My Publishing Journey: The Editing Process

Before publishing my YA fantasy novel, Fire & Flight, I wrote a blog explaining why I decided to self-publish rather than seek the traditional publishing route. In doing so, I’d hoped to help other authors like myself come to their own decision, and just like with that blog, I wanted to give a little more insight into the publishing industry through my own experience. So here’s another installment of my publishing journey! This time, I’m sharing my experience going through the professional editing process with my debut novel and sharing my reflections on what it was like as a first-time author.

Unfortunately, I cannot speak to what the searching-for-an-editor process is like, as that wasn’t part of my journey, as I worked with a self-publishing service provider, Paper Raven Books. There are plenty of resources* where you can find and hire freelance editors for your novel, but thanks to my publishing consultant, I didn’t have to worry about vetting editors myself and got to focus on moving Fire & Flight through the process.

First up, was developmental editing. From a timeline perspective, developmental editing took the longest to get through. My editor had about a month with F&F to read through it and compile some notes for me before sending her feedback to me. Once I received and read through her feedback, it was up to me to make any and all revisions. The great thing about my personal experience with developmental editing is that my editor and I got along great, and there was often banter in the comments between us about things I was tweaking in the manuscript and if I needed a second opinion of what I was doing—a fact that I am happy to say continued as I worked with different editors through copyediting and proofreading.

Through my nearly two-month period of revisions, my editor and I continued to swap banter and comments as we went back and forth about details, questions I had, and fine-tuning F&F to what it’s become today. At this point, I’d added a whole new chapter, expanded some sections, and finally let go of scraps I knew needed to be cut but couldn’t bear to do it myself…for whatever reason.

Next up was Copyediting! At this point, I was eager to publish F&F and had even created a companion guide for it, as well as drafted the sequel. I was a busy bee while waiting for my developmental edit feedback and later, while waiting to receive my copyeditor’s feedback—which is something else I’d like to impart on you: don’t wait around for feedback because the waiting, however short, may make you anxious! Make sure to do something to take your mind off of the editing process, like drafting a social media plan, bonus content you can use for marketing, or even doing something you haven’t had time for since writing your manuscript, like a non-writing related hobby. (Does such a thing exist?)

All in, between my copyeditor’s time reading through the manuscript, my revisions, and our back-and-forth over the manuscript because of my many questions, Fire & Flight’s copyedit took about a month and a half. It was at this point, that I realized I should’ve made a style guide for all of the worldbuilding things in Fire & Flight, so if you don’t have a running list of special spellings and things pertaining to your novel, I highly recommend making one. If you don’t, your copyeditor may be able to help you with one, so don’t be afraid to ask!

Proofreading was arguably the shortest part of editing, but it felt like the longest part to me. It was at this point, I think, that I was experiencing some self-doubt and had begun to nitpick things within my novel. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this, but I will say that this is a natural part of the process and that you just need to remind yourself that you’ve read your manuscript through several times over in quick succession as part of the editing process and you’re probably nervous about the fact that you’re finally publishing your book baby! That’s intimidating, but it is SO worth it. Don’t let your nerves get to you, and again, I highly recommend working with an editor you can have a good dialogue with it. I cannot not tell you how many times my proofreader saved me from my own anxieties by assuring me, that from a technical standpoint, Fire & Flight was fine but also just being able to pick her brain about some of the things I was experiencing doubt over.

Aside from nerves or self-doubt, there isn’t much for us as the author to do during proofreading. It’s a matter of approving the changes and making absolutely certain that there is nothing you want to change before heading into formatting. If there is anything, absolutely anything, that you’ve been undecided about, now is the time to talk it through with your editors/support team and have it changed, proofread, and finalized, because once it’s formatted, your book is complete.

I’ll write about formatting in a separate blog, but I just wanted to mention that you should complete another round of professional proofreading and reread your novel again once it’s been formatted. It’s the oldest piece of writing advice I know: as soon as you change the font, you’ll find things you never saw before. But don’t worry! There’s always a typo or two in first editions—even in traditional publishing—but by completing a formatted proofread, you can catch those before finalizing your formatted book and uploading your files for print!

Paper Raven Books was amazing to work with when it came to editing, allowing for plenty of time for me to take my editors’ feedback and ask all the questions I needed. Definitely make sure you and your editors budget time to do this and ask your editor if they’re available to help you with your revisions after they’ve provided their feedback! I would not have been nearly as successful at making my revisions if I was simply handed feedback and unable to ask questions for clarification or if I just wanted a second opinion on the revisions I’d made based on their feedback.

If there is any takeaway from my experience editing my YA fantasy novel, it’s to make sure you hire editors you can work with. Don’t be afraid to ask them for sample edits or if you can continue to work with them if you have any questions or need a second opinion after they’ve provided their feedback. When it came to copyediting and proofreading, I had tons of technical questions about grammar and general writing mechanics—especially if I’d added a sentence or edited one so much that it was practically brand new. Make sure you reread your novel before moving on to the next step in the editing process, and if you can, maybe even send it back to your editor like I was able to just to make sure your revisions make sense before giving your final approval to head on to the next part of the process. I hope that by sharing my experiences as a debut indie author, I can help other aspiring authors like myself. Over this last year, I’ve gotten to meet and interact with so many amazing authors (either budding, in the querying trenches, in the process of self-publishing, or published) that it’s given me the motivation to keep going. Thank you all for inspiring me and my publishing journey—I hope this insight helps you as so many others have helped me!

*Resources I’m Aware Of But Have Never Used Myself:

Reedsy, Upwork, and/or the Alliance of Independent Authors’ Service Ratings

Quick Editing Overview:

Developmental Editing: looks at the story as a whole and the actual flow of the narrative. Are things where they’re supposed to be? Does the narrative make sense? Are there areas that need to be improved or parts that don’t serve your novel well? Developmental editing quite literally looks at the development of your novel and examines the storyline/details of your manuscript, providing feedback on pacing and structure.

Copyediting: Takes a closer look at sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and the actual mechanics of your writing. This can also be called line editing because this type of editing looks at your novel line-by-line for errors.

Proofreading: As the last step in the editing process, proofreading catches any last-minute errors, particularly for punctuation, grammar, spelling, and other technical mistakes. I highly recommend sending your novel through proofreading after it’s been formatted just to catch any final typos that managed to slip through the cracks.