The biggest trap that most self-published authors fall into is believing there book is good enough if they write it once, have a few friends check it over and send it out.
The truth is that writers do not see their own mistakes.
It’s like looking in a mirror and thinking that the one-dimensional reflection is how we really look to other people.
Besides seeing ourselves in only one dimension we unconsciously put on a good face before that bit of glass. A pleasant expression. A smile. Do we see the frown, snarl, or grimace we make when someone cuts in front of us?
As a writer, you know what you want to say. That knowledge can get in the way of sharing what we want to say completely.
Remember the old kid’s game of Pass the Secret? You tell the person next to you a sentence about something. She repeats it to the next person. By the time it has progressed five or six times the sentence is completely unrecognizable from the original.
Surprisingly, the same thing happens in writing. Because you yourself know something you assume that the reader knows this as well. He doesn’t.
Recently a someone told me about a recipe she was given from a friend. The friend had carefully written out all the ingredients for the dish. It turns out though that she forgot one important ingredient: salt. Now, this friend had made the recipe a hundred times and she knew exactly how to make the dish, but when she wrote it out she forgot one of the most basic ingredients.
Writers do this a lot. Because so much time is spent thinking and living inside the character’s head we forget that we have not told our reader essential things that are important about our hero or villain.
Editing is more than simply catching spelling and grammar mistakes. If you want your book to be a success, take the time and expense to have it professionally edited.
At Wheatmark, we believe in helping authors with every step of the writing and publishing process. Whether your book is is in the beginning or final stages to tell us about your project, tell us about it.
