As I’ve taken the plunge into Indie Publishing, probably the most glaring error I see other writers making is publishing their books and stories too soon. I’m sure there is a lot of advice out there to get your product out in front of people so they can buy it, but the problem is that often the story just isn’t ready.
Being an indie author means more freedom than is good for many of us. We don’t have agents or editors telling what we need to “fix.” Sometimes that is good. Yet it seems that the more I glance over reviews of other self-published works, now it seems that not having an agent or editor may be bad for many writers. When I look at reviews of other writers, I look at both good, bad, and average reviews. And I continually see complaints about grammar, stilted dialogue, slow starts/middles/ends. Just to name a few.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have an editor “fix” these things, or at least tell you what you need to do so that you can fix them? There are editing services available. Writer’s Digest’s 2014 Guide to Self-Publishing has a lot of listings. But I’m guessing that most indie authors can’t afford these services, or they don’t want anyone to hold up production, because they are making decent sales. Eventually, though, sales will drop as your audience sees your quality suffer.
My advice would be to have one or two other people edit your work, or if that isn’t possible, take some time and read over it yourself. Slowly. Not in big chunks, but bite size pieces, allowing you to make sure the flow, story, grammar, voice, punctuation, attributes, etc., are as good as they can possibly be. Better to get your book out a few months later than you had planned if it means improved quality. And if you are in this business for the long haul, you’ll need to continually improve if you want sales to continue.
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