As a first-time author, you may be looking to have your manuscript copy edited so you can submit it to a publishing service like Author House, iUniverse, or Xlibris. Before you do, there are a number of things you should know about self-publishing and copy editing so you can make the best decisions for your manuscript.

At Strong Tower Publishing, we recommend that first-time authors embark on a three-step process. While these steps are not required, they will put you in a better position to make good decisions for you ... and eliminate surprises that may otherwise catch up with you down the road.

1. Read a good book on the self-publishing process to familiarize yourself with your options.

Strong Tower Publishing offers a terrific primer on self-publishing for brand-new authors. Called Do You Really Want to Self-Publish Your Book? it provides a look at the basic structure of the industry, the types of companies out there to help you publish your book (from on-demand printers to online publishing facilitators/vanity publishers like Author House), the hidden costs involved, the distribution infrastructure, marketing issues, and so on. With this background, you'll be in a much better position to make decisions about publishing, pricing, and distributing your book.

There are also many other excellent books on self-publishing. While these are more "how to" and will be useful to the author after he or she has already decided to self-publish - and if so, which model to use - these books will give you lots of detail on the kinds of steps necessary to make your book publishing effort a success.

2. Submit your manuscript for a manuscript evaluation.

Many authors may be surprised to hear that their manuscripts are not ready for copy editing. Their manuscripts may be poorly organized, improperly formatted, have severe problems with grammar, punctuation, or clarity of writing, or other problems. Getting a good, basic overview of the condition of your manuscript, along with a several-page analysis of any basic steps you can take to improve it, can put you in a much better position to make decisions about where to go from here.

Your manuscript may be highly publishable, in which case minor suggestions will be made (if any are required) to improve marketability and then you can proceed directly to copy editing. Or the reviewer may suggest that you consider a certain amount of reorganization and rewriting to improve the publishability of your manuscript. In this case, he or she may suggest other options, such as developmental editing (essentially a polishing and rewriting service).

For more advanced writers, manuscript evaluations can turn up more advanced issues, such as style, tone, and copyright issues. With an eval in hand, you can make critical changes upfront, saving time (and cost) for you and your copy editor.

3. Once you have made any corrections based on the evaluation, you are ready to have the manuscript copy edited.

There are two basic "types" of copy editing. The first is basic copy editing — grammar, punctuation, just making sure the manuscript is clean. Sometimes, however, new authors need a little more help than this. They may need help with organization, sentence structure, flow, and so on. This goes beyond basic copy editing and is sometimes called developmental editing or a variety of other names. Nearly 75% of the manuscripts submitted to Strong Tower Publishing need substantial help with basic issues; and a good editor can help you get your manuscript into good, readable, professional shape.

If you employ the services of a developmental editor, you will likely need another layer of editing (or, at the least, proofing) once the editing, reorganization, or rewriting is complete. This is because once an editor gets too close to a work, he or she often needs another pair of objective eyes on it. Strong Tower Publishing bundles its developmental editing service with copy editing or proofing (on a case-by-case basis, depending on the condition of the manuscript) with a second editor. It's a two-step process that works extremely well.

If the manuscript is in good, clean shape and doesn't need a lot of work, basic copy editing may be all you need. You can have your manuscript edited and be good to go.

Without having done a thorough review of your manuscript, however, it's often impossible to tell which type of editing you will need. Like many who offer editing services, Strong Tower Publishing offers free five-page sample edits, but five pages may not be enough to get a sense of the true overall condition of your manuscript. It won't tell you anything about flow, chapter organization, or any issues that may arise unexpectedly later in the pages. If you are a first-time author and forgo the evaluation and go right to editing, you (and your editor) could end up with some surprises down the road. In these cases, estimates are likely to change to reflect the true amount of work the manuscript requires.

The other benefit of the manuscript evaluation is that, if you are a skilled writer, it will often give you enough suggestions so that you can avoid the cost of developmental editing. Once you make the changes yourself, you can use a regular copy edit and save yourself the extra cost of the more expensive editing service.

For first-timers, this may seem like overkill. It isn't. This is the kind of editing process that traditional publishers use (three, even four layers of editing and/or proofing are not unusual), and it's the kind of safety net that self-published authors often lose when they decide to self-publish. Unless, that is,  they pay a professional editor to take them through these steps themselves.

Copy editing is not always the nice, neat package that many authors would like. It's a complex, labor-intensive process fraught with variables. Which is why there are different layers, different fees for different services, depending on the condition of the manuscript. It's also why self-publishing books and manuscript evals are a big help because they can help you set your expectations correctly so you really know what you are getting into (and, in some cases, save yourself some money, if possible).

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