Timelines for Self-Publishing

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 6, 2013 at 10:35pm

I didn't use their editing. I did that myself. My editor usually takes a couple months cause she likes to read through a project like 3 different times looking for different things each time. CreateSpace without their editor only took a few days and that's for both book and ebook. I was able to do them pretty much at the same time. You load and look it over right off the bat, and I advise you to look at every page. That part doesn't take all that long.

Permalink Reply by Andrea Phillips on February 6, 2013 at 10:38pm

Wonderful...thanks so much for the reply Anna!

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 6, 2013 at 10:39pm

I know CreateSpace offers their own editing but I have no idea how long that takes.

Permalink Reply by Andrea Phillips on February 6, 2013 at 10:42pm

Yes as it's my first novel I think that's my best option so I'm hoping the process doesn't take too long.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on February 7, 2013 at 2:42am

Be very careful. Never assume anyone else will take as much care with your first born as you would like. Be picky with every detail.

Permalink Reply by Sean Noonan on February 7, 2013 at 10:47am

Hi Andrea/Anna

I have to agree, be very diligent and picky. Polish, polish and polish again. The hard work at the front end pays dividends down the line. I (now) always go through the editing/proofreading (not the same thing) one last time, after I think I am done. There is always something more to do to help your project shine.

I have not used CreateSpace editing system as I prefer to use a system I know. Good luck and have fun,

Anna L. Walls said:

Be very careful. Never assume anyone else will take as much care with your first born as you would like. Be picky with every detail.

Permalink Reply by Anna L. Walls on June 12, 2013 at 5:28pm

There are programs out there, but you need to be very careful using them; don't lean on them too hard - they are, after all, only programs. But they might help you find particular weaknesses in your writing, like overusing a word, or passive sentences.

I can certainly understand thin resources. At this point, I'm leaning on book sales to pay for my next editing. One trick I've used is to have my computer read aloud to me. This helps me with coma placement, and it also finds those wonkey words that look right but are spelled, are pronounced, and mean something else entirely.

However, I go along with earlier recommendation, It's really, really, really important to get your work in front of a professional editor. The important thing about publishing is having a happy reader. A happy reader will tell others about your book and they will buy your next book. A soso reader will forget about you or worse yet, not finish your book.