In my last blog post, we looked at starting to prepare your book file before you send it off to your editor. In this one, we will be thinking in more detail about some of the specific steps you can take to ensure your book is ready to be edited. Most of these are actually very easy for you to do, so it is worth spending a bit of extra time on them. Before we look at how to do these steps, we will first consider why it is worth preparing your book before sending it for editing and how it can benefit you.
One of the key advantages of preparing your book for editing is that it should end up costing you less. If your editor charges per hour spent on your work, they should have to spend a lot less time than if you have already done some preparation. This then means that you will be billed for fewer hours, making editing a cheaper experience for you. Even if your editor charges by the word, they may well have a scale of how much they charge based on the standard the work is currently at. Therefore, you should get a cheaper rate if you have spent some time preparing, as there will be less for your editor to do.
Preparing your book should also make the editing process quicker. The more you have corrected before it heads to the editor, the easier it will be for them and the less time they have to spend on it. Just sorting out some minor problems will mean that a lot of time usually spent tidying up the work before a full edit is saved, making the whole process faster. This is especially useful if you have deadlines looming, as there may well be a wait to book you in with an editor. If you use this time spent waiting to get started with some self-editing, you will often find that your book spends a lot less time with the editor, giving you a bit of leeway.
Choosing the Font
The main consideration for choosing a font is its readability. If you want to have a fancy font for the final book, it’s up to you, but for editing, it’s best to keep it simple. You can always change it later! Avoid the handwriting fonts and anything too ornate and blocky, as this will be hard to read and make editing take longer. The classic fonts are best, such as Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri. All of these have clearly separated letters, simple shapes, and distinctive capitals which will help your editor to work faster and make fewer mistakes.
It’s also worth considering what size font you want to use. Obviously, you don’t want anything massive, but having the text too small will also make it hard to read. This isn’t just a consideration for your editor – think about what you want your final readers to see. If you are going the traditional publishing route, this might not be relevant, but if you are self-publishing, you want to make sure that you don’t put readers off before they’ve even started! Glance through some books to see what the standard is for font size – bear in mind this may vary by genre.
Colour Scheme
The ideal colour scheme is black text on a white background. It’s easy to read and won’t give your editor a headache! Most importantly, it is a lot quicker to read, meaning that your editor will be able to work through the file faster. This helps you, as you will get your edited document back sooner. In addition, it should also make the process cheaper, for the reasons outlined above. Once again, consider the final product. One or two pages may be printed in different colours for emphasis, but it is unusual to see this throughout a book.
Images
If your book will have images, such as illustrations or charts, it is best to leave a note in the text where they will be inserted that refers to a separate document containing the images. This will massively reduce the loading time for the file, as well as make it easier to save quickly. Having a document that is just text is also a lot easier for file transfer, as it can likely just be attached to an email. If you have a document with a lot of images, the file size will be a lot larger and you will probably have to upload it to an online portal to transfer it.
Make Use of Your Word Processor
Decent word processors come with lots of handy tools. For example, Word allows you to create styles and headings that help your editor to keep everything consistent. If you just list what style you want groups of headings and sub-headings to be in, your editor will be able to apply this whenever they spot an error or need to add a new heading. You can also add things like section breaks and a table of contents.
Wrapping Up
Preparing your file for your editor makes things easier for you too and we really appreciate it! In my next blog post, we will be looking at how to start looking for an editor, so come back in two weeks for that!
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