First, Prepare Your Best Story! –Write the words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, one after the other. Write and keep writing, allowing your story to flow from your heart and mind onto the page. When you take breaks from the story, don’t take breaks from the scene you’re on. Ponder the character(s), the action/interaction, the environment, the turmoil, conflict, outcome, suspense, and revelation. The story doesn’t stop due to a break from the working product.
I often read my manuscript out loud after various stops and starts. Does it make sense? Are my characters different enough? Is it too easy for the main character to get what he/she wants? Does each scene help to develop the story, and pull the reader into the action?
When You’re Done…You’re Not Done. – commit to another thorough reading. Read it out loud, thinking through each sentence, paragraph, chapter. Do the transitions from one chapter to the next, thread the story together? Do you end a chapter, leaving the reader hanging, wondering what happens next?
Check your punctuation, grammar, and look for possible mistakes in word usage. Could you use another word here or there that would say something better? Are words misspelled? Most software provide grammar and spelling checks. Use them.
Pay For a Good Editor! – When you’ve done all you can and feel your manuscript is ready for publication; you’ve followed the “Writer’s Guidelines” provided by the publishing house you plan to send it to, pay for a good editor. Yes, it’s expensive, but “Oh, it is worth it!” If you choose to go “Indie,” with an independent publisher, either pay them or find one in the Christian Writer’s Market Guide.
A Good Editor Can Help Your Manuscript and You! – Sometimes they will recommend an agent or publisher to get your work in the right hands. A good editor may charge you more, but when they’ve read your story, they can make suggestions to improve it not even you can see. A good editor, if you’re open to it, will dissect, correct, select, and detect what many writers overlook or assume.
When I wrote my trilogy, I hired an editor from a famous publishing house here in my town. She was thorough, thoughtful, helpful, made invaluable corrections, and improved my books substantially!
Protect Your Work! – Stay away from cheap pricing, cheap cover art, cheap editing and cheap publishing deals. Check out independent publishers’ contracts to make sure you’re getting fair and equitable treatment for your work. If you don’t like something say so! It’s your money they are spending on your work.
I remember asking my independent publisher to put the words: “Second Edition” on my first book, when I added a map and corrected a few of my own mistakes, that my editor did not see, because she came into my editing deal late on my first book run. My publishing date was sooner than her ability to correct my initial grammar. Anyway, the publisher would not place the words “Second Edition” on my first book, because it wasn’t a true “Second Edition.” Plus, the publisher changed the copyright date from 2013 to 2016! Now, I had three books with “out of copyright order” dates: Book One: 2016; Book Two: 2014; and Book Three: 2016.
Be Proud of Your Book(s)! – You’ve worked hard or a Ghostwriter has worked hard on your behalf. Let people know how the Lord has blessed you in your writing adventure! Call bookstores, and ask to do a book signing if they carry your books; make deals with Amazon or other online forums to display and sell your book(s). Offer to talk about your book(s) and speak about your writing and publishing journey. Others can learn from you about good and bad decisions you made, misunderstandings you had, assumptions you made and learned from, and other areas of interest you think of.
Sell Your Book(s)! – Purchase and offer to sell copies you can sign: at book fairs, out of your trunk, visiting relatives, and in your travels. You’ve conquered one of your dreams! Now, go tell others they can do the same!