on editing

The other day I read an older post on the smashwords blog in which an author was interviewed. At the time of the post, he said his books weren't edited.

Did you get that? Not. Edited.

I won't rip this author's methods, mainly because he outsells me by like a bajillion copies. Clearly whatever he is (or was) doing works for him. More power to him. We should all be so lucky.

So that made me wonder what would happen if I just slapped whatever into a book and sent it into the world.

I realize that I'm not, nor will I ever be perfect. While I have complete creative control, the occasional mistake will sneak in. I do have an editor aside from myself, but I always end up monkeying around with the writing when I get it back.

What would happen if my writing weren't edited at all?

There would be a whole lot of me repeating myself - pet phrases, incorrect words, weird stuff that just plain doesn't make sense. I don't know where Brain comes up with the stuff sometimes.

I realize that eschewing the 10 rounds of editing I usually do would be freeing. I would be able to release books three times as fast because edits/rewrites take so much longer than the initial draft. However, the finished product would be little more than word vomit. I plan to continue editing.

Also, a side note. Something is going on with one of my book listings on the amazon kindle store. They either had a system glitch or someone is publishing my work without my permission. If you run across a listing for What the Dead Fear that costs $2.99 instead of 99 cents, do not buy it!!!

I e-mailed them. We’ll see what happens with that.

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Hey, want some free reading? Check out the fiction freebie page on this very blog!
There you shall find links to two free ebooks on Smashwords and novel excerpts on Scribd.

Other places to find me:
http://www.LeaRyan.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeaRyan1