Advanced Author Editing: Author Level Up, #15

Advanced Author Editing

How to Create Cleaner Manuscripts

M.L. Ronn

Copyright 2021 © M.L. Ronn. All rights reserved.

Published by Author Level Up LLC.

Version 2.0

Cover Design by Pixelstudio.

Covert Art © smashingstocks / Depositphotos.

Editing by BZ Hercules and Audrey Weinbrecht.

Special thank you to the following people on Patreon who supported this book: Zhade Barnet, Stephen Frans, Michael Guishard, Jon Howard, Beth Jackson, Megan Mong, Lynda Washington, and Etta Welk.

Some links in this book contain affiliate links. If you purchase books and services through these links, I receive a small commission at no cost to you. You are under no obligation to use these links, but thank you if you do!

For more helpful writing tips and advice, subscribe to the Author Level Up YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/authorlevelup.

Contents

Introduction

The Different Types of Edits

Tools for the Job

Start Watching the Companion Course

Microsoft Word Macros

Enabling Microsoft Word Macros

Microsoft Word Macros for Editors

Benchmarking Your Edits

Extracting Your Changes

Analyzing Your Data for Trends

Parting Words

Read Next: Keep Your Books Selling

More Books by M.L. Ronn

Meet M.L. Ronn

Introduction

This book will teach you how to think about editing differently using data analysis. If you're looking for the basics of editing, like how to find an editor, how to work with beta readers, or how to self-edit your work, check out some of my other books. This book won't be useful to you until you've worked with an editor on at least two books. The more books you’ve finished, the better. But, unless you are very, very driven as an author, this book is probably not for you. There’s a reason I call this book Advanced Author Editing. Most authors simply don’t think about editing the way I describe in this book. I don’t mean to offend or put anyone down by saying that—I’m just trying to set proper expectations because I’m about to take you on a journey you’ve never been on before. I’ve never heard anyone in the writing community talk about this stuff.

This book is for:

Authors who are dedicated to their craft and committed to creating quality books.

Authors who want to reduce the number of edits received by their editor.

Authors who are tech-savvy and are comfortable wading through unfamiliar technical territory.

Authors who are not afraid of numbers or Microsoft Excel.

Most people aren’t going to like what’s in the pages of this book because they’ll see it as too much work. It is a lot of work at first—I won’t deny that. The methods in this book are extremely advanced and technical, so consider yourself warned.

That said, I’ve used the methods in this book to:

Reduce the number of edits my editor suggests in my nonfiction books by 50 percent.

Keep the number of fiction edits suggested by my editor consistent, regardless of book length (i.e., I receive roughly the same number of edits for a 50,000-word novel as I do a 76,000-word novel).

If you’re curious about how I did it, keep reading.

What is Editing?

Merriam-Webster defines it as: to prepare (something, such as literary material) for publication or public presentation. The definition even lists to edit a manuscript as an example.

But if we look at additional definitions, we find: to alter, adapt, or refine, especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose. The example given is a carefully edited speech.

To break this down for our purposes, we can define editing as the preparation of something for publication and to bring it into conformity with a standard.

When you self-edit a book, you're preparing it for an editor (and publication). Your editor brings your manuscript into conformance with a standard (usually the Chicago Manual of Style), plus edits out plot holes,