The Self-Editing Checklist Every Author Should Run Before Submitting

Between finishing a manuscript and sending it anywhere, there is a stage most first-time authors skip entirely, and it is the one that does more for a book than any other unpaid hour you will spend on it.

Self-editing will not replace a professional edit. It will, however, tell you what kind of edit you actually need, remove the problems you are capable of fixing yourself, and mean that when an editor does read your work, their attention goes to the things only they can see. This checklist is the pass we would suggest running before you submit anywhere.

Before you start: put it down

Finish the draft, then leave it alone for at least two weeks. Longer if you can manage it.

This is not procrastination. While a manuscript is fresh you read what you intended to write rather than what is on the page. Distance restores the ability to see the actual sentences, and it is genuinely the single most effective free thing you can do for your book.

Come back to it and read the whole thing through without editing anything. Take notes. Mark where you are bored, confused or skimming. Resist the urge to fix as you go, because you will spend three hours on chapter one and never reach the ending, which is where most problems live.

Pass 1: structure

The largest questions first, because everything else depends on them.

• Does the book start where it should? Look hard at your first chapter. First chapters are very often throat-clearing. Ask whether the book would lose anything if it began at chapter two.
• Can you state what it is about in one sentence? If you cannot, a reader will not be able to either, and neither will a bookseller.
• Does every chapter earn its place? For each one: what changes because of this chapter? If nothing does, it is probably two chapters that should be one.
• Where did you get bored? Be honest. If you skimmed your own writing, a reader will stop.
• Is the middle holding? Sagging middles are the most common structural failure in first books.
• Is the ending earned or announced? Endings that resolve too quickly usually mean the groundwork is missing earlier, not that the last chapter is too short.
• For non-fiction: does the argument build? Each chapter should rest on the one before, not restate it.

If several of these are unresolved, you are looking at developmental editing, and there is little point doing the passes below until the structure settles.

Pass 2: scenes and chapters

• Does each chapter open in an interesting place, or with setup?
• Does each chapter end somewhere that makes the reader turn the page?
• Are you telling the reader things they already know?
• Is there backstory blocking the opening? Backstory almost always works better later, and shorter.
• Do your characters sound distinguishable from one another with the dialogue tags removed?
• Are you explaining the emotion after the scene has already conveyed it?

Pass 3: sentences

Now go line by line. This pass rewards patience more than talent.

• Cut filter phrases. "She felt that", "he realised that", "it seemed to her". Usually the sentence is stronger without them.
• Find your crutch words. Everyone has them: just, very, really, somehow, actually, suddenly, began to. Use the search function and count. The number is usually startling.
• Check for repetition. The same word twice in a paragraph, the same sentence structure four times in a row, the same image used in two chapters.
• Vary sentence length. Read a page aloud. If it moves at one speed throughout, the reader stops noticing it.
• Replace two vague words with one precise one. "Walked quickly" versus "hurried". Precision is almost always shorter.
• Prefer the active voice, unless there is a reason not to.
• Trim adverbs attached to dialogue tags. If the line needs "angrily" to land, the line is the problem.
• Read it aloud. Not a metaphor. Actually read it. Your ear catches what your eye forgives, and it is the single most useful technique on this list.

Pass 4: consistency

Keep a running document as you go. This becomes genuinely useful to your copyeditor later.

• Character names spelled identically throughout, particularly transliterated names, where variants creep in easily.
• Ages, dates, timelines and days of the week that add up.
• Physical details that stay stable: eye colour, height, which hand.
• Place names consistent in spelling and form.
• One spelling convention throughout, British or American, chosen and kept.
• Transliterated Urdu terms handled consistently: same spelling, same decision about italics, every time.
• Chapter headings, numbering and section breaks formatted the same way.

Pass 5: mechanics

• Spellcheck run, but every suggestion reviewed rather than accepted blindly.
• Dialogue punctuation correct and consistent.
• Apostrophes checked: its and it's, your and you're, their, there and they're.
• Paragraph breaks used deliberately, and long unbroken blocks split.
• Double spaces and stray line breaks removed.
• Formatting standardised: one font, one size, consistent spacing. See our guide to submitting your manuscript for the expected layout.

Pass 6: an outside reader

You have now reached the limit of what you can see alone. Give the manuscript to two or three people who will tell you the truth, and ask them specific questions rather than "what did you think?":

• Where did you stop reading, and why?
• Was there anywhere you were confused?
• Which character did you care about least?
• Did the ending satisfy you?
• What would you tell a friend this book is about?

When several readers flag the same passage, believe them, even if you disagree about the cause. Readers are reliable about where a problem is and unreliable about what it is.

What your answers tell you

Count the passes where you found significant problems.

Mostly Pass 1 and 2 issues. The book needs developmental work before anything else. Do not spend money on proofreading yet.

Structure holds, but Pass 3 was heavy going. You are looking at line editing. The book works, but the prose needs lifting.

Passes 1 to 3 fine, Passes 4 and 5 threw up a lot. Copyediting, which every book needs before print regardless.

Very little found anywhere. Either your manuscript is in genuinely good shape, or you have read it too recently. Give it to an outside reader before deciding which.

Whatever you conclude, remember that no author proofreads their own book to a publishable standard. You read what you meant to write. Self-editing makes professional editing more effective and better targeted. It does not remove the need for it.

The next step

When you have worked through this and made the changes, the useful thing is an outside professional opinion on what remains. That is what our free manuscript review provides. We read the work and tell you honestly what level of editing it needs, rather than selling you the most expensive option by default.

Submit your manuscript for a free review, or read the four types of editing explained if you want to understand the options before you send it.