editing tips for indie authors (sample)

7/28/2019 Editing Tips for Indie Authors (Sample)

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Editing Tips for Indie

Authors

A Manuscript Appraisals Handbook

www.manuscriptuk.com

Copyright Norman Price 2013

All rights reserved


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Contents

INTRODUCTION

1 FORMATTING

2 SPELLING

3 PUNCTUATION

4 GRAMMAR

5 READABILITY

6 OVERVIEW

7 PROOF CORRECTION SYMBOLS

8 STAR RATING SHEET

9 COPY-EDITING EXERCISES

ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

YOUR PERSONAL LIBRARY


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About the author

In addition to several recently self-published eBook titles, Norman Price has had books

published by George G. Harrap, Heinemann Educational Books, Edward Arnold, The

Singapore Government, First & Best in Education Ltd, and the Pembrokeshire Coast National

Park Authority. He has worked as a professional editor for more than 25 years, during which

time he has taught creative writing at Pembrokeshire College, and also served as a book

reviewer of technical and fiction titles for various publishers. He is currently Editorial

Director with Manuscript Appraisals, a long-established, UK-based literary and editorial

agency (www.manuscriptuk.com).


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Introduction

This modest handbook is for those of you who are writing or have written your manuscript

and are intending to bypass the arduous traditional publishing route and publish your work

independently. By so doing, you will guarantee publication, eliminate the heartache of

rejection, and speed up the process of publication by one or more years. You will also enjoy

a royalty payment rate of up to eight times that paid by the major publishing houses. The

importance of competent copy-editing and an attractive cover cannot be over-emphasized if

your new book is to achieve the success your efforts deserve. If you can afford and find a first

class professional editor, the financial investment will surely prove money well spent. But as

an 'Indie' author working on a tight budget, you have to arrange or do everything yourself,

meaning cover-design, copy-editing, and product promotion.

Editing Tips for Indie Authors assumes you write well and have reasonably competent

keyboard and word processing skills. This book will help you to avoid most of the obvious

pitfalls and help you to copy-edit and hone your text to a commendable standard. We willproceed one step at a time in a simple and well-proven sequence, namely by polishing your

formatting, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and the readability of your text to suit your

targeted readership. So begin by tidying-up your formatting as shown in Chapter 1, and then

work your way through your manuscript concentrating only on the spelling. Then go through

your entire text checking just your punctuation. Next, in turn, check and upgrade first your

grammar, and then the readability of your book. By progressing slowly in this way you will

iron out most of the basic problems before performing a final overall edit of all aspects of

your work.

So let's get started.


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1 Formatting

We begin with formatting because a neat and tidy page layout will be easy on the eye and

thus facilitate the copy-editing stages that follow.

The basic considerations when determining page layout are choice of font, font size, line

spacing, and first-line indent. The most commonly used fonts are Aerial, Calibri, and Times

New Roman. The choice is yours but we always prefer Times New Roman. A safe bet for the

font size for the main text of your book is 12 point. Use bold 14 point for chapter headings,

and bold 12 point for sub-headings. Normally we would only increase these recommended

font sizes for wording on the book's cover, and perhaps on the Title Page.

A good choice of line spacing is 1.5 lines.

Chapter headings can be left-aligned or centralized, and for eBook publications your main

text is best left-aligned, rather than justified. For novels and short stories, the first line of each

paragraph should be indented; the exception being the opening paragraph of each new

chapter which is traditionally left-aligned (as shown below in the first page of a chapter

extracted from a novel). Note that there is no extra spacing between paragraphs. When

working with dialogue, begin a fresh indented paragraph for each change of speaker.

Thank you for your interest

The full version of this eBook is available from Amazon.com

editing tips for indie authors (sample)

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