Republished from our old blog but still time appropriate:

Yes, the manuscript achieved its first deadline and went to the printer (Friesens in Canada). I mean, we don’t play around, these books are printed for real not POD (print on demand … translated aka one-at-a-time). We tried that with our first book and it wasn’t worth the money etc. We also tried a small POD print run a couple years ago (for our galley copies) and weren’t happy with the quality … a year later when we ran into them and complained, they told us they were having trouble with their printing press. In fairness, they did reprint the copies we had left but their effort was too little too late. POD has come a long way, but we’re not ready for it just yet.

We have always given our readers the best bang for their buck and that’s one reason they are repeat customers. This requires a bit of extra effort and expense. It also means that if you don’t get it right the first time it can add hundreds, perhaps thousands of extra $ onto your next printing costs. That doesn’t count the lost sales due to poor quality and perhaps most important … bad critique from readers. Believe me, that kind of news travels fast these days.

But I digress, the subject is my editing. Actually, the issue was my lack of (time to do the) editing. This is something like the TV show I love to watch … Flip This House … a husband and wife team take a product and under a tight time schedule turn an old house (read unfinished book) into a dream house (read money-making novel)! Hey I like that analogy and, yes, I often get ideas from watching TV!!

Race For A Treasure - our latest (2008) stand-alone co-written novel was planned to arrive for an early November deadline to begin our Christmas Craft Show season – well our plans began going awry as soon as we sent it to the printer. One of those unforeseeable problems arose and after some extra work with the printer, it is finally on track but will be 1-2 weeks late!

I have to hand it to Friesen’s thought, they have done their darndest to keep me on track!

So, the lesson for this issue … you must get it right the first time!! Time wasn’t on my side this year and it’s hard to admit to my husband and our eagerly waiting fans that I am not Super Woman after all!!

During the editing process there is so much to deal with that time can easily get away from you. Your brain can only work so quickly (especially when you’re in that ‘senior’ category). You simply do your best, BUT make sure it produces a book you are proud to put your name on and it hasn’t cost you your last $.

The editing process is so complicated and I have so much to share while it’s still fresh in my mind … let’s make it a separate issue … so until next time.

Happy editing and publishing.