Revising Your Manuscript

 

Let's start out with the simple stuff: What is the difference between editing a manuscript and revising it? Editing makes a manuscript look better, revision makes a manuscript sound better. Revise, then edit.

Editing focuses on structural changes, such as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. You find your typos, your misspellings, bad grammar - but you do not change the story in any way. Revision means the gloves are off! You can move things around, add new things, add detail, work with character development - the sky is the limit! You are literally re-imagining your story.

When I revise, I check to make sure that my voice is the same throughout the story - that I have not taken any "side trips", and become inauthentic. When I have lost my voice I note that there is usually a common reason - that the story was weak at that point, and/or I was not seeing it clearly. I do not want fifty shades of gray appearing in my storyline! I also make sure that my characters are staying in character with their speech and actions. I don't have too many issues with this, because my characters can be demanding, and tend to write themselves.

Revision is also a chance for me to check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling before the final edit is done. I accept my first draft as a place to be happy, to start on the next part of my journey. It is a chance for me to find my own truth - have I written a story worth reading, a story that my readers will enjoy, or have I put a bunch of words together, albeit nicely, and called it done. 

Some of the things that I look for are unnecessary words, repetition of words, and sentences that do not read well. Sometimes when I get all of this cleaned up I realize that I need to make some major changes to the story. What has happened is that I am seeing my story through clearer eyes, and the puzzle has begun to come together on its own. I listen to my inner voices, even when what they recommend will be incredibly time-consuming. Take the time, shape things up, and I know that I will have a better story and that my readers will want to come back for more.

It is also advised to revise for genre. I write fiction - cozy mysteries - and I self-publish. The only genre requirements that I would put on myself would be no explicit sex, no violence, and no improper language. If you are writing for a brick-and-mortar publisher, you would have to check with them for their requirements.  

Enjoy the process!

(c) August 2021 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.

Publishing With Amazon KDP

I just finished writing "Invisible Me", with my friend and co-author Brad Tesh, We took our time, so this has been a year-long project. Brad and I both enjoy writing, and we were very happy with the subject we chose to write about - our spiritual self. The editing was not even too difficult ... just time consuming, even with two pair of eyes. Then it came time to submit. We both have books up on Kindle and the former Create Space, now merged as Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP Publishing). We knew that it was going to be a bit trying ... but it ended up being more than a bit trying!

The submission process to KDP goes something like this:

• Upload a formatted manuscript.
• Create a cover.
• Define keywords and categories.
• Decide if you want to use your own ISBN #, or get one free from KDP. (E-books don't need ISBN numbers, print books do.)

KDP has great software out now that will format a book for you. It is called Kindle Create, and is free to download. This I did appreciate, as the last time I submitted I was running in the dark and praying a lot! With Kindle Create you can format for three basic types of books: (1) text heavy, (2) image heavy with complex formatting, and (3) comic or graphic novels of low complexity. With next to zero techie skills, I managed to get our essentially text-only book up without too many problems. We did include pics with our bios, but they loaded easily. 

Kindle Create has three formatting themes to choose from: Classic, Cosmos, and Armor. Elements can be formatted by type: Chapter Title, Chapter Subtitle, chapter first paragraph, Book Title, Book Subtitle, Author Name, blockquotes etc. The system is easy to use, and we only had to make a couple of tweaks with it.

Now, the book cover - that was another story! Brad basically did the work here, with me just adding in the text for the back cover. I have to say, he did a marvelous job, and I had a meltdown! (Only one meltdown for the entire process of the book, so that is good! Perspective, people!) You can choose to upload your own cover, or you can create one with the imagery KDP provides. We choose the latter. We ended up with a slightly different cover for the print version - basically because the cover would not play nice! 

"Invisible Me" is up on Amazon in e-book format, while our print version is being "reviewed". (Now why don't I have a good feeling here!)

I am happy that we choose to self-publish (we did look into other options), and my hope for other writers is that if they want to self-publish, they check out the KDP system. (It has its issues, one of which is do not choose "auto fit" when adding text to the back cover - it doesn't work! Set the font size that you want o use.) But, overall, our book is up, and we did it ourselves!

(c) March 2019 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission from the author.