Self-Editing, What I Have Learned

I have always believed that editing is hard work, for me harder than writing. For many, to self-edit is almost impossible, but I think it can be done. I recently had my eyes opened by a simple fact – if you are self-editing, order a proof of the book and edit from it. Editing from my computer screen is the most difficult for me. Printing a hard copy and editing from that is a bit better but still not as good as looking at the book.

Talking about my CCC book

Which brings me to publishing eBooks, not sure that I could self-edit and publish eBooks without an editor. I have my readers, and I self-edit, but most of what I find are in the book proof.

 So what have I learned from this? Read the work in another form to finish the self-edit. This helps in finding, too long paragraphs, and too long sentences and misused words. I also read my novels and nonfiction works out of order, random chapters, last chapter first, and then skip around and read, and I read the chapters slowly. Some suggest reading the entire work backwards, this works, and for many works well, but not for me.

One of my chapter books for kids - fun read

From my self-editing experience, I have found two tips to be the best. First, know when to stop, sometimes I put in a comma or hyphenate a word then re-edit and take them out – Stop already!

Second, read aloud, hear yourself. And now I have a third, look over a proof of the book.

 If I were to put a fourth here it would be, now you are finished, send it off to an editor.

This is the proof of my western, still finishing final self-edit

I am not like writers that believe all works must be professionally edited. There are so many editors selling services it is important and hard to find a good one, and one who charges a fee that is affordable.  It takes quite a few sales to make back a thousand or more dollars in editing costs. Everyone that writes expects or hopes to have a best seller, but if you believe that the book will sell only a hundred or fewer copies stick with a good self-edit and get on to your next book.

So far my best selling book - several hundred copies

School Has Started and I am Going Back to Work

Wow, what a summer! I managed to keep up with my blog posts, kind of but did little other writing. My western novel, Commitment, is out in eBook, and I had hopes of getting the physical copy of the book out by July 1. Now it is September and still no book. Why? I decided to do a rewrite of part of the eBook before publishing the hard copy. New goal, both out by October 1. Hope I make it. Meanwhile, I am going to do a .99 cent sale on it until I get the new copy finished. Not that there is anything wrong with  it. I am not changing any of the plot or the characters, not even the cover just felt like it needed some word changes - likely didn't. This might make a great writing exercise, read the .99 cent version (in a few days when it goes on sale) then buy the $3.99 eBook with the changes and compare - just kidding!

In other news, my two children’s books

and my nonfiction book about the CivilianConservation Corps have had a roller coaster of up and down selling weeks. I sell a few copies and the book soars into the top ten percent of all books on Amazon, then no sales for a week or two and they fall to number 2,000,000 - crazy stuff.

I have sold more than 100 copies of my CCC book around this area. Wish those sales could be reflected as Amazon sales. However, I’m not complaining, making more than I thought I would on all my books. Not big money by any stretch, but when I make $50 in a week for a few weeks in a row I feel pretty good.

Enjoying the research on my new nonfiction and hoping to release some bits and pieces soon. It deals with Fort Laramie’s role on the plains and along the trails west.

Fort Laramie July 4, 2015

Still setting hard on my goal of releasing at least three books by the end of May. Guess that is the old school teacher in me, my year is September 1, to the end of May.

I like this hike - refreshing

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great book going 

Rewrite or Leave as Is

I've been doing some editing the past two weeks, everything I do keeps bringing me back to this quote.

“I have been correcting the proofs of my poems. In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence…. In the afternoon I put it back again.” ~Oscar Wilde

Sometimes it might be best to walk away

I am surprised at how many times I have rewrote something in the margin and later scratch that out and write in bold red  - LEAVE AS IS

The good news is the weather is great in Wyoming and my golf game is already getting to mid-season form. Almost time to plant the garden and do some more editing.

Re-Write and Do It Again

The toughest part of writing is writing until its good enough. Writing until the pickiest critic, yourself, is satisfied.

I had someone recently ask me why I have not attempted to publish the four, yes four, books I have written. Easy, they are not good enough. I am continually working on them. When I get rejected I want my best stuff to be rejected, not something I wrote in a few hours.

I actually have enough short stories to put together three more books, but who’s counting?

"Books aren't written, they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it..." - Michael Crichton

And if I need inspiration I take a quick trip to the park.