The Self-Publishing Checklist: Editorial, Production, Distribution

The Editorial and Production Process

This process can be broken down into roughly three stages:

Editing

Design

Proofing

1. Editing My checklist begins at the point where you have a reasonably final manuscript that does not require higher level editing or significant revision. While much depends on what level of editing your manuscript has already undergone, for most authors, I recommend seeking a formal copyedit: you send the manuscript to a professional freelance copyeditor, who will focus on style, grammar, and consistency issues%u2014and might possibly do light fact-checking if needed (very useful for nonfiction). A typical copyedit for an 80,000-word manuscript takes two weeks, but good copyeditors usually need to be booked a month (or more) in advance. Authors should give themselves at least a week, if not two, to review and make changes after the copyedit is returned.