All books, whether fiction or nonfiction, for print or digital delivery, need editing. If you realize this before you start to write your book you can relax during the writing process, because you know that you’ll fix problems in a later draft.

Although you can hire an editor — if you’re submitting to a major publishing house an editor can be very useful — you should do the editing on the first and second drafts yourself.

This is because you know your book. You know what you want to say, so hiring an editor before your book is ready can cause damage — there’s every chance that you’ll lose your vision for your book.

So, let’s assume you’ve written a first draft, and are ready to edit.

1. Create an Outline from What You’ve Written

Your first step is to read through your book, and create an outline from what you’ve actually written. Create the outline in another document, and print it out.

If you see gaps in the structure where you need material, mark these areas on the draft.

2. Use Index Cards to Rearrange the Structure of Your Book

It’s a rare book which doesn’t need major structural changes. Get a stack of index cards, and if you’re writing fiction, write a sentence for each scene on a card.

Lay the cards out on a large table, or on the floor, and move scenes around.

3. For Fiction: Is There Suspense?

Rearranging your scenes is essential if you’re writing a novel. You don’t want to reveal too much too soon. Your book should keep up suspense until the final page.

4. For Nonfiction: Do You Deliver on Your Promises?

If you’re writing nonfiction, decide whether you deliver on the promises you made in the title, and in your book proposal.

This is easy to miss, believe it or not.

5. Cut Away the Undergrowth

Now you’ve got the structure of the book the way you want it, it’s time to take a machete to the undergrowth. This can be hard, but steel yourself.

If you’re writing fiction, eliminate characters who aren’t necessary. If you’re writing nonfiction, cut everything which doesn’t contribute to what you want the book to deliver to readers.

6. Rewrite

All done? Great. Now rewrite, tightening as you go.

Once you’ve done the rewrite, you’ve completed your second draft, and your book is close to ready to send out.

Have fun when you write your book with Angela’s great tips

The tips in Angela Booth’s free report, Write a Book: Powerful Writing Tips to Help You to Write YOUR Book, will teach you the strategies of a professional writer.

Do you love Alice in Wonderland – the book, rather than the movie? I do, so much so that I’ve got no intention of watching the current movie.

But I want to “read” Alice on an iPad. Watch this video to see why.

Isn’t it superb? Alice in Wonderland on the iPad is both a book, and a game.

If you’re currently writing a book, think “game”. How could your book become an integral part of an iPad game?

Get creative, and mention your ideas for an iPad game in your book proposal. Publishers are always looking for hot marketing ideas, so they’ll think that they’ve got themselves a truly savvy author.

You’ve started writing your book, so it’s time to sell it.

Selling your book on a partial (three chapters and an outline) is common practice whether you’re writing fiction, or nonfiction. However, if you haven’t published a novel before, be aware that you’re unlikely to get a contract until you’ve completed the novel. Publishers aren’t as picky with nonfiction — you should be able to get a contract even if you’re unpublished.

Your primary sales tool is your query letter, which you send out to publishers and to agents. You’re hoping for interest: for a request to read your partial. The ONE sentence describing your book is the most important part of your query letter.

If you can’t sum up your book in a sentence, it’s unlikely you’ll make a sale.

So what does that ONE sentence look like?

Here’s an example from Publisher’s Marketplace, New Deals for March 19, 2010.

Edgar Nominee Pat Rushford’s ARTISTIC LICENSE, in which a woman working to turn an old northwest mining town into an artist’s colony discovers a murderer intent on staving off development at all costs, to Susan Downs at Summerside Press, in a nice deal, for publication in 2011, by Sandra Bishop at MacGregor Literary (World).

(By the way, in Publisher’s Marketplace’s terms, a “nice” deal is one in which the advance against royalties is somewhere between one dollar and $49,000.)

Write your ONE sentence NOW

Can you sum up your book in a sentence like: “a woman working to turn an old northwest mining town into an artist’s colony discovers a murderer intent on staving off development at all costs”?

If you can’t, keep thinking about your book until you can. Not only is that one sentence vital in selling your book, if you can’t summarize it, you’ll have trouble writing it.

Practice summarizing — summarize five books which you’ve read recently, similar to the one you’re writing, into one sentence.

Write more – become a pro writer

Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer – even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.

Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.

My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.

If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.

Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.

You’re writing your book, and you’re a bundle of nerves: what if no one wants to read it?

These days, you can lay those fears to rest. I’ve been recommending that you blog your book on this blog, but there are many other things you can do.

I love this idea, for example Synergizing the Book and Web: The Future…? | Digital Book World:

“The Amanda Project is a first of its kind transmedia experience – ‘an interactive, collaborative fictional mystery for girls ages 13 & up, told across a variety of different media including an 8-book series, a website that features games, writing, art & social networking, and a related series of blogs, satellite sites, music, and merchandise.’”

Can you create a synergy between your book and the Web?

Remember, your aim is to get readers. Once you have readers, getting an agent (and a publisher) is a piece of cake. Get creative — there are many, many ways you get can readers for your book using the Web.

Become a blogging maestro with Lazy Rich Blogger: whatever you want to do, a blog makes it possible

Want to write a book? Blog it.

Want to sell your writing services? Blog about it.

Want to write and sell information products? Nothing beats a blog for building a readership and sales.

Learn to blog, and clients will clamor for you: businesses need blogs and writers to write them.

Blogging is the single, essential tool for writers in 2010 and beyond. Lazy Rich Blogger reveals my blogging secrets and tricks, learned over a decade. If you’re a writer, you must blog.

Get the complete blogging training you need.

Writing a book? if you’ve been reading this blog, you know I’m a great believer in getting your name and work out there, whether it’s via a blog, or by self-publishing.

Who knows, you may just get a book deal.

Yes, it can happen. Jossey-Bass, the west coast imprint of John Wiley and Sons, for example, has just signed up a couple of self-published books.

How self publishing can lead to a real book deal reports:

“We changed the title from the original Becoming Whole to one more descriptive: The Power of Memoir – Writing Your Healing Story. We also did a lot of developmental editing on the book, focusing it more on a program of how-to-write a memoir, and adding excellent case examples that were each highly readable stories in their own right.”

Publishers want to make money.

When you self-publish a book, it tells them that you’re serious; you’ve got a book out there. More to the point, the book is DONE. It’s written. They can read it, and as in the case above, they can help you to make it better — more salable, that is.

It’s a match made in heaven, so what are you waiting for?

Want to make $500 a day WRITING… from your home office?

Are you make as much money as you could be making? Chances are that you’re not. There’s no shame in this. Writers often struggle to find their own special niche.

If you love to write, then you’ll love the information in my new ebook/ coaching package, Info Product Maestro: Make $500 a Day with Your Information Products.

Write what you like, when you like, and make an income you’ve only dreamed of.

Enjoy.