I cannot state this enough: Record a voice version of your book. Even if you're going to have an narrator make a professional copy. Even if you're being traditionally published. Once you have the final copy of the manuscript, sit down and record the whole thing as though you are the narrator.
I've just been through this process (since I do narrate my own books) and even though I thought the manuscript was final, there were still changes that I made which will make the final book stronger.
What am I talking about?
Cutting down repetitive phrases: I went from 40 eye-rolls to 13
Apparently I love the word permeated, I cut it down 7 on edit.
At one spot I spelled yoke as yolk. Yep, let's all carry an egg yolk.
The reading rhythm needed improvement in some places. Some sentences just didn't flow right once I read them in a "narrator's voice".
I'd gender flipped a tertiary character for a variety of reasons and in some spots I still used the wrong pronoun.
I had 3 "asked curiously". I killed them all. A question is always curious (dumb-ass past me).
So is the net end result a perfect book? Well no, of course not. No such thing. But I do think it's a much, much, much improved narrative.
You can read the first 4 chapters here: The Ducal Heir - Teaser
The Ducal Heir releases on 26 August 2022 as an audio book, e-book and paperback. You can get it here: The Ducal Heir on Amazon
And remember, narrate your books as the final step in your editing process :) It's the only way to be sure you read every .... single .... word!
And now I'm off to go buy more throat lozenges.