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"Oh, I've edited my manuscript so many times, I forgot which draft I'm on!"

If I had a dollar for every time I've said this, I'd have enough to hire a book publicist. But is it really about how many drafts you're on? Is that a good measurement of when you should stop editing or proofreading your manuscript? Absolutely not.

When I first started out writing, I was so impatient when it came to editing my work. I didn't care about how I should improve my craft, I just wanted the editing done yesterday. Editing is, by far, the longest process of writing a book, but for me it was even longer. Was it to do with my impatience? Partly, but the real reason? I'll let you in on a secret. I'm terrible when it comes to English. In fact, I had to take remedial English class in college just so I could graduate!

To this day, I wish I had paid more attention in English class during my school years, but nothing can be done about that now. Sooo what did I do to improve? I read! I read as many books in the genre I was interested in and some even outside of that genre. I learned from other authors what writing style I liked best and from there I grew. Now, I'm not saying to forgo English classes as they are extremely important to a writer's life, but there are other ways to learn.

With my latest book, I didn't even bother counting how many drafts I went through. To me, it was about the learning process. I even told my editor that I wanted her to highlight areas that needed to be fixed so that I could improve. Even after she went through it, and she did a good job, I re-read my book from a reader's point of view and found several weak areas within certain explanations.

In truth, the editing process is never-ending only because as writers we always want to strive for our best to give our readers the best experience possible.

Views: 47

Comment by Raymond Cook on November 26, 2017 at 2:27am

Hi:

Boy do I know the importance of grammar and editing!

A writer will pay a high price in negative comments on Amazon for a poorly edited book.

Readers hold us self-published authors to the same level of grammar as a published author.

Grammarly.com is the most wonderful free version I use.

It catches 95% of grammar errors and I am so grateful for that.

It is just as important to sit in a room by yourself and READ out loud your book to yourself.

You will catch so many mistakes I promise.

Good luck to all of you.

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