When does a writer decide to e-publish?

[Ronald T.]

I recently published my first E-book in an epic-fantasy series, but I’m still uncertain if it reaches the quality level of other published authors. There is always that nagging feeling that I don’t measure up somehow.


How does a writer make that decision? How do they know if their work is good enough, and that they aren’t making a fool of themselves?


Is it merely an arbitrary choice based on what your beta readers and editors say? Or is there a better way to make that judgment?


I don’t know the answer. It’s just something that preys on my mind.


I’d love to hear your opinions on the issue.

 

[Dennis E. Taylor]

The most important metric is: Seek external evaluation.
Possibilities include:
- getting chapter crits done on the likes of scribophile and critiquecircle.
- getting into a beta reader group on scribophile. This allows you to get your work appraised by others as well as giving you the opportunity to evaluate others' work.
- Hiring a paid development editor or beta reader. This can be a crapshoot, but if you go onto the likes of kboards, you can get referrals from members, which will help the comfort level.
- E-publishing, then wait for results. This is the "throw him into the deep end" technique.
- Test-publishing extracts on wattpad or Goodreads. I frankly don't recommend that as a way of getting objective feedback.
- Asking for beta readers or arranging beta swaps on the likes of absolutewrite. I've found the utility of that to be quite variable.
- Querying agents. You don't get a lot of feedback, except "No." Or possibly "Yes."

As for the nagging feeling, we all get it. Even when we have a book that's doing well.

 

[LittleStar]

Speaking as a relatively unpublished author, I don't think you ever lose the nagging feeling that something could be done differently, not necessarily better though. I think the best anyone can hope for is to get to a point where you are satisfied that any changes you can make wont have any great impact on the story told. And that is probably best case, in most (my) cases its more like satisfied at you can't think of anyway to make it as great as it is in your head, so you settle.

To get to that stage all the things bizmuth mentioned are good pointers, but at the end of it all it comes down on the writer's shoulders as to when they think it is good enough to first meet criteria to be sent to betas/critiques etc. and eventually editors, agents and publishers. Or miss out the last three if self pubbing.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

When it's as good as it would be with a publisher is my rule - so betaed, edited at least twice so revisions are reviewed, and copy edited. Once out, I try not to torture myself my worrying. Although I have one book I might try to improve at some point.

 

[Ronald T.]

Thanks to you all for your thoughtful input. It all helps sooth the soul and ease the mind.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

at the end of it all it comes down on the writer's shoulders as to when they think it is good enough to first meet criteria to be sent to betas/critiques etc. and eventually editors, agents and publishers. Or miss out the last three if self pubbing.

Err... I may be a tad biased, but I believe you want that to be "the last two".

 

[The Big Peat]

Nagging feelings are fine. Its screaming gibbering feelings you should worry about

I agree about seeking external evaluation. The final call will always be the author's, but there's a lot to be said for having 3 or 4 honest knowledgeable voices saying "Yes" or "No".

 

[Nick B]

Err... I may be a tad biased, but I believe you want that to be "the last two".

Absolutely, definitely get it professionally edited. Even if you are an editor level writer, get someone else to edit it.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Err... I may be a tad biased, but I believe you want that to be "the last two".

Yea, this. Never, ever, bring anything out without an editor. And a copy editor.

 

[tinkerdan]

I edited each of my books at least ten times; some of those efforts were in collaboration with my wife's assistance. When we were satisfied we sent it off to fresh eyes (paid professional eyes). After that we both went through the near to final draft to affirm changes and even locate more troublesome areas. Once more through the mill and then if I could have afforded it I'd have paid for a substantive edit. [I think that's where the hardest decision comes in; because it's necessary, yet so expensive that if you are self publishing you may or may not have the available funds.] Though personal edits included many discussions, we were both too close to it to catch things.

If you are truly afraid of looking foolish then you may not want to publish. I can think of some traditional published works I've started to read that could fall in that place of making me wonder about the author and publisher. You will definitely want to pay for good editing; it's usually by the word count and difficulty, so you want to make the manuscript as sparse and polished as possible. You want to be absolutely certain you have squashed everything and then be willing to suffer the reality of the hundred plus things fresh eyes will find wrong with the whole.

If you opt-out for the substantive edit; be aware that that usually means that a lot of your favorite baby's are still bulking the manuscript up. In my first novel, finished product, my mother noted that she felt it was a good story outside of those parts of the book that weren't necessary. (Where was 'she' during all those edits.)

Also after all the edits and if you can; get some place like createspace to make a hard copy that you can take a highlighter to and you'll catch quite a number more odd mistakes that no one caught. I found at least twelve per book that way. And be aware that there will be more the readers will find, even if some of them don't appear to be real--critical--errors [Inserts, ' Who cares if you don't know how to spell susurrus?']. (Apparently the spellchecker for this forum doesn't know.) My two published books have at least one embarrassing mistake (not susurrus) each that no one caught during the whole editing process; which is why I suggest that a writer needs to be insensitive to looking foolish to at least one reader (probably more).

Edit::
Oh yes, one more thing. Own your mistakes no matter which way you publish or how many professional edits you get. Most times you will see the final and approve it and it's not helpful to refer people to your editor as the responsible party; since, if you did have an editor, it would be clear at that point that they missed it. It's your work and you own it: wort's and all.