A couple weeks back I recommended that you check out Beth Hill over at The Editor’s Blog. It turns out she made a video a few years ago on how to edit a book, so I figured I’d share it with you all today. Self-editing is an important skill to learn (albeit not always an easy one), and the advice she gives is good practice. It will save you a lot of time and money when it comes to hiring an editor for your novel down the road. Keep in mind, however, that being a good self-editor does not mean you shouldn’t have someone else read and critique your work. It’s simply one more step on the road to publication. Use it to your advantage.
You can view the video below:
The Sarcastic Muse 
This was good + I liked that the video was SHORT. The one I’ve done before, but hadn’t realized the significance of if until Beth mentioned it — I always read my full manuscript in a different spot that I wrote it. She says that helps you see things you wouldn’t catch otherwise. Thanks for sharing this video, Michelle.
This is an amazing conglomeration of tips and tricks for this sometimes daunting process. There were three ideas that really hit home with me – edit with a hard copy, do it somewhere different from where you wrote it, and make multiple passes to focus on different things each time.
The other thing – that I probably need to work on – is getting ahead of my self-imposed deadlines. I like to publish something once a week. And I usually find myself doing just in time editing right after a draft is completed. If I can get some more material in the queue, I would love to leave it sit for awhile to see how things read a couple weeks later, before hitting the publish button.
My penmanship is miserable, but the few times that I have edited with a pencil and paper have been extremely gratifying and productive. I am actually looking forward to trying out some of these ideas in my next story, thanks Michelle!