As a writer, one of the key tasks in getting your book published is to have it professionally edited. Before sending the book to your editor, it is important that you edit it yourself and make sure that the book is as polished as it can be. Sounds redundant, doesn't it? Why edit when you are paying someone else to do that for you? Well, it is good practice for you, it will improve your grammar skills and make you a better writer. It also means less work for the editor, which can be useful if you are up against a deadline. A polished book may only take two weeks to edit, depending on word count, whereas a book riddled with lots of errors could take a lot more time to fix. 

I have worked as an editor for over five years now and over that time I have seen a whole host of errors, but here are the most common errors I come across, errors which would reduce the amount of time I need to spend on the book. 

The use of speech marks" In the UK it is ' one speech mark. In the US, it is " double speech marks. The use of the speech marks is usually not the issue, however; the problem comes when punctuation is added. Take this sentence for example: "How are you?" This is the correct use of punctuation. Many times I will see this: "How are you"? Punctuation belonging to the dialogue goes inside the speech marks. 

Separating words that should be one word - heart beat, no where, eye ball. If you are using programs such as Word, sometimes they will catch these errors, but not always.

Capitalization: This can be a tricky one, particularly when it comes to names. Always capitalize the names of people, specific places and things. For example: "Hello, Uncle Jack." Uncle Jack is used as a name here so it is capitalized. But here, "This is my uncle, Jack." Mom and Dad are capitalized when a child is calling them directly as though using their names, but my mom and dad are not capitalized because the child is referring to what they are as opposed to who they are.

There, their and they're: There is a place. Their is belonging to a person and They're is a shortened form of they are.

Its and it's: Its face. It's Saturday. Its shows possession, while It's is a shortened form of it is. When in doubt, say it is out loud in front of your sentence. If it makes sense it is correct; if not, use the other one.

To and too. I am going to the store. I am going too. Think of too as also or as well.

Thoughts should always be shown in italics to separate them from the text surrounding them. Never use Bold or Underline in a book and be sure to break your story up into new paragraphs every time there is dialogue, a new action or a new scene.

When you get a book back from your editor, take the time to look through the changes and understand why they were made. If in doubt, ask your editor. I'm sure they will be happy to help.