Because I didn't have much money at the time and I was trying to get myself through college, I didn't have the money for an editor for my manuscript. So I set it aside for a while, and much like Stephen King, I agree with his statement that even long books should only take you 3 months to write the first draft. You set aside the draft for at least six weeks, re-read it, and your second run-through mostly acts as a trim of 10% of what is unnecessary, scenes that don't look as good as when you wrote it, etc. The freshness of your mind is important for that second draft. Even for traditional editors, most authors will go through their book for a second draft and line-edit.
So, how did I edit professionally? Well, back in July of last year, an author I trust recommended ProWritingAid, and as opposed to the ~$4,000+ it'd cost me for an editor, ProWritingAid lets me do it myself for an annual fee of ~$130. Now, it's easy to look at those two numbers and see an immense discrepancy. It took me a while to learn how to use ProWritingAid properly, as much as I love it. Now, with all of that said, I spent far more time editing my book than I did writing it between the first draft and all the final rewrites.
Between copyright, editing software, Scrivener (the writing software that I use), the Microsoft license for Word, ISBNs, starting up an LLC, etc. etc. my costs of starting up my first book were actually fairly low at ~$700. Granted, I penny-pinched and ensured that I was saving as much money as possible, but simultaneously I was spending a lot more time with the book. I think in a sense it granted me a much higher quality, more intimate piece of literature since it's completely my own. Other than the feedback I got from a beta reader and the ProWritingAid beta-read function, I wrote everything on my own, and all ideas were as original as I could make them. The logistics of getting to that final manuscript from all the edits and ensuring that the book wasn't full of holes took a while. From July of last year to February of this year was filled with 95% edits, 5% re-writes and mapping. On February 23rd, I sent my final manuscript to copyright (since it was ready), 15 months after I had first written the very first page.
At this stage, it's promotions and working with distributors to get your content out there. Among the most popular are Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Draft2Digital, etc. Arc readers will come from BookSprout, BookSirens promotes your book, and everything so far has taken me a while. My cover artist and I had to re-edit and re-format a bunch when we realized Amazon KDP requires different margins, which meant I had to completely reformat my maps and the page counts to text, while my cover artist had to re-design the spine size for the cover.
Overall? The hardest parts are long over. It's been an insanely long journey, and I think anyone could become an author as long as they try. Granted, if you're like me, you want to spend more time writing and creating than formatting and editing. From now on, I will send my second drafts to professional editors to save myself more time and to publish more frequently. I can do everything as far as the self-publishing department goes, but whether I actually want to do so is another story. After having experienced the full length of the self-publishing journey and nearing its terminus, I've learned so much about the book world and how everything happens. Each different item is a process since I am my own editor, publisher, and agent for this specific book.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely! I spent a long time trying to figure out something that I was truly passionate about. I've learned a ton over the last two years as far as writing goes, and my only regret is that I didn't start sooner. Knowledge is power, as cliché as that sounds. Now that you understand the full process and editors/publishers/agents can see how my first book was and how I'd make it, the better people for the job will take that into consideration and now my first book stands as my ultimate beacon of projects. Maybe, for as long as I live, it will be that way. After all, my debut novel is by far my most intensive personal project I've ever worked on in my life; nothing else comes even close.
So if you're debating on joining the writing world, starting up an author's career, just know that you're going to go through the depths of hell and back. Most of it is learning what to do for each different process. Every time you embark on something new, you're going to learn more.
Now, if this sounds like too much, if two years is too long for you, that's no problem. Most people with professional editors can publish up to 4 books a year (depending on their length), and all it takes is money. I hope I can make money off my book since I want to finance more and more publications and write more stories. At the time I'm writing this, I'm writing two stories concurrently; that might make an interesting blog post when the time comes.
Until we meet again, thanks for checking in,
Dustin