Editing
I'm an editor so I know how important it is to have another set of eyes. But I'm also a cheapskate. So there are two things I do to cut down on editing costs. The first one is to have beta readers or critique partners. They can help you find the plot holes and the slow parts of your story. The second thing I do is self edit it to an inch of its life. A disclaimer here, when I first started writing I would edit all my voice out of the work as that is what I thought you were supposed to do. Instead, my earlier pieces were actually better as the author's voice was more conversational.
But here are my tips for self-editing.
1. When you get stuck in the plot go back and edit. I don't do the whole book but a chapter or two. This helps me think through plot holes and get a feel for my characters again if I've been jumping POVs.
2.Let it sit. I do two edits. One about a month after I've finished the draft and another just before I send it to my editor. Depending on how organised I am I have a little or a lot of time between these.
3. Have the computer read it to you. I have a terrible time with words like breathe and breath. I get Word to read my novel to me. Most word processor programmes will be able to read it back to you.
4. Use the find tool. I have favourite words. My darlings. That I have to go back and remove. I use the find tool to seek and destroy as many as possible. This is a good way to find all the filter words and cliches.
5. Spell Check. If you can throw your document through as many spell check programmes as possibly you might be amazed at what one will find while the other will miss it. They are all companies trying to make money so they all pretty much start from scratch so have holes. I'm enjoying Prowritingaid at the moment. They aren't very expensive and they are good at pointing out commas that I missed. I also have Grammerly and I use Word Spell Check.
6. Read it backward. Your brain is amazing and will fix things for you. Some find reading the book backward, paragraph by paragraph will trick your brain into seeing things it missed.
7. Print it out. I do all my edits on the computer but there are some that swear by the printed word.