Reddit mentions of The Little Book of Self-Editing for Writers: 12 Ways to Take Your Book from Good to Great (Little Books for Writers 1)

Bless your heart, darling. That's it.

I was going through the comments and didn't see much about where to find an editor or how to edit.

Here are my offerings:

http://www.the-efa.org/dir/search.php Type in a genre or place and see what the search finds you.

Self-editing how-to books:

[Savvy Self Editing](http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Self-Editing-Developing-Editing-Process/dp/1418437964
/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2Y6K8TCM225QI&coliid=I557WJNM4C04M) This is the one my own developmental editor (who cost me $1500.00 on a 100,000 word story, BTW) recommended. You absolutely can get a less-expensive editor, but I chose to work with someone who's been editing since 1988.


Wired for Story

Edit Yourself

Revising and Self-editing

And something quick, short, and cheap, but very useful (Kindle only):

$3.00 Little book of Self-Edit

I just bought and read This book. Short, concise, and really practical advice. It also includes a checklist you can flip to (and a link to a printable version) for each step the book goes over.

The book doesn't claim to be 12 years of English classes. It claims to allow you to deliver a manuscript that has been ironed out a bit more. Waging a step by step war on a lot of the common, mechanical issues. It has helped me right away and I pull my printed checklist out before I allow the editor in the room. While it's just a basic coat of polish, I was surprised to see how many things can be cut and how stories become a little more lean and powerful in a few minutes. At 4.99 not a huge investment but I needed to improve on every little thing the book covered. I have been edited before and this system allows me to produce changes similar to those I've gotten back from editors, but were never really explained to me all that well.

Well, first you must learn to edit yourself.


I'm the prose guy in my writing group, mostly due to the fact I write short stories, while my friends write longer works. You can't use "I'll edit it when I finish it" excuse when your story is 20 pages.

What helped me was listening to a few courses of Brandon Sanderson's lectures as well as Writing Excuses podcast, but while both are worthwhile, they aren't time-efficient (although free!).

What is time efficient, though, is the Little Book of Editing for Writers. I like this book a lot, because it's so concise. Not only it gives you advice, but also offers examples, allowing you to decide whether you agree with the reasoning or not on your own. And for the most part you'll end up agreeing, because the advice really is on point.

When you make the book as good as you can (which often takes several drafts and even rewrites), well, at that point you'll need to find a real editor, but maybe that's something someone else can help you with.

As a general advice, though, think about every word and what function it performs in the story.