Can I even call it revision 26? I mean I have been writing this thing for 4 years. For all I know, I am into hundreds of revisions. 26 is the revision that I decided to use as my first printed manuscript. Wow, was it a mess. I don’t know if it was the conversion to a .pdf format or the author, but I found a lot of errors. I am going with both. As I backed away for the first time, I couldn’t believe the errors within the first 10 pages. But that is OK. That is why you call it a first revision.
This isn’t my first book. I learned some hard lessons during my first trip across the galaxy. I thought that I could be the editor and take the short cut, but I got busted. I had my proof printed out and proudly showed to the guys at work. They started to read it and were finding errors left and right. I was embarrassed. I was so proud to finally make a book and it was bad.
So, I hired an editor. It took about 12 edits to get it right and I still think we missed a word or two.
If you want to self publish, don’t take the easy and cheap way out. Spend the money or trade for an editor and graphic artist. I promise that you will miss something. At least this never happened to me, but I am sure it hits other authors hard. I look at books on Amazon and the first thing I look at are the reviews. Nothing irritates a reader more than being caught up in a book, only to get bumped out of their world by a spelling error and error in grammar. Your reader will forgive you if your character development isn’t that good. You reader will forgive you if your narrative is lacking luster, but they hate errors!
Don’t believe me? Read the book reviews.
