Anyone just wrapping up their 50,000 words in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) competition may be facing their next dilemma sooner rather than later. They have a fresh new manuscript and have no idea what to do with it or what comes next in the publication process. In fact, with any new writer and his/her first manuscript comes the same question. What now? What do I do with this new manuscript?
The very first action taken should be to take no action at all. Sit back and bask in the glory of your hard work and congratulate yourself for completing something quite amazing. Let you new manuscript breathe. In fact, start breathing yourself. Take a walk or go out on the town. Catch up with friends or take Fido for a long overdue walk. You’ve earned some time off.
After a couple days or weeks, pick up that manuscript and have a quick, rough read through. You’ll be looking from a fresh, rested perspective, and you’ll notice your manuscript still needs some work. The next step to take is to find an editor. You don’t need to make a decision, at this point, as to whether you should sell your book as an eBook or go the traditionally publishing route. All that can wait. For now, your book needs polish.
Finding an editor can be as simple as doing a search online or letting your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages. Of course, these options may cost you a lot of money. Another option might be to ask your other writer friends who they recommend for editing. Everyone has an opinion, and certainly a writer about editors. Only, don’t take their word for it. Gather the list of suggestions, and then research each name for experience, availability and price. And if you possibly can, get a second opinion of any editor you are considering, and even a third opinion if available. Chances are, the more you know, the less you’ll regret your decision later on.
The editing process can take weeks for a full-length novel, and even longer for non-fiction technical manuals and such. The end result is well-worth the wait, however. Once you receive your edited manuscript, it is time for the rewrite. What? You didn’t think you were actually finished, did you? No, you’ve only just begun.
The rewrite consists of your going through every inch of your manuscript and reading it, much like any person off the street would read it. Then rewrite any scenes, paragraphs or characters that need clarified, scaled up or down, or changed for historical/factual purposes. Perhaps you may not like the introduction or the ending you gave the book. Rewrite it. In fact, it would be smart to rewrite a vital portion of the book, such as the ending, several times in several different ways.
After the rewrite process, your book is ready for editing again. Yes, a second edit, this one even more important than the first, will catch many typos/grammatical and other errors that were missed on the first edit or that were written in with the rewrite.
After the second edit, you may elect to hand your precious manuscript over to a few willing individuals to Beta Read for you. We will stop here and discuss Beta Readers in my next article. It will give you some time to take in the above information and formulate a plan of your own.
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