Round One
I have completed round one which includes the biggest changes and suggestions to my manuscript. My editors name is Tanya and she gave me great feedback for my story. I felt very encouraged and inspired to make the necessary changes. She made me feel like she was right there reading the story beside me. I received a word document with my manuscript that included sidebar comments, questions and/or suggestions for each spread of my book. I was able to respond back on that same document to her. I spent all weekend mulling over, making a few minor adjustments and re-reading my manuscript to ensure that I still loved my story. Good news, I still do and I feel good about this next round of edits.
Second Round
I am currently in round two of editing. Tanya will have my revised manuscript for up to three weeks. She will complete a structural edit based on the changes from the first edit. There will not be as many changes during this phase. I am excited about this since I really don’t want my overall story or my favorite details to change. Thankfully, my editor is supportive if I feel strongly about not changing specific items if I don’t really want to do it. However, I am making sure that I stay open to all of her suggestions since she is a professional editor and I am definitely in the learning process. I should have the new edits around May 19th so I am already in countdown mode.
Final Edit
The last editing phase is called the copy edit. It makes me think of when you turned in your paper to your teacher or professor and they returned it to you with red marks all over it. I will have red/blue edits, strikethrough and deletions. Sounds exciting, right? Tanya will possibly move sentences and/or scenes around for a better flow. This is where the grammar and punctuation occurs as well. I will receive a copy with all the marks which might cause my eye to twitch. Then I will also get a clean copy of my final manuscript which is crazy exciting.
Round Up
I am anticipating the entire editing process being complete by mid June. Currently, I am getting ready to contact the illustrator I am most interested in to see if she has any openings within my expected timeline. My heart is pretty set so I am hoping it will work out. If not, I am optimistic that I will find the perfect illustrator to bring my story to life. I am looking forward to sharing the illustration process with each of you.
Always Rise & Shine, Chrissy