you again to get the content. They record the interviews so that they can play things back and make sure to convey your tone and style in the written form.

Substantive (Developmental) Editing

The most intensive form of editing. The document is evaluated as a whole and problems of structure, organization, coherence, and logical consistency are corrected. Sentences may be removed or added. Paragraphs may be rewritten, condensed, or expanded. Blocks of text may be moved from one section to another.

Copy Editing

The editor corrects problems of grammar, style, repetition, word usage, and jargon. Copy editing includes one revision at no additional charge.

Proofreading

The lightest form of editing. Minor errors are corrected. Grammar and style (e.g., verb tense, units, use of numerals and words such as “5” or “five”) capitalization, punctuation (e.g., the use of commas, semicolons, colons, periods, dashes, apostrophes), spelling, and word usage (e.g., to/too, affect/effect).

ACTION STEP:

Come and let us know what other questions you have so you never get stuck!

FREE: Ask a talented and/or nerdy friend for help

Like we talked about in getting editing help, there is a chance you have a detail-oriented friend or colleague in your network who has experience with formatting and may be willing to help for free, barter, or cheap.

DIY: Do It Yourself

Scrivener

This is my specialty, so we have -- and will keep adding -- how-to tutorials for formatting your book inside of Scrivener. But for so quick start help, check out these resources from Scrivener:

• Video Tutorials
• User Manuals
• User forums/community support
• Support + knowledge base

Word

This is not my specialty because I hate Word, but KDP has good detailed instructions on how to format your book. We've compiled some good resources here to help you streamline the process!

Ebook/Kindle

• eBook Manuscript Formatting Guide
• Kindle Create tool (free)
• Kindle Kids’ Book Creator: turn your illustrated children’s books into great-looking Kindle books

Print

• Paperback Manuscript Templates
• Format a Paperback Manuscript
• Create a Table of Contents in Word
• WEBINAR: How to Format Your Paperback

Pay Someone to Help

• Fiverr
• UpWork
• FreeeUp
• Thumbtack

ACTION STEP:

Come and let us know what other questions you have so you never get stuck!

Click here (or on the image above) to view and save the PDF version of the style guide.

Note 1:
These are by no means the only way to style your book! They are just what I like to use. I hope this helps you reduce decision fatigue or be a jumping-off point! 🙂

Note 2:
Formatting your Kindle book does not have as many things to decide!

There are no 'dimensions' (other than the cover), no margins or gutter to worry about, no spine size, and no paper type! Each person's digital device is slightly different, so your Kindle formatting has to be 'loose' to fit and flow on any screen size.

Therefore, these style suggestions above are just for the print book! 🙂

xo

Laura

PS: If you have any questions about how you can make the most out of this resource after downloading it, please don't hesitate to send me an email Laura@CopyThatPops.com anytime!