Figured it was time for a little update on my book writing journey! In the last blog post about it, I mentioned that I was waiting for feedback from a couple of beta readers before I would be about done. For those who don’t know what beta readers are, essentially they are total strangers who agree to read my manuscript – usually for free – and give me feedback on it. I met some beta readers through a Facebook group, and we did a swap, so they read my manuscript, and I read theirs. Anyway, I had about four or five strangers agree to read my book for me, and most of them gave me some pretty good feedback. I made some minor changes based on their thoughts, and afterwards, I was pretty certain I would be able to publish by the end of January. However, there was one thing that still nagged at the back of mind. While the beta readers were super helpful, I still hadn’t had an actual Editor look at my book.

I had looked at hiring one a few months back, but it is pretty expensive to do so. It was expensive to hire a graphic designer for my cover as well, but that was something I knew I wouldn’t have been able to do myself, so paying someone to do it came a little easier for me. I’ve spent a lot of time researching whether or not hiring an Editor was something I really needed to do. A lot of my research showed that as a self-publishing author, I had the ultimate decision on how many levels of editing I wanted done. There were a few sources that said if I had some pretty solid beta readers, I could probably get by with a self-edit. I’ve probably read through my manuscript from beginning to end at LEAST a dozen times now, and I’m pretty sure I’m at a point where I can’t make it any better.

And while I did get positive feedback from those who have read it, and I myself believe it’s pretty good, I still couldn’t get myself to pull the trigger and publish. While there were plenty of sources that said having a professional Editor look at my book wasn’t always completely necessary, I couldn’t shake the thought that I would regret it if I didn’t take that step.

So, I finally decided to bite the bullet and hire someone to take a look at my manuscript. I reconnected with a couple of the professional editors I had reached out to before when I was looking, and one lady – whose work I really liked – was eager to take me on. We struck up a contract, and she’ll be starting the first week of February. It sets me back a bit from originally thinking I’d publish by the end of this month, but that’s okay. I’ve poured this much time and effort into this book, I want to make sure it’s as good as it can get before sharing it with the world.

It’s probably wishful thinking that it will be ready before March, especially since I don’t know how many changes I may have to make, but here’s to hoping that the end goal is still in sight!

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Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger