Editing Is Never Done · 11 January 2025
Editing a book is never done. Ever.
One nice thing about print-on-demand books is that when you find errors in your books, you can just correct them and update the book. Nobody will be the wiser. It is slick. Of course, that does mean that you need to read your own books. Something that I do not always want to do.
I already wrote about reading the book Wired For Story. And one of the lessons that I came away with is that writing is rewriting. Which means that you are never done. Which is fine, at least when you publish print-on-demand books. Just keep rewriting those stories. The books will get better and better. And maybe somebody will even read them. Someday. Hopefully. Maybe.
I know that I need to edit and update my books, not just because of Wired For Story, but because I actually started reading a couple of them. I actually knew that I needed to do read them even before I read Wired For Story. But I wanted to stay in bliss. I wanted to be ignorant of all the mistakes that I had made. Which, I suppose, means that I wanted other people to just ignore those mistakes and enjoy the stories. Which could happen. Hopefully. Maybe.
I do notice all the mistake that I have made in the writing that I have done. Okay. Obviously not. If I did, I would not have any mistakes anymore. I would notice them on first reading. Something I actually do. I actually read my books before I release them to the wild. Before I let them take those first baby steps. But apparently, I do not read well enough. I could not get beyond a couple pages in one of my books before I noticed two or three egregious errors. Oh the horror.
(By the way, I do not know that I have ever used egregious in a sentence. I have heard it many times. And when I have heard it, I have known that it meant terrible. Or as the internet says, shocking. I just never found a use for the word until today. So I thought I would remind myself what it actually means.)
At any rate.
If you are wondering if I ever go back and edit my blogs, the answer is no. I do not even read them once I post them. Okay. Not entirely true. I have gone back and read some of my posts. I have even fixed an error or two. But usually, I leave well enough alone. Even though a blog post may not be well enough. Although, if I put together any more collections of blog posts, I will probably need to do some editing.
Well, I have strayed from the original path, but that is okay.
I know that I need to do more editing of my books. Especially those that I have already released. But that is okay. After all, nobody reads them. And those who have read them have been gracious enough to ignore the errors. But I need to go back and fix them. And fix them. And fix them some more. Which is a nice thing about print-on-demand. You can always fix those errors and only those who have the unfixed copies will ever know. And that is a good thing. Especially since writing really is rewriting and editing is never done.
© 2025 Michael T. Miyoshi
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