I had a few goals with my first book, and they weren't particularly lofty goals--I wanted to write something that I would enjoy reading, I wanted to get the book all the way to "published", and I wanted to sell more than 100 copies. This set of goals determined some of the choices I made, of course. To get it across the finish line, I decided to use Amazon, for instance, despite some issues I have with the company. I kept the book short and sweet, not particularly complex, so I would actually finish the damn thing. And, I decided to not hire a professional editor.
A few good friends helped me edit the book, and they gave me great feedback, caught a lot of errors (some simple and some not-so-simple). It was also fun to interact with those people, people I know and trust and enjoy getting constructive criticism from. There was some awkwardness regarding some of the folks I know who I didn't ask to do a read of the book, but (gratefully) most of those folks didn't give me much flak about it, so much of the awkwardness was probably just in my own head. The joy of getting feedback from people I asked to read it as editors was well worth that awkwardness. Grateful I have so many smart writer/reader sorts of friends.
This time around, for Miskatonic Bay, the second in this series, I'm asking the same group of folks to be the first-round readers. It's nerve-wracking (particularly because I wonder, like anybody would, if I actually had more than one good book in me), but in a fun kind of way, having gone through it once. Also, I'm thinking of hiring an editor this time around, when I've got the book in the best shape I can. Finding an editor I match up with is a little daunting, of course; sometimes it seems like there are more articles about finding a freelance editor than there are freelance editors, and I'm a new author--I really have little idea how thin my skin is, honestly. So we'll see.
I promised myself that this writing thing would be something I had to enjoy, as a whole, or I wasn't going to continue doing it. I think I'm at a place now where I may be able to enjoy a professional editorial process (though my current first-readers really are professionals). We'll see. It's expensive. I think editors deserve every penny and more that they make, and yet that whole "sell a hundred" thing might mean I just don't want to shell out the money involved in paying somebody.
So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe it's time to take this writing thing a bit more seriously? Or maybe it's still time to just enjoy it and put a fun book out there, even if I have to fix some mistakes after it's published!
A few good friends helped me edit the book, and they gave me great feedback, caught a lot of errors (some simple and some not-so-simple). It was also fun to interact with those people, people I know and trust and enjoy getting constructive criticism from. There was some awkwardness regarding some of the folks I know who I didn't ask to do a read of the book, but (gratefully) most of those folks didn't give me much flak about it, so much of the awkwardness was probably just in my own head. The joy of getting feedback from people I asked to read it as editors was well worth that awkwardness. Grateful I have so many smart writer/reader sorts of friends.
This time around, for Miskatonic Bay, the second in this series, I'm asking the same group of folks to be the first-round readers. It's nerve-wracking (particularly because I wonder, like anybody would, if I actually had more than one good book in me), but in a fun kind of way, having gone through it once. Also, I'm thinking of hiring an editor this time around, when I've got the book in the best shape I can. Finding an editor I match up with is a little daunting, of course; sometimes it seems like there are more articles about finding a freelance editor than there are freelance editors, and I'm a new author--I really have little idea how thin my skin is, honestly. So we'll see.
I promised myself that this writing thing would be something I had to enjoy, as a whole, or I wasn't going to continue doing it. I think I'm at a place now where I may be able to enjoy a professional editorial process (though my current first-readers really are professionals). We'll see. It's expensive. I think editors deserve every penny and more that they make, and yet that whole "sell a hundred" thing might mean I just don't want to shell out the money involved in paying somebody.
So we'll see. We'll see. Maybe it's time to take this writing thing a bit more seriously? Or maybe it's still time to just enjoy it and put a fun book out there, even if I have to fix some mistakes after it's published!
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