Before you begin reviewing and revising your edited manuscript, we recommend you watch Part 2 of the Tellwell Editing Webinar below.
You can also click here to skip ahead to the Track Changes tutorial.
Also in this article:
- What to expect back from the editor
- Understanding Track Changes
- Rhetorical questions and margin comments
- Preparing your manuscript
- Submitting your manuscript
What to expect back from the editor:
- “Project Deliverable File” showing the editor’s changes using MS Word’s Track Changes function.
- "Supporting Files”, which will be the clean manuscript which has track changes turned off, plus a notes file with further notes from the editor and a style sheet
- It is your decision what recommended edits you want to make to your manuscript. We strongly recommend using the version with track changes showing so you can make the important decisions needed for your book.
- You can use the clean version as a reference document so you can quickly view what it would look like if you accepted all of the editor's changes.
Understanding Track Changes:
- Track Changes is Microsoft Word's editing mark-up feature.
- Tellwell's editors use Track Changes because it allows you as the author to see which changes have been made before either accepting or rejecting each change.
- Click here for a video tutorial on how to accept and reject track changes
- This is important because in Self-Publishing, you as the author are ultimately 100% responsible for the content in your book.
- When Track Changes are turned on, all changes made to the document show up as coloured markups.
- Turn Track Changes OFF when you are making your changes.
Rhetorical questions and margin comments:
- You may find rhetorical questions posed for you by your editor in the margin. They don’t actually require a direct response, this is just an efficient way of communicating questions that may arise from your future readership; they get you thinking of plot in terms of dramatic intent and solvability.
- Ex: "How does the protagonist feel about what just happened?”
- You may choose to ignore a rhetorical question altogether if you like the ambiguity present in the existing text, every editing choice is ultimately yours and yours alone.
Preparing your manuscript:
- All track changes should be either accepted or rejected.
- Take your time to polish and finalize your manuscript before submitting.
- If you do not have further editing: Keep in mind you can only request minor revisions after we’ve begun the interior design layout.
- If you have further editing: You may choose to include comments with questions for your editor to be addressed in the next round of editing.
Submitting your Manuscript:
If you do not have further editing:
- You will be sent the link to your Interior Layout Questionnaire via email, please upload your revised and finalized manuscript through this task in Octavo
- The next step will be interior design
If you have further editing:
- When you receive your edited manuscript by email, there will be a link to upload your manuscript to Octavo.
- If your word count increases significantly and you have another round of editing, there will be an additional charge for the additional words at 2 cents / word.