PREORDER - How to Self-Edit Your Novel, by Lyndsey Smith, eBook

Release Date: April 7, 2025

Updated with a new foreword from John Palisano, horror author and former Horror Writers Association president.

You've written your first book. Now what?

Hire a professional editor? Of course! But when the quotes start coming in, you start to feel overwhelmed, shocked. You know their professional expertise is worth every penny, and you know your book would be better for using them, but what do you do if you can't afford one right away?

Do not give up! Self-editing is okay when you are first getting started!

It can be daunting and scary, but I'll walk you through it. There are a lot of grammar rules and style guides to remember, and some editors spend years of initial and continuing education to learn their craft. But thanks to How to Self-Edit Your Novel, you'll have a fraction of their expertise and an easy-to-follow checklist to help your manuscript go from first draft to polished and ready for publication.

The new edition of How to Self-Edit Your Novel releases on April 7, 2025. It has over 100 additional pages of information plus a forward by John Palisano, horror author and former president of the Horror Writers Association.

It isn't often an editor encourages authors to self-edit their work, and we understand how counterproductive it might initially seem for a professional editor to promote a DIY approach. However, we would argue that there are certain circumstances where self-editing is a necessary aspect of many authors' self-publishing journeys, and we want to be part of making sure these authors successfully produce work capable of meeting genre-specific reader expectations. 

The editing industry is unregulated. This means anyone who has or has not received editing-specific training may establish themselves as an editor and begin to charge clients. And while the untrained service providers often offer extremely low rates when compared to the trained professionals, this sometimes comes at a cost to authors. The results can be a large number of remaining errors, the loss of author voice, and inconsistent style. But when an author is just starting out, the royalties have not been earned, and they're working with a low or nonexistent budget. What other choice do they have?

We wanted to change the answer to that question. 

The Editing Forge has compiled a great deal of editing instruction in How to Self-Edit Your Novel, but we've only brushed the surface. It simply isn't possible for a book like this—or for self-editing itself—to be as thorough as a professional editor would be. But we do believe authors can maintain the quality of reader experiences with something we call guided self-editing across our editing resources and some of our self-editing-focused editing packages.

Here are some of the topics we cover:​

• Maintaining Hook Effectiveness

• Novel Structure

• Subplot Integration

• Adequate and Fluid Story Progression

• Incorporating Believable Conflict and Stakes

• Book Maps and How to Read Them

• Whether to Use a Prologue

• Identifying Genre Expectations

• Determining and Maintaining Point of View

• How to Avoid Head-Hopping

• Establishing Pacing

• Using Consistent Tense

• Enriching Your Character Development

• Incorporating Character History

• Avoiding Telling Versus Showing

• Creating Style Sheets

• Adequate or Too Many Details

• Identifying Telegraphing and What to Use Instead

• Punctuation Guides

• Editing Checklists

• Blurb Assistance

• ...and so much more!

While this editing resource is not a replacement for the services of a professional editor, it's already been used by authors to improve the quality of their novels and encourage their author careers. 

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