So I Just Finished Writing My Book, Time to Publish It, Right?

Uh, no.

Not only "No", but "Hell, no".

You've finished your First Draft, which is probably rough as hell and contains missing words, spelling and grammar errors, continuity errors and all manner of other issues.

Yes, this means you're going to start on your Second Draft, so it's time to put on your thick skin and send the First Draft off to your most patient and willing Beta Reader, with instructions to go over it with a fine tooth comb and to be merciless about it.

A good Beta Reader will be harsh. A kind one isn't doing you any favors. You don't want kind. You want honesty and brutality, where necessary.

Once you receive the First Draft (with edits) back, go over it and see if you agree with what your Beta Reader has said. Don't brush off suggestions, and be sure to take what is said to heart. Your Beta Reader isn't trying to hurt your feeling, s/he is trying to be sure you present the most polished work possible to your readers on publications.

Now, once you've incorporated or discarded the suggested edits (do this edit by edit, don't do it in one fell swoop), take the time to read the Second Draft aloud. It's one of the best ways to catch spelling errors, word omissions, and the like. We are much more prone to breeze right over errors when we read them silently. I'm not sure why what that is, but that's really a thing.

Fix the errors and send the Second Draft off to another Beta Reader. Fresh eyes are best for something like this. Once it comes back, go over it all over again with the suggested edits. Then read it aloud all over again. Yes, I know this can be monotonous, but that's writing. It's not as easy as it may seem.

Lather.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Once you feel you have your final version in place, send it off to more than one Beta Reader, once again requesting complete honesty in their response. Take those responses to heart and make changes when and where necessary.

No, you're not completely done yet. Not by a long shot.

You need to make sure you have good cover art for your writing, but I'll leave that to someone who knows more than I do on that subject. If someone wishes to write a guest post about making/designing a cover, please let me know!

On Writing...

People out there say that anyone can write, and that's true, but it's not true that anyone can write well.

That's not a criticism. It's a fact.

Authors don't just sit down and figuratively spew forth words onto the page or screen. They agonize over every word that is chosen, and agonize when those words don't want to come, even though they know they have a story to tell.

You can usually tell when an author has pretty much phoned it in. When you read what they've published, you find multitudes of spelling/grammar/punctuation errors, and it's clear that they edited their own work.

I've found that to be a mistake. You must have an outside editor. You can't just rely on yourself to get it right the first or even the second or third time around.

But multiple drafts of your work are a subject for another time.

Most writers can find beta readers who will read over what has been written and then give feedback. I recommend asking those beta readers to be hard in their response, and to give an honest opinion and feedback. You don't want kudos, you want brutal honesty, so having a thick skin for criticism is a necessity.

I also recommend reading your work aloud. It's much easier to find those inadvertent mistakes that way. Wouldn't you much rather be embarrassed discovering those errors yourself and then fixing them, rather than having screenshots posted by readers who want to poke public fun at your efforts?

When you write something, you aren't necessarily going to notice the mistakes you make, and you can't rely on Spellcheck, either, as if you've used a homonym for a word and spelled it correctly, it's not going to alert you to the issue. There, their, and they're are prime examples of that. I'm sure you've seen your and you're used incorrectly all the time.

I know someone who writes too instead of to all the time. The day he tried to convince me he was a mutual friend, I knew it was him from the moment he made that error. (I've never confronted him about the attempted deception, as I don't know what that would accomplish.)

In regard to beta readers, if you'd like to be considered as a beta reader for my works in progress, please let me know!