“A great cover and a great editor!” Those are the two main things you hear about self-publishing. While both are true, what’s often overlooked is the importance of revision. Unfortunately, many writers finish their first draft and either send it to the editor, or worse, go straight for publication.
Prior to becoming a writer, I was used to read books, and I’m specifically referring to the bad ones, and wonder what it was about them. There’s difference between a book that’s just not my thing and a book that’s poorly written. Even if it was edited and minimal in error, some books are still just…ugh.
One day, I had an aha moment. I’d just cracked open a new manuscript, turned Track Changes on, and was ready to go to work. I didn’t make it to the third page before sending it back to its rightful owner. “She didn’t even re-read this. She just typed it up and sent it to me.”
There was no way, without actually rewriting the story, that I could have taken it beyond a three-star rating. In this exact order, the writing process consists of: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. You could very well skip step one. It may mean more revising on your end, but it’s doable. Drafting is inevitable, then there’s revision.
Skip revision and you cheat yourself.
Try to go the traditional publishing route and you’ll find yourself rejected time and time again. Go the self-publishing route, snag a good editor, and one of two things will happen:
- Your manuscript will be rejected.
- Your manuscript will require a heavy edit and/or more than two edits (all of which costs more).
So what do you do? You’ve written the first draft, now what? You revise. How so? That’s what I asked a number of my favorite authors and writer-friends. If you already revise, you may find new tidbits to add to your own revision strategy. If you aren’t revising, then feel free to test ‘em out and see which ones are in rhythm with your flow.
Below are 14 excerpts from their revision strategies. Full responses are available by clicking here.
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