Whether you wrote your first manuscript or not, whether your book is self or traditionally published, the book sales have been counted and the results are in.
Whether that fills you with a feeling of confidence or not, the truth is that underneath both is a feeling of uncertainty.
And that is okay because it makes sense. The time you put into crafting your novel puts you into a certain mind-frame; you might feel pride or like I used to, dread putting my work out there for fear of being criticized. In the short term, the mind can take you on a journey of self-pity .
Hey, you could always blame the idiots who didn’t buy your book or used your articles.
That’s why you need to do what you can to be secure and stable and protect yourself against whatever might happen. Make a change instead.
Because really, best seller or not, what we really want is to be able to share our work that helps the reader feel better about themselves, the client who is excited to use our marketing content for their products and services, the book of poetry to tickle the senses. All in all, Let’s help them make whatever dreams they (and us) may have, a reality.
And that’s why it’s important to know what the real, actual forces are, that DON’T want that to happen, and will put up obstacle after obstacle if you don’t know how to protect your future from them.
I’m being honest here. I took pride in creating content; I was fast, furious, and always delivered ahead of schedule. However, and I admit it, my work was run-on, had a nasty bit of grammatical and punctuation errors. Clients did not appreciate that they had to go through my content correcting structure. The worst part for me was, they didn’t respect the content nor me because they focused on the grammatical shoddiness.
If you don’t think proper grammar and punctuation is relevant to your work, you will be rudely awakened to being disrespected. Seriously, if readers disrespect your ability, no matter how well you pen a concept, you will not be invited to write for them again. Your readers will not buy your next book or for that matter, recommend the current one.
So what’s one to do? I re-educated and certified myself as a proof-reader and editor!
I now write less (seventeen books published) and proof more. I am a person who can help make your writing respected and commended.
You’ve got to get your work to a proofreader! Either you do it, or better, hire a professional to help you punctuate, reduce tautologies, and create the masterpiece that rebuilds your self-confidence.
A hint: always run your content through a spell-check. At least get the spellings correct.
Here are details on this link that will also clarify what the proofreading and editing process requires.
And let’s talk.
