How To Do A Book Edit

Gary Smailes | 3 November 2025

Understand the levels of book editing

Think of editing as a set of passes, each one with a different lens. Start wide, then narrow. Fix what affects the whole book first. Save polish for last.

Developmental editing

Focus: idea, structure, plot, pacing, character arcs, market fit.

This is where the book finds its shape. You test the premise. You check stakes. You move or cut chapters. You raise tension where the middle sags. Characters get motives that hold up under pressure. For nonfiction, the argument gains a spine, with a clear promise to the reader and chapters that deliver on it.

Deliverables often include a long editorial letter with a plan. Expect margin notes on structure and theme, not sentence fixes.

Quick self-test

• Write your story in one sentence that names the protagonist, goal, obstacle, and outcome.
• List your chapters. Next to each, write purpose in five words or fewer. If you struggle, the chapter likely needs work or a merge.
• For nonfiction, write your table of contents again from memory. Gaps and overlaps will jump out.

Typical fixes

• Combine two minor characters serving the same function.
• Reorder chapters to front-load the hook.
• Replace a subplot that stalls with one that pressures the main goal.

Line editing

Focus: voice, tone, rhythm, clarity at sentence and paragraph level.

Here the prose learns to sing in your pitch. The editor trims filler, strengthens verbs, and smooths rhythm. Repetition gets flagged. Tangles get untangled. The goal is voice-forward text that reads as you, only clearer.

Before and after

• Before: “She began to start walking slowly across the room.”
• After: “She crossed the room.”
• Before: “There was a look on his face that showed anger.”
• After: “His jaw locked.”

What to expect

• Tracked changes in the file.
• Notes like “tighten filter,” “break long sentence,” or “clarify who speaks.”
• Suggestions to vary sentence length so the page breathes.

Mini exercise

• Take one page. Highlight weak verbs in yellow and vague nouns in blue. Replace two in each paragraph with sharper choices.
• Read the page aloud. Mark spots where you run out of breath. Break those sentences, or rephrase.

Copyediting

Focus: grammar, usage, spelling, punctuation, and consistency. The style sheet lives here.

Copyediting brings order. Agreement, parallelism, commas in the right places. Numbers and hyphenation treated the same way each time. Capitalization rules settled. Spelling choices set. Your editor builds or updates a style sheet so the book acts like one book.

Style decisions you will see

• Serial comma: yes or no. “Lions, tigers, and bears.”
• Hyphenation: “decision making” vs “decision-making” when used before a noun.
• Spelling: “OK” vs “Okay,” “email” vs “e-mail.”
• Numbers: words for zero through nine, numerals for 10 and up, or a different system that suits your genre.

Common fixes

• Misplaced modifiers: “Running fast, the gate appeared” becomes “Running fast, she reached the gate.”
• Dangling punctuation in dialogue.
• Consistency for names, timelines, and terms. If Chapter 3 says Tuesday, Chapter 4 does not get Thursday without a scene break.

Quick check you can run

• Search your manuscript for “OK,” “Okay,” and “O.K.” Pick one form and update all.
• Search for “towards” and “toward.” Pick one.
• Build a living style sheet: list names, places, dates, terms, and decisions. Keep it open while you edit.

Proofreading

Focus: final typos and layout on near-final pages.

This pass protects you from small errors that slip through. It happens on designed pages or proof PDFs, not in the editable manuscript. You watch for broken lines, bad hyphen breaks, widows and orphans, wrong headers, page numbers, and any leftover typos.

What to look for

• Spelling mistakes that escaped earlier passes.
• Double spaces, missing quotation marks, repeated words.
• Line breaks that split names or compounds badly.
• Table of contents page numbers that do not match.

Helpful tricks

• Change format. Print a few pages, or use an e-reader. Fresh view, fresh catches.
• Use a ruler under each line. Slow the eye. Accuracy improves.
• Read dialogue tags only. Then read dialogue only. Mismatches will surface.

Manuscript assessment

Focus: diagnosis without in-text edits.

This is a budget-friendly report. You receive a detailed letter on strengths, weaknesses, and priorities. No tracked changes. No line edits. Think of it as a map for your next revision.

When to pick it

• Early draft. You need direction before heavy rewrites.
• You want a second opinion on market fit or concept risk.
• You plan to revise on your own before hiring line or copyediting.

What to expect

• Notes on structure, pacing, character, and voice.
• A ranked list of fixes, with suggested order.
• Reading recommendations or comps to study.

Sequence matters

Start macro, then move to micro. Fixing commas in a chapter that later gets cut wastes time and money. A clean structure makes line work easier. Clear lines support accurate copyedits. Proofreading belongs at the end when pagination and layout are stable.

A simple plan

• Assessment or developmental edit to set the big moves.
• Line edit to refine voice and readability.
• Copyedit to lock rules and correct language.
• Proofreading on proofs to catch final errors before release.

If you feel tempted to polish page one before page one earns its place, pause. Solve story and argument first. The later passes will go faster, and the book will read stronger end to end.

Prepare your manuscript and plan your edit

Good editing starts before you touch a single word. Rushing straight from draft to revision is like operating without anesthesia. You feel every cut. You resist changes that would improve the book. Smart editors know the prep work saves time and sanity later.

Take a break first

Step away from your manuscript for one to two weeks minimum. Longer if you have the luxury. This pause breaks the spell between you and your words. When you return, you will see what you wrote, not what you meant to write.

During your draft, you lived inside the story. You knew why Character A acted that way in Chapter 3 because you remembered the motivation you cut from Chapter 1. You understood the reference in paragraph four because you wrote paragraph three yesterday. Fresh eyes spot these gaps. Attachment dissolves. Clarity emerges.

What to do during the break

• Read books in your genre. Notice how published authors handle transitions, dialogue tags, scene breaks.
• Work on something else. A short story, marketing copy, anything that shifts your brain.
• Resist the urge to "quickly fix one small thing." That way lies madness and three-hour rabbit holes.

The break works because memory fades in useful ways. You forget why you chose that awkward sentence. You forget why you kept that boring subplot. The manuscript becomes a thing you can improve, not a child you must protect.

Define your objectives

Before you open the file, write down what you want to accomplish. Three to five concrete goals work better than "make it better." Specific targets guide your choices and help you recognize progress.

Good objectives sound like this

• Clarify Sarah's motivation in the breakup scene.
• Cut 5,000 words from the saggy middle chapters.
• Fix the timeline inconsistency between Chapters 4 and 7.
• Strengthen the stakes in Act II so readers worry about the outcome.
• Make the villain more three-dimensional and less mustache-twirly.

Bad objectives sound like this

• Improve the writing.
• Make it more interesting.
• Fix everything that needs fixing.

For nonfiction, your goals might include

• Reorganize Chapter 3 so the argument flows logically.
• Add more examples to support the main thesis.
• Cut jargon that confuses general readers.
• Strengthen the conclusion to tie back to the introduction.

Write these goals on a sticky note. Put it where you'll see it while editing. When you get distracted by a minor word choice, the note reminds you what matters most.

Create a style brief

Choose your conventions before you start. Otherwise, you will waste time making the same decisions repeatedly. Pick your spelling standard. Pick your dictionary. Pick your style guide. Write it down.

Essential decisions

• Spelling: US (color, realize, gray) or UK (colour, realise, grey)
• Dictionary: Merriam-Webster for US, Oxford for UK
• Style guide: Chicago Manual of Style for fiction and general nonfiction, or New Oxford Style Manual for UK publishing
• Numbers: spell out one through nine, use numerals for 10 and up (standard), or spell out one through ninety-nine (sometimes preferred for fiction)
• Serial comma: yes or no in lists

Genre-specific choices

• Science fiction: "spaceport" or "space port," "storyline" or "story line"
• Historical fiction: period-appropriate language rules
• Romance: accepted conventions for intimate scenes
• Mystery: police procedure accuracy standards

Record your decisions in a simple document. Call it your style brief. You will build this into a full style sheet as you edit, but starting with the basics saves decision fatigue later.

Standardize formatting

Clean formatting helps you see the content without distraction. It also makes your manuscript look professional if you plan to query agents or work with editors.

Standard manuscript format

• 12-point Times New Roman or similar serif font
• Double-spaced lines
• One-inch margins on all sides
• Indented paragraphs (0.5 inches), not spaces
• Scene breaks marked with "#" centered on its own line
• Chapter headings consistent and simple
• Page numbers in header or footer

Quick cleanup tasks

• Remove extra spaces between sentences (find and replace " " with " ")
• Fix paragraph indents using your word processor's paragraph settings, not the space bar
• Check that scene breaks appear consistently
• Ensure chapter headings follow the same pattern

Why this matters

• Professional appearance signals you understand publishing standards.
• Clean formatting reduces cognitive load while you edit.
• Consistent spacing makes it easier to estimate word count and page count.
• Future collaborators (beta readers, editors, agents) will thank you.

Set scope and schedule

Editing expands to fill available time. Set boundaries, or you will tinker forever. Plan distinct passes with specific deadlines. Work in focused blocks rather than marathon sessions.

A realistic schedule might look like this

• Pass 1 (big picture): 1 week
• Pass 2 (structure): 2 weeks
• Pass 3 (characters): 1 week
• Pass 4 (line editing): 2 weeks
• Pass 5 (copyediting): 1 week

Adjust for your manuscript length and available time. The key is committing to deadlines and moving forward even when the current pass feels incomplete.

Time management tips

• Edit in 45- to 60-minute blocks with breaks. Attention fades after an hour.
• Set a timer. When it goes off, finish your current paragraph and stop.
• Track your progress. Note which chapters you complete each day.
• Plan rest days. Editing fatigue is real and makes you miss obvious problems.

Energy budget matters too. Edit your hardest problems when you feel sharpest. Save routine tasks like spelling checks for when you feel tired.

Back up and version your files

Nothing kills momentum like losing work. Set up a backup system before you start editing. Use version control that lets you roll back changes without losing progress.

File naming that works

• YourTitle_v1.0_dev (after developmental edits)
• YourTitle_v1.1_line (after line editing)
• YourTitle_v1.2_copy (after copyediting)
• YourTitle_v1.3_proof (final proofread version)

Include dates if you prefer: YourTitle_2024-01-15_dev

Backup strategies

• Cloud storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) with automatic sync
• Email important versions to yourself as attachments
• External drive backup once per week
• Keep one "master" file and work from copies

Version control prevents disasters. You edit freely because you know you have a clean backup. You try bold changes because you track what you removed. When you cut a scene that you later want to restore, you know where to find it.

The single source of truth rule

• Pick one file as your current working version.
• Make all changes in that file.
• Update backups from the master, not the other way around.
• Resist the temptation to work on multiple versions simultaneously.

Good preparation feels boring, but it pays dividends. You edit faster because you know your goals. You edit better because you work from clean files with clear standards. You edit with confidence because your work is safe and your progress is tracked.

A step-by-step editing workflow (from macro to micro)

Fix big problems first, small ones last. Work in passes. Stay in one lane per pass. Your future self will send flowers.

Pass 1: Diagnostic read-through

Read fast. No tinkering. No line edits. You are scouting terrain.

How to read

• Set a daily page target and stick to it.
• Add brief margin notes only. Use codes like Q for question, P for pacing, C for character, S for scene problem.
• Build a reverse outline as you go. One line per scene or section. Note location, purpose, and word count.

What to track

• Plot gaps or logic leaps.
• POV drift where the camera hops heads without warning.
• Pacing dips where tension melts.
• Repeated beats, scenes that do the same job twice.
• Promises made early that never pay off.

Tiny exercise: write a one-sentence logline for each chapter. If you struggle, the chapter lacks a clear job.

Pass 2: Structural revision

Now move big blocks. Chapters, scenes, acts. Save line polish for later.

Goals

• Strengthen stakes by raising risk, time pressure, or cost of failure.
• Cut or combine filler scenes.
• Reorder for clarity or momentum.
• Ensure a visible goal, conflict, and consequence in every scene.

Scene test

• Who wants something here?
• What stands in the way?
• What changes by the end?

Try scene cards on a table or a digital board. Color for plotlines. A quick sweep shows clutter or holes fast.

Tips

• Kill darlings that stall the story. Move cut material into a “parking lot” document for safety.
• Shorten entry and exit ramps. Enter late, leave early.
• End sections on movement or a question, not on summary.

Pass 3: Character and POV

Readers follow people, not blueprints. Strength in character work sells structure.

Track for each major player

• Desire, fear, wound, and how those drive choices.
• Visible growth from first scene to last scene.
• Consistency in voice, diction, and worldview.

POV hygiene

• One viewpoint per scene unless you hard-break.
• Interiority must match viewpoint holder. Thoughts, sensations, judgments should belong to the right mind.
• Dialogue should reveal status, goals, and subtext, not function as a plot dump.

Quick checks

• Highlight every mention of a character’s name across the book. Does presence match importance?
• Read only scenes for one character in sequence. Arc flatlines will stand out.

Pass 4: Line edit

Now you tune rhythm and clarity. Keep voice. Trim noise.

Common clutter to reduce

• Filter words: felt, seemed, noticed, realized, watched, heard, began to, started to.
  • Before: “She began to walk toward the door and realized the room felt cold.”
  • After: “She walked to the door. The room was cold.”
• Empty qualifiers: quite, rather, almost, sort of.
• Echoes: repeated words or phrases in close range.
• Overexplaining: trust context and the reader’s brain.

Rhythm work

• Vary sentence length. Short for impact. Long for detail.
• Move heavy phrases to the end of the sentence.
• Replace weak verbs with strong ones.
  • Before: “He was making a decision.”
  • After: “He decided.”
• Swap vague nouns for precise ones.
  • Before: “She picked up a thing from the table.”
  • After: “She picked up the letter.”

Imagery check

• Aim for concrete detail over abstraction.
• Prefer verbs over adjectives.
• One vivid image beats four bland ones.

Read aloud. Your ear will flag bumps your eyes skim over.

Pass 5: Copyedit

Now enforce rules. Consistency is kindness to readers.

Build or update your style sheet

• Spelling choice: US or UK.
• Dictionary and style guide.
• Hyphenation preferences for recurring terms.
• Capitalization for titles, ranks, species, magic systems, organizations.
• Numbers, dates, times, measurements.
• Character names, nicknames, descriptions.
• Place names and spellings.
• Repeated terms with preferred form, for example email vs e-mail.

Run a pass for mechanics

• Subject–verb agreement, pronoun clarity, parallel lists.
• Commas where needed, no comma splices.
• Quotation and punctuation order.
• Consistent italics for thoughts, titles, and foreign words.
• Check headings and captions for uniform style.

Tools help, rules decide. Flag, then verify by hand.

Pass 6: Fact-check and sensitivity

Trust, then verify. Every detail has a source.

What to verify

• Names and spellings for people, towns, brands.
• Dates, timelines, travel times, moon phases.
• Geography, distances, and directions.
• Legal, medical, military, or procedural detail.
• Quotations and citations.

Keep a source log. Paste links or book titles next to each claim.

Sensitivity step

• When writing lives beyond your own experience, bring in a reader with lived expertise.
• Offer clear context, your goals, and sections for focus.
• Pay promptly. Credit with permission.

Aim for respect, accuracy, and harm aware choices.

Pass 7: Proofreading on proofs

Final polish happens on designed pages or final eBook files. Words behave differently once they sit in a layout.

What to look for

• Typos and missing words.
• Widows and orphans.
• Awkward line or page breaks, hyphen splits, rivers.
• Table of contents links.
• Running heads, footers, folios.
• Scene break symbols and spacing.
• Image placement and captions.
• Consistent indents and paragraph spacing.

Helpful tactics

• Change format. Print or send to an e-reader.
• Read with a ruler under each line.
• Read backward, line by line, for spelling only.
• Do one pass for headings and display elements.
• Do a final pass on links in the eBook file.

One last reminder. Stay in the lane for each pass. No sentence polishing during structure work. No comma hunts during line work. Progress over perfection, pass by pass.

Tools, style guides, and systems that save time

You do not need fancy gear. You need a few steady tools, clear choices, and a way to track them. Set the kit once, then keep it tidy.

Build a living style sheet

A style sheet is your book’s memory. You decide once, then stop second-guessing.

Where to keep it

• A single doc or spreadsheet stored with the manuscript.
• One tab for language choices, one for names and places, one for timelines and world rules.

Core sections

• Spelling and style: US or UK, chosen dictionary, style guide.
• Hyphenation and compounds: email, short list of recurring terms.
• Numbers and dates: numerals vs words, time formats, currencies, measurements.
• Names and places: spelling, diacritics, titles, nicknames.
• Timeline: scene dates, ages, seasons, holidays.
• Dialogue quirks: dialect flags, pet phrases, speech tags.
• Jargon and invented terms: definitions, usage notes, plurals.
• Sources: links or books you rely on.

Quick example entries

• email, not e-mail.
• OK for dialogue, okay in narration.
• Sir John on first mention, then John.
• The Order, capped, members lowercased.
• Twenty-first century, hyphenated.
• 1990s, no apostrophe.

Keep it open while you edit. Update at every pass. Ten minutes here saves hours later.

Core tools

MS Word with Track Changes still runs the show.

Set up

• Turn on Track Changes and Simple Markup.
• Show revisions in balloons, comments in the margin.
• Use styles for headings, block quotes, and captions.
• Turn on widow and orphan control for print layouts.
• Add your style sheet link at the top of the file for quick access.

Smart moves

• Use Find to hunt double spaces, extra spaces before punctuation, and stray tabs.
• Use wildcards for patterns. Example: find space before a comma.
• Add AutoCorrect entries for repeat typos and names with diacritics.
• Learn Selection Pane for images and text boxes in proofs.

Scrivener is great for drafting and large moves. Do structural work there. When you start line or copyedits, compile to .docx and move to Word. Snapshot scenes before big cuts. Use labels for POV and status.

Quality aids

Robots help, judgment rules.

PerfectIt

• Run it after line edits and again after copyedits.
• Build a project style inside PerfectIt with your choices from the style sheet.
• Use it to police hyphenation, capitalisation, and lists. Accept fixes in batches, then recheck a few pages by hand.

ProWritingAid or Grammarly

• Use during line work for flags, not orders.
• Review categories in passes. Clarity first, then style, then repeats.
• Ignore suggestions that flatten voice or break rhythm.
• Export a report to see habit patterns. Plan a short clean-up pass for your top two tics.

Text to speech

• Read the book to yourself, or let a calm voice do it.
• Mark every stumble, breath catch, or skim moment.
• Lower speed for dialogue runs, raise speed for expository passages.
• Word has a Read Aloud button. Many e-readers do too.

Productivity and tracking

Light systems keep work moving and mind clear.

Scene cards

• One card per scene. Title, location, viewpoint, purpose.
• Add word count and a quick status label, for example Needs stakes, Fix timeline, Polished.
• Lay them on a table or a digital board. You will spot clutter and holes fast.

Kanban board

• Columns: To Review, Fix Next, In Progress, Waiting on Feedback, Done.
• One card per issue. Include page or scene, a short note, and owner if you are working with an editor.
• Limit work in progress to two or three cards. Finish before you pull a new one.

Change log

• A simple doc at the top of the folder.
• Date, file name, what changed, why.
• Example: 2025-02-12, v2.3_line, cut Ch 8 picnic, duplicated beat with Ch 10. Moved reveal to end of Ch 9.
• When doubt creeps in, the log shows progress and reasoning.

Version control

• Clear names, consistent pattern. Title_v2.0_struct, Title_v2.1_line.
• Store in cloud plus one local backup.
• One source of truth. Archive older versions in a folder called Old.

Read in different formats

New views reveal new problems.

• Print key chapters. Pen in hand. You notice loose modifiers, repetition, and slack rhythm.
• Send an EPUB or MOBI to an e-reader. Page turns expose slow spots and long paragraphs.
• Change font, size, and line spacing in Word. Try a serif like Georgia, then a sans like Calibri. Switch to narrow margins. Problems you missed will wave at you.
• Use Kindle Previewer for TOC links and scene breaks. Test on phones and tablets.
• For poetry or complex layout, export to PDF and mark on paper.

Mini exercise: pick one chapter. Read on paper, then on a phone screen. Note three fixes you never saw on your laptop.

Reference shelf

Pick standards and stick with them.

• Chicago Manual of Style for long-form work in US markets. New Oxford Style Manual for UK.
• One dictionary. Merriam-Webster for US. Oxford English Dictionary for UK. Record choice on your style sheet.
• A grammar reference you trust. Garner’s Modern English Usage pairs well with Chicago.
• Genre helpers. A thriller writer might keep a police procedure guide. A fantasy writer might keep a naming guide and a calendar builder. A romance writer might keep a guide on intimacy and consent on the page.
• A timeline tool or simple spreadsheet for dates, ages, and moon phases.
• A map app for distances and travel time. Save links for future checks.

Last thing. Tools do not replace taste. They support it. Pick a small kit, learn it well, and keep your choices visible. Your edits will move faster, and your voice will stay intact.

Quality checks, feedback, and collaboration

You wrote the book alone. You do not finish it alone. Fresh eyes catch blind spots, stress test choices, and keep your voice honest.

Beta readers

Pick a small crew, three to five readers who love your genre and know its moves. Not your mother. Not a colleague who hates romance but owes you a favor.

Give them a short brief

• Stage of draft and your goals.
• Reading window and word count.
• What to focus on, for example pacing, clarity, character empathy, plausibility.
• What to skip, for example line edits or comma hunts.

Sample prompt set

• Where did you pause or skim?
• Which scene felt slow, and why?
• Point to any moment where motivation felt thin.
• Mark a line you loved and a line you did not trust.
• If you closed the book at page 50, why?

Collect responses in one place. A simple form with sliders and boxes beats a flurry of emails. Ask for page numbers. Thank them by name. Offer a mention in acknowledgments if they want it.

Mini exercise: write your brief in 150 words. Trim until every sentence gives a clear ask.

Sensitivity readers

If your story includes identities, cultures, or trauma you do not share, hire a specialist. You want accuracy, respect, and nuance.

How to brief

• Send a clean section list and short synopsis.
• Flag scenes with heavy content, for example assault, slurs, medical procedures.
• State goals. Accuracy, harm checks, nuance on X.
• Ask for page-level notes plus a summary of patterns.
• Agree on rate, timeline, and credit before work starts.

Respect boundaries. Pay on time. Credit in the book with preferred wording. Fold notes into your style sheet, for example terms to avoid, capitalization for community names, guidance on dialogue cues.

Sample edit before hiring an editor

A small test saves money and nerves. Ask for one to five pages. Provide your style sheet and goals for the pass.

What to look for

• Edits improve clarity while preserving voice.
• Comments explain choices, offer options, and stay specific.
• Questions reveal curiosity, not ego.
• The mark-up looks clean and consistent.

Red flags

• Heavy rewrites with no comments.
• Rules without context.
• Snark in the margin.
• Missed obvious errors in the sample.

Lock scope in a short contract

• What work, which files, word count.
• Deliverables, for example edit with Track Changes, style sheet update, summary memo.
• Timeline and milestones.
• Rounds of queries and how final approval works.
• Payment schedule.

Triage feedback

You will get many notes. Some loud. Some useful. Sort before you revise.

Create one master issues list

• Global, plot, structure, character, world rules.
• Scene level, beats, POV, tension, stakes.
• Line level, phrasing, echoes, clichés, rhythm.

Batch similar items. If three readers marked slow pacing in Act II, prioritize pacing across those chapters, not one scene at a time.

Pick high‑impact fixes first

• Stakes unclear for the protagonist.
• Goal missing in opening scene.
• Timeline conflict in the middle third.

Protect your voice. A note that asks you to sound like a different writer belongs in the parking lot. A note that shows confusion from multiple readers belongs on the board.

Mini exercise: print all feedback. Mark G for global, L for line. Deal with all G items this week. Leave L for the next pass.

Final preflight checklist

Aim for a clean, boring checklist. Boring beats chaos.

Files and versions

• One source of truth in a clearly named folder.
• Style sheet updated with date and version.
• All comments, queries, and to-dos resolved or deleted.
• Change log up to date.

Front and back matter

• Title page, dedication, epigraph permissions if used.
• Copyright page with year, rights holder, publisher imprint.
• ISBN assigned to each format.
• Acknowledgments, author bio, website and newsletter links.
• Back-of-book teaser, if planned.

Text and consistency

• Names, titles, and places match style sheet.
• Numbers, dates, and measurements follow chosen style.
• Hyphenation, capitalization, and italics consistent.
• Scene breaks appear as intended.
• No track changes or hidden comments left behind.

Design and layout

• Headers and footers accurate, no stray chapter titles.
• Page numbers correct and aligned with TOC.
• No widows or orphans in print layouts.
• Image placement, captions, and credits correct.
• EPUB passes a validator, links work, TOC links jump to the right spots.

Accessibility basics

• Alt text for images in digital.
• Sufficient contrast in color choices.
• Meaning not carried by color alone.

Backups

• Final files stored in cloud plus local.
• Archive older versions in an Old folder.

Run this checklist once, then once more on a fresh day.

Know when to stop

Perfection is a mirage. Publication ready is the target.

Good stopping signs

• Two full passes in a row with fewer than a handful of fixes.
• No new notes from trusted readers.
• Every change now moves commas around rather than solving problems.
• You read whole chapters without urge to tinker.

Set a ship date. Honor it. If nerves spike, run a short proof on formatted pages, fix the two or three clear typos, then lock files. The work grows on shelves, not on your hard drive.

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