Is your manuscript actually ready for editing?

Most manuscripts that come to us are not ready for editing. That is not a criticism. It is the normal state of a first book, and it is the reason this page exists.

An editor works with what is on the page. A developmental editor can tell you the middle sags, but cannot write the middle for you. A line editor can sharpen a sentence, but cannot decide what the sentence is for. If the book is not finished, the edit becomes an expensive way to find that out. You pay for the pass, you rewrite half the book, and then you pay for the pass again.

The five questions below are what we ask on a consult. Answer them honestly and you will usually save yourself a revision round, sometimes two.

1. Is there a complete draft, start to finish?

Ready looks like: every chapter exists. The ending is written, not sketched. There are no notes to yourself in square brackets saying “fix later” or “add scene here”. If someone opened the file cold, they could read it from the first page to the last.

Not yet looks like: chapters 1 to 14 are polished and chapters 15 to 22 are an outline. The last chapter is a paragraph. You have three versions of chapter 9 and have not chosen one. You are still deciding whether the book is one volume or two.

What to do: finish it. A rough complete draft is worth more to an editor than a beautiful partial one, because structure only shows up when the whole thing is there. Write the missing chapters badly if you have to. You can fix bad. You cannot edit blank.

2. Have you revised it yourself, after a break?

Ready looks like: you put the finished draft away for at least two weeks, then read it as a reader, then made changes. Real changes, not typo hunting. You cut something you liked. You moved a chapter. You know which parts you are unsure about and can name them.

Not yet looks like: you typed the last sentence on Sunday and sent it to an editor on Monday. Or you have revised the first three chapters eleven times and the rest once. Or your “revision” was a spell check.

What to do: take the break. Then read the whole manuscript in a different format from the one you wrote it in. Print it, or send it to an e-reader, or have your computer read it aloud. The change of format breaks the familiarity that lets your eye skip over problems. Keep a list as you go. Fix the list. Then it is ready to leave your hands.

3. Can you say what the book is and who it is for?

Ready looks like: you can describe the book in two sentences without hedging. You know the genre, or the shelf it sits on. You can name three published books a reader of yours would also read. For non-fiction, you can state the promise: what the reader can do or understand after finishing that they could not before.

Not yet looks like: “It is sort of a memoir but also a business book, and there is a bit of a novel in it.” Or “It is for everyone.” Or the description changes depending on who is asking.

What to do: write the two sentences. Then write the back-cover copy, about 150 words, as if the book were finished. If you cannot do it, the book has a focus problem, and that is a writing problem, not an editing problem. Editors can help sharpen a focus. They cannot supply one. Fixing this now also makes the cover brief, the metadata, and the launch plan much easier later.

4. Has anyone other than you read the whole thing?

Ready looks like: at least two or three people who are not related to you have read the complete draft and told you something specific. Where they got bored. Where they were confused. Which character they did not believe. You have compared their notes and noticed where they agree.

Not yet looks like: your spouse loved it. Your writing group has heard chapters one through five over eighteen months. Nobody has read the second half. Or people have read it, but you asked “did you like it” and got a yes.

What to do: find readers who read your genre. Give them the manuscript with three or four questions to answer, and ask for a page number wherever they stopped or skimmed. Ignore the compliments, and ignore any single opinion. Where two readers stumble in the same place, there is a problem. Fix those before the edit, and the editor can spend their hours on the things a reader cannot see.

5. Do you know what kind of edit you need, and will you act on it?

Ready looks like: you understand that a developmental edit, a line edit, a copyedit, and a proofread are four different jobs done at four different stages, and you have a view on which one you are at. You have time set aside to work through the notes. You are prepared to cut, restructure, or rewrite if the notes say so.

Not yet looks like: you want “a full edit” so the book is “done”. You expect the editor to make the changes and hand back a finished book. Your launch date is in six weeks and it is fixed. Or, quietly, you want the editor to confirm the book is finished, not to tell you what to change.

What to do: be honest about what you want back. If you want a verdict on whether the book works, that is a developmental edit (some editors sell a lighter version as a manuscript assessment), and it produces a report, not a clean file. If the structure is sound and you want the prose improved, that is a line edit. If you only want errors caught, that is a copyedit or proofread, and it is a mistake to order one before the earlier work is done, because every rewrite introduces new errors. Our services page describes each pass.

What happens at a consult

Send us the manuscript and tell us where you think you are. We read it and tell you what we see, in plain terms, within three business days. Sometimes that is “ready for a line edit”. Sometimes it is “the second act needs another pass before anyone edits a sentence”. If it is the second, we say so before you spend a dollar, and we tell you what to work on. There is no charge for that conversation, and no obligation afterwards.

Most services will happily sell you a copyedit on an unfinished book. We would rather see you again in three months with a better one.

The checklist

Print this. Answer each line with a plain yes or no. Two or more in the second column means another revision round before you spend money on editing.

Where Guardian Angel Press fits

We read the manuscript before we quote any package, and that read is where we tell you whether the book is ready. If it is not, you hear that first, with a clear list of what to work on. When you are ready, or if you want a second opinion on where you stand, get in touch and we will read it.