A Savage Twist

Editing. Such an important component to publishing any book and the most difficult to accomplish. Since I am not a person of means, I have to edit my own work. To have a book professionally edited would cost at a minimum $10,000, possibly more if it is a large book.

My first book, “Echoes of the Gidat”, is not perfect. Far from it. If you remember, I hadn’t intended to publish it at first. So I did not take the care required to edit as I went. Going back and trying to edit something after so long is a very daunting task. Writing something is far different than editing. Editing requires an entirely different mindset. You have to look at the work as a reader and not as a writer.

As I’m working on my second book, I have the support of an excellent writing group. At any given time I have fifteen pairs of eyes looking over a section of my book at a time. I make the necessary corrections and my work is the better for it. I am much too close to my work to ever be objective enough to edit it. Consequently, my second book is much more polished than my first.

I highly recommend that you join a writing group. The input they give is always constructive. They understand what you are going through like no one else can. They will make you a better writer. And most importantly, they will give you the confidence you need to dare greatly.

I wish that I had found this group sooner. I know my first book would have been better as a result. But that’s the beauty of self publishing, I can make corrections anytime I want. So I can still fix those little errors that I missed the first thousand times I read it.