An Indie Author's Guide to Self-Editing
You've typed “The End.” You've done something truly remarkable: written a whole novel. Maybe you cried a little. Maybe you danced around your kitchen. Maybe you collapsed face-down on the couch and didn't move for two days. All valid.
But now you're staring at that manuscript, and somewhere in the back of your mind, a small voice is whispering, “Is it ready? How do I even know if it’s ready? What do I do next?”
Friend, pull up a chair, because we have good news and a little bit of homework for you. The good news is that self-editing before you hire a proofreader is one of the best investments of time you can make in your book. The homework? Well, that’s what this post is all about.
Let’s walk through exactly how to self-edit your novel so that you can feel confident and excited to send your manuscript to your editor.
Why Self-Editing Matters (Even When You're Hiring a Professional)
Here’s a question we hear a lot: “If I’m paying for a proofreader, why do I need to self-edit first?” It’s a fair question!
Think of it this way: imagine handing a contractor a house to renovate, but the floors are covered in clutter, the walls are scribbled with notes, and half the rooms are still being built. The contractor can’t do their best work in that environment.
Self-editing clears the clutter. It lets your proofreader focus on the fine-detail work — catching the typos, the sneaky punctuation errors, the words you’ve used three times in one paragraph — instead of wading through bigger structural issues or repetitive sentences that you could have caught yourself.
It also saves you money. Most proofreaders charge per word or per hour, and a cleaner manuscript means a more efficient pass. A book that’s been self-edited well shows a professional that you take your work seriously, and that’s the kind of author-editor relationship that produces the very best results.
Step 1: Put the Manuscript Away
You’re excited. You want to dig in immediately. But one of the single most powerful things you can do before self-editing is to let your manuscript rest. Close the document. Do not open it for at least a week (but if you can swing it, waiting 2-4 weeks is even better).
Why? Because right now, your brain knows what it meant to write. It will auto-correct errors as you read, fill in missing words, and gloss over plot holes because it has the whole story memorized. Distance gives you fresh eyes. Distance turns you from an author into an editor.
Use that time to read other books in your genre, rest, brainstorm your next project, or work on your author platform. Then come back to your manuscript like it’s a book you’ve never read before.
Step 2: Read It All the Way Through
Before you change a single word, read the whole manuscript. It’s best if you can do this in one or two sittings. Don’t edit as you go, just read and take notes. Notice where you get bored. Notice where you’re confused. Notice which scenes fall flat.
But don’t just pay attention to the things that aren’t working. Choose a highlighter in your favorite color and mark all the lines you absolutely love and the scenes you feel like you totally nailed. True, these lines might get cut and the scenes may change. But revision tends to focus on weaknesses and things that need fixing, so having these reminders of your strengths sprinkled throughout your manuscript can inspire you to keep going on the days you feel like throwing your book into the nearest body of water.
This big-picture pass is about macro edits: plot, pacing, character arcs, consistency. As you read each scene, ask yourself: “Does this story work? Does it make sense? Does every scene earn its place?”
Step 3: Address the Big Stuff Before the Small Stuff
This is where so many writers go wrong: they fix word choices and sentences before they’ve solved their big-picture problems. If a chapter needs to be cut, rewritten, or moved, then all that careful line-editing was wasted effort.
Don’t worry about comma splices or sentence structure just yet. Instead, focus on:
Story structure and plot: Does your story have a clear beginning, middle, and end? Are there plot holes? Does the pacing drag anywhere?
Character consistency: Does your protagonist’s motivation stay consistent? Do characters act in ways that feel true to who they are?
Scene-level clarity: Does every scene have a purpose? Does it move the plot forward or reveal character?
Dialogue: Does it sound natural when you read it out loud? Does each character have a distinct voice?
Only after you’ve addressed the big stuff should you move on to line-level edits.
Step 4: The Line-Level Edit
Now it’s time to get into the sentences themselves. And the most powerful trick we can give you for this step is to read your manuscript out loud. Every single word.
Your ear will catch things your eyes skip over. Awkward phrasing, repetitive sentence structures, dialogue that sounds stilted — your mouth will stumble over all of it. If you have to re-read a sentence to get through it smoothly, that’s a sentence that needs work.
At this stage, watch out for these common fiction writing habits:
Overused words and phrases (run a search for your personal clichés. Most writers have them)
Adverb overload (she said quietly, he whispered softly. Often, the adverb is doing work a stronger verb could do)
Passive voice where active voice would be stronger
Filtering (instead of “She saw the door open,” try “The door opened”)
Telling emotions instead of showing them
Step 5: Do a Dedicated Continuity Check
Continuity errors are sneaky, especially in long-form fiction. Your character’s eyes were brown on page 12 and green on page 203. A scene that happens in the morning somehow ends at noon even though only five minutes have passed. A character who left town three chapters ago mysteriously appears at a dinner party.
Do a specific pass just for continuity. Keep a simple document where you track: character physical descriptions, key timeline events, locations, and any world-building rules you’ve established. Then read back through with that document open, checking as you go.
A Note About Tools
Spell-check and grammar tools like ProWritingAid or Grammarly can be genuinely helpful at this stage. They’re great for catching repeated words, flagging passive voice, and identifying readability issues. But please — do not treat them as the final word.
These tools don’t understand fiction. They don’t know that your character speaks in fragments on purpose. They don’t recognize that “gonna” is the right word for that character’s voice. Use them as a guide, but be careful not to rely on them alone.
Knowing When You’re Ready for a Professional
No matter how careful or detail-oriented you are, self-editing has its limits. You will always be too close to your own work to catch everything. You know what the story is supposed to say, which means your brain will always fill in gaps and correct mistakes automatically.
You’re ready to send your manuscript to a professional when you’ve done multiple rounds of self-editing, you’ve addressed all the big-picture issues you can identify, and you’re no longer finding obvious errors on every page. At that point, a fresh set of professional eyes will catch what yours simply can’t.
That’s where proofreading comes in — and that’s exactly what we’re here for at Redbrick Editorial. If you're ready to take the next step and work with two expert editors (for the price of one) to get your manuscript publication-ready, send us an email and let's chat about your book. We can't wait to meet you!
Want to know exactly what to fix before your manuscript is ready for a proofreader? Grab our free ebook, Self-Editing Your Book: A Step-by-Step Guide for Fixing Up Your Rough Draft Without Losing Your Mind. It's packed with practical steps to get your manuscript polished and professional. Your readers deserve a book that’s been given every possible chance to shine, and so do you.
