Revision Checklist: I’ve received my marked-up manuscript. Now what?

Once your edit is ready, it’s time for you to make revisions. This can be seriously daunting. What’s the right way to go through your editor’s suggestions and incorporate all the feedback without losing your way?

First, breathe. Remember, we’re on your team! The better your book is, the better you do—and the better we do too. Seeing all that markup can feel like a personal attack, but every piece of advice is intended to help you make your work the best it can be. No matter how experienced you are, receiving an edited manuscript covered with markups can trigger a lot of emotions. We want you to feel supported and energized rather than overwhelmed as you embark on the next round of hard work.

Next, follow these instructions in order.

1. Read everything your editor wrote in the email containing your marked-up manuscript—plus this list—in full.
   
   
   • Make notes to yourself about things you know you’re going to want to work on, but do not make any changes yet until you have read everything.
2. Open the marked-up manuscript in All Markup view.
3. Read all comments.
   • Make notes to yourself about things you know you’re going to want to work on, but do not make any changes yet until you have read all comments.
   • Resolve any comments you plan to ignore because they contain suggestions/feedback you think isn’t right for you. Remember, you’re the boss of your book! editing is subjective, and we don’t expect you to agree with 100% of our feedback.
4. Accept or reject all changes made by RUFF! You can do this toggling back and forth between the Simple Markup and All Markup view as makes sense for you.
   • Try to do this before doing any major rewrites or additions.
   • Do not accept any new changes made by you in this process.
5. Flesh out one single to-do list. This should comprise the following:
   • The notes to yourself you’ve been making in the previous steps
   • Any to-do items you’ve thought of since you turned in your manuscript to us for this edit
   • The list of comments
   • The list of current hashtags
   • This letter
6. Complete your to-do list while Change Tracking is still turned on.
   • Anytime you feel like you’ve done work that resolves the issue in an open comment, resolve that comment.
7. Make any final rewrites.
8. In Simple Markup view, run a spell-check on the entire manuscript. This will prevent you from wanting to stop and make minor fixes to the manuscript during the next step.
9. In Simple Markup view, read the manuscript from beginning to end.
   • Make any small line edits (like making dialogue more realistic/smoother, cleaning up sentence structure, or deleting repeated words) as you go.
   • If you notice a scene that needs a more serious rewrite, add that to your to-do list (and feel free to mark it with a comment reminder to yourself with a custom hashtag) but do not rewrite the scene at this point.
10. Once finished doing one solid read-through with sentence-level line edits, go back and complete the items you added to your to-do list and make any necessary rewrites. Take your time on this step.
11. Take a few days off. This step is crucial. You need fresh eyes for the next step. Write something new or read a great book. Do not touch the manuscript at all for a few days.
12. Save a PDF of the manuscript with no comments visible and no tracked changes visible. Print out that PDF version of your manuscript or export it to a device that is not your editing/writing device.
13. Read the manuscript out loud to yourself.
    • Use a highlighter to address any places you spot that still need tweaking, but do not tweak them.
    • If you notice massive plot holes or version control issues, add them to your to-do list but do not handle them. Keep reading until you get to the end.
14. Once you’re finished doing the read-through, go back to the Word document (the single working document with all changes tracked and comments visible) and complete the items you added to your to-do list. Make any final rewrites.
15. Repeat steps 10–13 as many times as needed until you feel confident you’ve done literally everything you can do to improve the manuscript.
16. Contact us about getting the next round of editing on the calendar!