Today, Amanda Hocking is a big time author with St. Martin Press, but a year ago, but back when she was a 26-year-old, self-published author, selling a mere 100,000+ books a month, she was quite frustrated with the editing process.

What I find most frustrating about editing and being indie is that everything else I can do myself. Writing, covers, marketing, etc. But I cannot edit properly myself. It’s just not possible.
–Amanda Hocking, when she was an indie author

I totally feel her pain–about the editing stuff, not about the becoming a millionaire by selling kindle books. (I could am prepared to get used to it though.)

My upcoming book, Minion of Evil was edited by my wife, my critique group, me, my beta reader and by editor before I gave it my final read-through.I found around one error every four pages. When I was through, I asked my wife to go over my first chapter again. Two more errors were found.

EXPLETIVE DELETED

Today I was reading an Internet discussion about whether or not grammar is important to writers. I would never even think to ask that question. To me it would be akin to saying: Is it important for a carpenter to be able to use a table saw without slicing off their fingers?

Bad grammar, typos, and errors trip up the reader. They interrupt the flow of the book. They stop reading from being an enjoyable experience. Of course, not every person is going to read every error, hence the errors of mine alluding an editor, a critique group, and a bevy of beta readers, but every one you fail to clear adds the chance that you’re going to lose some of your readers.

Okay, on the bright side, or maybe the zeitgeist side, I have read big budget books with errors. Still, I want to put my best foot forward and make reading my book a worthwhile experience.

This is a short piece I did for my writing group. Here was the promt:

An elderly man, frail but mentally sharp, who seems to be in unfamiliar territory, is sitting at a bar near a young loudmouth who is bragging about how he is not afraid of something that has the neighborhood scared. The bartender is a good-natured and middle-aged woman who would rather the loudmouth didn’t start anything.

And this is what I wrote:

A young man sat on the bar stool next to Daniel and announced, “Koreans are idiots.”

In any social situation, this would be an awkward phrase, but in a bar at the edge of a bustling Koreatown, the statement nearly constituted a call to action. Daniel glanced around to see if anyone had heard, but other than the bartender, there were only a couple disinterested old men, about his own age, playing mahjong in the corner.

The middle-aged Korean woman working behind the bar gave them both a nasty look.

Trying to indicate to the woman that he did not know the man making the offensive statement, Daniel went back to his crossword.

“They’re afraid of fans,” said the young man. “They believe that if you fall asleep with a fan running in your room, you’ll suffocate before morning. Fan Death, they call it.” He turned to Daniel, “Have you ever known of a person killed by a fan?”

“I suppose anything’s possible,” Daniel said, trying to be judicious.

The bartender slapped the bar and let go a torrent of her native language with enough force to push Daniel back an inch on his bar stool. She slapped the bar again for emphasis.

“Well,” said, the young man, “nice talking to you, but mom says I have to get back to work.”

I’ve been drafting this particular post for a long time. It still seems too touchy-feely.

Writers have BIG egos.

Even more than that, writers need big egos. Without a bit of ego, a writer is someone looking at a blank page, thinking, Why would anyone read something I wrote. I wonder what’s on TV.

However, these big egos can make it difficult for writers to work with other writers, to allow others to critique their work, to not feel like they’re in a competition. Sadly, this kind of negative ego will only turn back on those who put it out. I’ve seen promising writers learn bad habits as they refused to listen to good advice, “knowing” that they were the better writer.

Don’t let it happen to you.

It’s important to weigh the advice of others and not take it as gospel, but it is also important to listen to other people, to allow yourself to be taught. Sometimes, all it means is keeping your mouth shut and taking time to think about something.

I have, in my hands, the final draft of my novel back from the editors. They have given me a chance to go through one more time. I’m trying not to over-edit myself, but I do find something to look at every few pages.

Maybe no manuscript is ever perfect. All I can do is put forth my best effort and let it go when it’s done.