Our secret Editing system is based on the logical process of bringing a book into the world. It is more accurate and efficient (than the competition) because it avoids editing a word until it is ready to be edited; thus saving you a ton of money and wasted time.

This holistic and structured system allows the writer to turn his idea, his concept, into a book naturally. With the free tools Libertad provides, books almost write themselves.

Forget everything that you’ve been told about editing. Leave all the contradictions and pseudo-scientific gobbledygook behind. The Libertad approach to Editing is unique, as it follows the way that human creativity works, from concept to final product. We avoid needlessly editing text that is not ready to be edited or words that just don’t belong in the text.

Concept:
Between the initial concept and the first draft, you might need a Concept Edit. Once you have divided the initial book concept into an arc that takes the reader on a journey; you will then drill down even further and divide that arc into chapters. This creates the space that the book needs to be born and your characters to live.

Use the Libertad free tools to aid this process. The first task is to create a rough sketch of the book using working headings and chapter summaries. Once you have this sketch, it is vital to try your ideas out on experienced Beta Readers before you start writing your first draft.

Get a feel of how the chapters will need to be further subdivided into paragraphs. Get to know how your concept touches your reader. From here you should have enough information to start writing your first draft.

Structural:
Once we are happy that we have a reasonable first draft, we suggest you do a ‘Structural Edit’.

The first thing we look for is sense. We are looking to see if the chapter and paragraph order works as we hoped it would. We look for sentence construction, tone, grammar, and vocabulary. We will also look at dialogue at a very high level to make sure that each character is unique and true to the initial concept.

If you are noticing spelling mistakes you are not editing the manuscript for sense, style and tone.

In fact, before submitting your manuscript to an editor, we strongly suggest using beta readers. We use a proprietary system to manage beta readers, which ensures that they answer all of the questions the author needs them to address. This gives him, or her, the tools to create the second draft.

Beta Readers:
You may be lucky and find someone who loves to read but it is rare, in these difficult times, that people have the time to read a book from cover to cover over just a few days. Add to that the fact that you need more than “Yes It was alright” or “Yes I enjoyed it” as a response from a Beta Reader.

In fact, we have found that unpaid Beta Readers are practically useless.

To this end, we have created our own system of managing Beta Readers and helping them focus their interest in books into a lucrative side line.

We do provide a free copy of our generic Beta Reader questionnaire. We can also arrange to have your work read for a nominal fee by experienced and motivated readers.

Line Edit:
Having corrected the errors highlighted in the Structural Edit, the chapters and paragraphs and any errors in text, we then resubmit the second draft of the manuscript for a line edit. This edit looks to correct all of the mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation. Often the second draft is read backwards in order to avoid seeing only what we expect to see. This is why we call it a line edit. We will try to highlight anything that trips the reader and spins them out of your work. For example: repeated words, poor dialogue etc.

This edit is best done on a printed copy. Many editing companies will edit digitally but typically they will miss a lot of errors. However, we can edit digitally if the client prefers. Your manuscript will be marked up for you to make what changes you feel appropriate.

It is a good idea for the author to discuss each of the editing points, if they are not immediately obvious, to make sure they agree. After all, writing is a subjective art and open to interpretation.

Author Consultation:
Antonio Sebastian has been a professional technical writer for the last thirty years. He has seven books published over the last seven years covering everything from Historical Fiction to Self-Help.

He is also, a well known YouTuber and commentator.

His scientific and engineering background has given him a uniquely analytical approach that has given many authors help and advice they could actually use.

Send us your manuscript or project and book a free video conference to discuss your work.