Learning from mistakes

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,532 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

o    #48 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Drama > United States
o    #87 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Drama > United States

So what I worked on this weekend was getting my book ready to print in Createspace.  I am really taking my time with this process, though. 


There have been two reviews (one on Amazon, one on Goodreads) that said my book needed "editing help".  It bothers me because they're right.  This is a criticism that not only affected the readers' impression, rating and enjoyment of my book, it will also affect future sales.  I'm also beginning to wonder if the returns I've had (four this month) have to do with this quality issue. 

I've gone through about five revisions in the past two weeks, so the latest versions should be "clean", but the poor reviews are there to stay.  Hardest to take?  The fact that this is 100% my fault, and that it was 100% avoidable.

Rule #1:  Don't consider a book finished if you are still adding or changing scenes. 

This causes careless editing because you assume you've already gone over everything and begin relying solely on Spellchecker.  For example, I can come up with a great (new) line for my character and forget that she had said something similar in a previous page, or I'll end up adding an extra quote mark because I inserted this line in the middle of existing dialogue.   You know how the only way to tell when popcorn is done is when there are two seconds between pops?  I'm going to apply the same rule to my next book:  it's only done when I can go over the whole book (twice) and not want to make a single change.


Rule #2:  Pay attention to feedback. 
Before self publishing, I received a few responses from my query letters from traditional publishers.   One editor wrote back and helpfully suggested that I go over my manuscript again because she saw a lot of mistakes in it.  In that particular case, I realized that I had converted to PDF, an earlier draft of my book.  But this should have told me that I had lost track of which version I had actually been editing, and that there were serious problems in my manuscript---which to an editor is anyting over one mistake, and to a reader anything over two.

Rule #3:  Daily word counts are not my friend. 

Let me correct that:  word counts are my friend, because they have made the difference between the 10-12 unfinished manuscripts that I have and "Fame".   However, when you force yourself to write 2700 words a day, (in order to finish a 50,000 word novel in a month) there are going to be days when what you are writing is just filler and should be deleted.  There is also the tendency to throw yourself across the finish line like a marathoner when you've reached Day 30, regardless of where you are in the story.  One reviewer said my story ended abruptly.  She was right, and that's the reason.


There's a reason why this topic is my second post:  rushing something to print has been my biggest mistake (so far) in this process, and it's something that can't be undone.