Marketing Monday--Editing

What does editing have to do with marketing? Quite a bit. Especially if you want kind reviews.

I struggled with editing for a long time. I paid A LOT for editors. I have since found an editor that I love, but I came to the conclusion that I can’t rely solely on her. That’s not really fair. So, here’s my editing process. I love it. But if others have a niftier way to edit, or a tip I’ve missed, I would love to hear it.

I take my work to my writers group and my critique group. They function differently. One is a group of 10-12, and after I read my ten pages, everyone in attendance gets 2 minutes to put in their two cents. We have three readers a night, and we meet every other week. After I read my ten pages to my critique group, we talk about them in depth. Since there’s only three of us, we each read each time. Our meetings generally last about two hours.

When the book is completed, I run it through two online programs—Editminion and Grammarly. Editminion is free, and I use it mostly to catch clichés. I have a year subscription to Grammarly, and it’s great for commas, word usage and sentence structure. Then I send my work to my editor.

After I get it back from her and have made changes, I use Narrator. It’s super easy. Here’s a link that explains how to use it. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hear-text-read-aloud-narrator#1TC=windows-8

 I think David (that’s the voice I listen to) is my new best friend. I actually use two computers. I don’t think you have to, but I find it easier. As David reads, I follow along, marking up weak sentences and catching any mistakes I find.

I hope this helps anyone who also has struggled with editing.