Writers Revise

Looking back, I accidentally pulled my first all-nighter in fifth grade. When my parents went to bed, I told them I just had to copy my essay one more time - yes, I am a dinosaur who had to write my essays in cursive and hand-draw any illustrations. I kept finishing, seeing a small error or drawing I could do better, and redoing the whole paper, until I heard my father's alarm clock go off. I still have that essay - it looks childish next to what kids can produce today with computers, but the writing was excellent.

When I was in high school, most finals included essays, often heavily weighted, and you couldn't do a bunch of revision and still finish on time. So tests during the year also included essays. Organization, coherent presentation of ideas, error-free grammar and spelling - all the elements of good writing had to be present in first drafts to do well on those tests. Again, this was all hand-written - no word processing to make corrections quickly and cleanly. It was excellent training; my first drafts are usually clean - especially when I'm working on the computer.

But I don't publish first drafts. It's not just spelling everything right and using words correctly; it's also the flow of the piece. I'm writing this just before posting, but I've already revised the beginning a few times and I'll read through it all at least twice more before hitting publish. When I write a grant proposal or social history or any kind of non-fiction piece, it's always been revised and fine-tuned before I send it out.

And that's just revision on my own.

When there's time, and especially when I'm working with fiction, I prefer to have feedback from other people. They haven't read and re-read it and gotten stuck on one way of telling the tale. They'll tell me if I've started in the wrong spot, or included unnecessary information that starts to lose their interest. If I've revised and ended up with tense changes or other errors that make it difficult to follow, they'll tell me - or I'll hear it myself if it's a group where we read our work aloud. Sometimes they'll make suggestions that I reject (it's always the author's story in the end) but not without considering their feedback and their reasons.

Writers revise.

When It's Okay Not to Revise or edit

When is it okay not to revise or edit? When you are the only audience. If you are writing a diary or journal, and have no plans to share it with the world, there's no reason to be obsessive about your grammar and spelling unless it matters to you. Since you're the one doing the writing, you will probably understand your train of thought easily, though if you read it again years from now, you may shake your head and wonder. But it's all yours, so that's okay.

It might be okay not to revise or edit if you're pulling together a memoir or a book you always wanted to write, and you're just going to print a few copies for friends and relatives. In that case, you don't have to worry if it's rough reading - as long as you don't mind putting them in the uncomfortable position of having to lie or risk hurting your feelings with the truth.

If you have published a book after intensive editing and revision and you find a few typos scattered through hundreds of pages, you may decide to revise and upload a new file (especially if the errors are in the first pages) or you may decide it's okay to leave it alone. Traditionally published books by famous authors often have one or two typos. It's okay not to be perfect.

However, if you are going to self-publish and have your book available for sale, you are hurting every self-publisher when you put out work that is poorly constructed and clearly not edited. You make it less likely readers will try new, independent authors.

If you don't want to take time to revise, if you just want to get it done and into print, please, just work with your local printer to get a few copies made instead of pretending to be a professional.

Amazon's CreateSpace used to allow people to upload files and buy author copies without "publishing"- so no one else can purchase the book. We did it for a K-8 yearbook and I helped a woman do it for her dad's book that he'd worked on for decades, but was not suitable for publication beyond family and friends. CreateSpace is gone and Amazon now does print books with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Currently, it's not possible to get author copies from KDP without publishing except for PROOF copies - so labeled with a big banner. There's some discussion about KDP going back to allowing author only printing - if they do, I'll let you know.

Writers Revise

Last week I wrote about not getting ripped off when you self-publish. My favorite resource for this is the free annotated list of companies you get when you sign up for Carla King’s mailing list for Tools & Services at authorfriendly.com. This is a marketing strategy for her 4th edition of Self-Publishing Boot Camp and for her services, but she has NOT buried me in promotional emails and she DOES send updates. This is an excellent tool for any self-publisher, but if you’re new the knowledge is essential.

www.sherimcguinn.com www.amazon.com/author/sherimcguinn

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