Diary of a Procrastinator November 2

doing the final read through before sending off to the publisher

Photo by Daria Shevtsova on Unsplash

It’s been a long time coming (aka an eternity) but I’m finally at the point where I’m doing the last read though of A Place of Her Own before sending it to the publisher.

While the manuscript will be edited after being sent, because I was concerned about the structure I hired an editor myself as an extra safeguard. Happily there were no structural changes to be made, probably because I did a lot of work on that front as I was writing, moving scenes around and making sure I had the right turning points.

My lovely editor Laura Boon from It’s All Write Editing Services also did a copyedit which I have completed onscreen. Now I’m reading through the printed pages picking up word and phrasing repetitions that have snuck through, adding a sentence or word here and there, and ensuring that I’m as happy as possible before pressing send.

I say ‘as happy as possible’ because nothing is ever perfect and at some point we have to let the pages go and move on to the next project. Even as I’ve been reading the ms that annoying inner critic is saying things like ‘this is actually crap’, ‘who will want to read this’ and you’ve just wasted a year of your life on this’. But I’m resisting the criticism and pushing forward. Not everyone will like our books but we are always our own harshest critics. In the end we need to settle for ‘as good as it can be for now’ and send away.

If you’re a paid subscriber there’s a warts ‘n all video below about all of the above.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Pam x