Editing

Like all new authors, in the modern world, when I wanted to learn about publishing I went to the world wide web. YIKES!!! 😲 Can you say information overload? Should you traditional publish? Should you self publish? Should you vanity publish? Do you need an agent? What's your genre? Is your genre popular today? on and on and on! I didn't know what to do. BUT, that was okay because before sending my work off to anyone, I knew it needed proper editing. So my journey into editing began...

Of course I went to the world wide web once again and found tons of editors and editing companies. Who to choose? My choice was relatively easy. I had a manuscript that had over 100,000 words and with people charging a minimum of 2 cents a word I was looking at over $2000 just to get editing done. I went back and forth with, "do I really need it? I've had it proofread by friends." So, I shared a few pages with editing professionals as a trial and quickly learned that, YES I really needed it looked over. 

As I said, I was happy to pay to make my book presentable, but $2000 was A LOT of money. I looked around and found editors that were willing to charge per page and other objectives, so I took a chance on Keidi Keating from yourbookangel.com . She actually gave me a discount because she felt it would be too much to charge...is that cool or what? Anyway, I sent her the manuscript via Word, and she took about 6 weeks to copy-edit it. That means she didn't just check grammar but also content. 

The manuscript I received back was notably marked up. She asked questions about content she didn't understand. She pointed out parts where I repeated myself and got bogged down. Obviously she corrected the grammar mistakes, and it was obvious to me that she had taken the time to really read the manuscript, not just run it through a computer. 

At first (as I think all authors feel when getting critiques) I was a bit stunned. My "magnum opus" 😏 needed work. I read her comments and suggestions and really mulled them over. I had to admit that there was quite a bit that needed to be removed, and I did it. Some things I kept, but after my review of her edits, I would say a good 1/5 of the book had been deleted, and it was all the better for it! I cannot stress how important it is to have your work edited or at least beta-read, AND to be open to constructive criticism. It may be difficult to hear, but when someone takes the time to read and give you feed back you should take it. Just my opinion, but it will make your story so much stronger.

Anyway...after correcting and then re-correcting and re-reading I realized that I had to accept that I had done the best I could, stop editing, and move forward with the process.  I finally got down to deciding I would "vanity publish", which is a form of self publishing, through Westbow Press. But THAT is a story for next week. Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment.