We like this article in The Huffington Post on “7 Signs That You’re Not Ready to Publish” (self- publish that is.) It’s about the challenges of self-publishing. Like if you are doing it for the money, you may want to think again. This is not to say that you can’t make money from self-publishing but it’s no cakewalk. (Check out Bobo Omotayo’s interview with EditIQ for a reminder about some of the difficulties of selling your own book and getting paid in Nigeria).
Editing didn’t make it on to the list of 7 signs, but it got a whole paragraph to itself – phew.
The author says that this “extremely important step is often overlooked by authors. Why? Because it’s easy to find someone to edit a book, right? Wrong. Editing is a pretty specialized skill set; someone who can find “typos” isn’t a good editor. You want someone to help you raise the bar on your work and create a final product that is something you can really be proud of. An editor will give you critical feedback (especially if you’ve hired a content editor, which I highly recommend), and often improve your work beyond what you might have been able to do on your own.
Yup, we couldn’t agree more! Any book that is being published, no matter what it is on, fiction or non-fiction, for children or for adults, needs to be edited!
