Today, over at The Parking Lot Confessional, I wrote about self-publishing and editing. Here’s a snippet:
We writers love what we write. We coddle our novels and purr over them and think they’re oh-so-precious. We show them off to our writers groups, confident they’ll see our brilliance; but always ready with an explanation if they say that one part doesn’t quite work or a justification if they object to our using that worn-out stereotype.
If we’re really gutsy, we’ve found a couple of trusted readers who will be brutal with our work. Readers who will tell us our babies are ugly. Readers who will point out that our darling has three mouths and a foot growing out of the top of its head and that dressing it up in a pink tutu isn’t helping.
Regardless if we send our precious off to be traditionally published, or if we get accepted by an independent press or if we create our own publishing company and print our own book, one thing remains true:
Our work must be edited.
I hope you find the post helpful, even if you’re not self-publishing.
Thanks for reading!