Well I'm still hard at it, beavering away on my novel. I'm still editing. It's going well, but starting to get a little tedious now! Some weeks ago now I printed out what I'd written to read through and make corrections. I don't know about you, but I find it harder to take in what I'm reading when it's on the screen compared with a paper copy in your hand. Also it was quite nice to see it in a physical form.
So I read through that, making corrections and a few changes, and now I'm about half way through reading on the computer again. I'm not sure how most writers go about their editing. It would be interesting to me to know if there are certain things that writers do/don't do or try to avoid when editing. I'm just trying to go through it as much as I can - though saying that I'll probably stop when I've done this read through and then print out another copy/copies to give to (kind) friends who wouldn't mind reading it for me!!
After I've done that and taken on board what people have said about my story, then I guess the time will come for me to seriously start looking to self publish on Kindle and possibly Smashwords as well. I do need to do some research before then, but I have a secret weapon (ie my husband!!) who is very knowledgeable when it comes to computers and has even said he can design my cover for me!
This is quite an exciting time for me as I've never been published before. I realise that technically I'm self publishing, but as many people on Twitter tell me, it may well be the way things are going in the future. It seems obvious to me that more and more people are going to self publish. It's so much easier to get your work noticed and as I think I've mentioned before on this blog, if you self publish and lots of people look at your work, it has the potential to lead to publishers getting interested and taking a look as well.
I'll keep you posted on my progress. As always, please send me your comments. I'd love to know what you think about the writing process.
Hi Elaine, I wish you well - we are both at similar stages on the journey so your writing is always relevant to me. I know exactly what you are talking about. I certainly would encourage you to take the time to edit as I did for self published work. There is a lot of stuff out there which has been slapped up in the public arena without any editing and it's giving self published work a bad name when it comes to reviews as I am finding. I have had a couple of good strikes when it comes to getting reviews with many rejecting self published work. My editing process took about 9 months from start to finish. At first I was as anything to get it out there, but as time went on I knew the importance of taking the time to get it right, because I was still finding typos 8 months along, even after two professional edits. But it's worth it. Mine is only a week away from launch now, and you will love that feeling, so prepare it well for your readers. Hope all goes well.
ReplyDeleteHi Elaine,
ReplyDeleteMy advice would be to just not look at your novel for a long a time as you can manage - I would say a month at the very least but preferably longer (I didn't look at mine for a year) and then go back to it with a fresh pair of eyes. That way you've got more chance of reading it as if you were a reader and picking up any errors and inconsistencies etc. It will be great to talk to you more about our writing in person on Thursday!
Kate x