Don't Rush It!

So you finished your book. Now you want to polish that baby up and turn it in! SLOW DOWN! Don't rush. This isn't a race.

Ok, so I need to take my own advice sometimes. Its thrilling when you finish your story and you want to get it into your editors/publishers hands right away. But you know what, your editor most likely wants you to take your time.  The sloppier the copy you send, the longer edits are going to take and it might even push off that release date.

I just finished the last book in my Hot Bods Series. The third book published in June 2012 and I had hoped all four books would release in 2012. Well, we don't always get what we wish for, do we? Its doubtful Opposite's Attract will hit reader's eReader's until early 2013. Even if I got this sucker spit shined today. I am slightly dispointed I didn't get the book done when I wanted, but life happens. And a lot of life has been happening here lately.

I have learned a great deal in this past year. And I have been that author to finish a story and have it to my editor  a week later. And when that manuscript came back with basic mistakes, I was embaressed! I thought, I should know this by now. And yet, I keep doing it over and over. And I often times thought, I rushed this. I wrote it, did a read through, and turned it in. Then spent several long and intense rounds of editing polishing it up. And as my writing improves, so do the lengths of my stories, which mean longer hours of editing.

This time, I want to turn something in and my editor gets a break! 

The best piece of advice I can give, is to let that manuscript sit as long as you can. A week minimum before you even touch it again. If you can make it a month, great...but let's be honest, that's really hard. So a week to two weeks. Then open it and read it word for word. Look for words you used close to one another over and over...I am very guilty of this. And once you finish that round, if you don't have a deadline you have to hit, let it sit a week again. And read that sucker again. If you have a friend who can read it fairly quickly for you, send it to them to use their editing eye. 

Just remember, the time you take before turning in the story will make all the difference to your editor and less work when the edits come in. You do have another story to write after all, do you want edits you should have caught before to interfere?