After you’ve written your first draft, you’ll need to work your way through the revision process. In today’s publishing environment, it’s up to the author to ensure all the major steps of revision/self-editing have been completed. So what are the different steps in self-editing fiction?

We’re glad you asked. Here is our take on it. The first step is a structural edit, followed by your rewrites. Then you’ll do a copyedit and finally a proofread. These steps combined make up the revision process.

Following this order will save you time on editing. If you copyedit or proofread too early, you may have to repeat this work. Of course, you can fix obvious errors when you see them, but don’t spend time on copyediting until you’ve finished a comprehensive rewrite…

More at Source: Structural Editing. Copyediting. Proofreading. Steps To Revising Your Fiction. – Feedback For Fiction