Maybe the rule is that you should never edit past your bed time?
Never edit while holding a baby on your lap?
Never edit while you have twins who still don't sleep through the night?
You know I was so happy to here from a friend of mine who posted my book on her Facebook page that one of her friends picked up a copy of my book on Kindle. The person then said they notices some errors couple pages in. I apparently was forgive because this was my first book. It still crushed me because I edited the death out of my book!
I then realized well maybe I over edited. Is it possible to over edit?
I did spend many nights up way past my normal bedtime to get the book done on my scheduled release date(which was October 31st.). I even postponed the original release date (September). Surprisingly people actually were starting ask where is the book they thought it was coming out in September and they had not seen it yet.I was sleep deprived a bit, and I am a single mom of 9 month old twins plus an 8 year old. So trying to edit while taking care of cherub children was a task. In trying to correct mistakes I was making mistakes as well.
For example the typo that the person pointed out. Oh yes I remembered that. I HAD meant to correct that, but forgot where it was. That is what I get for editing from backwards to forwards. By the time I got to the beginning I forgot what needed fixing. Real smart of me, but forgivable considering I never get a full nights sleep whether I am editing or not. I am not bitter at my babies who still wont sleep completely through the night, no no...well maybe a little but it's due to sleep deprivation, and hormones.
I corrected everything in the Kindle version, but I can not change what is in print. Though its print on demand why can't I? People and their limitations pissh! Also Why did I not run spell check HELLO! I had myself editing, and a English degree graduate editing.Why did I need spell check? DUH! Then you had my eyes again on it checking the English degree graduate editing as well. Which was good, but I had to tweak here and tweak there so description or dialogue. I over tweaked maybe that was my issue. Add to that I also was nervous for I was self publishing my book! This was not an instant choice for me. I thought long and hard on this choice. I did research on the benefits of both self publishing and traditional publishing. I then looked at the style and topic of my book. Which direction of publishing did it fit? I mean why not millions of people do it.
So is there such thing as too much editing?
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ReplyDeleteWhat you need is a professional copy editor or proofreader. Your English grad obviously does not have the experience or know-how to properly edit. No author, including this author/editor, can accurately proofread their own work. If you want to succeed in this business you need to stand out - but not as an author whose work is rife with errors. Excuses don't matter to buyers; the quality of the book does. As an exercise, go back through this post and count the number of errors. If you come up with less than 18, you missed some. This is not meant to crush you, but to illustrate how easy it is for mistakes to slip past authors.
ReplyDeleteYou can never have too much editing, but reading something through bleary-eyed and tired, and doing it unmethodically (no spell check? why?) does not count. This is why book publishers have commissioning editors and copy-editors and technical editors and proofreaders.
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