Is it Possible to Over-Edit a Book? Book Writing Tips

Have you written a book? Have you been editing your book for years? Or maybe you just keep hiring editor after editor trying to get your book perfect. Well, if you're writing a nonfiction book and you're wondering when you should stop editing, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad from Book Launchers. We're your professional self publishing team helping you write, publish and promote a nonfiction book that will help you have a huge impact on your readers. And and done right will help you grow your brand, build your business, and make you money. The best part? You. Yes, you. You keep all rights and royalties. Editing is essential for the success of your book, your own editing, and the editing of professionals. There's no exceptions to this. Whether you've hired a ghostwriter or you've written with a book coach, or you've been writing and editing your way to a final manuscript for years, you must hire professionals and you must do some self editing. If you aren't sure what professional editors to hire or what to do when you're self editing, I'll link to two videos on those topics at the end. Today I have something really important to talk to you about. It's something we've lost a few authors at Book Launchers to. It's the editing graveyard spiral. Where are my pilots at? You guys know what I'm talking about in flying. This is a type of dangerous spiral dive. It's also known as the death spiral, and it's entered into accidentally by a pilot who hasn't been trained or who hasn't practiced with their instruments for flying. What happens is the pilot thinks their wings are level, but the plane is actually descending. They see the descent on their instruments, but believing their wings are level, they pull back on the control yoke and the plane isn't level. It's in a banking turn and pulling back on the control yoke tightens the circle and causes the plane to go down faster. Authors have their own version of this too. It happens in a few places during the writing process. The the death spiral for some starts while writing their book and the manuscript just never reaches completion. They start tuning and tuning and tuning their book while they're writing. Other authors start their spiral when the manuscript's been edited by a professional and they see a dramatic improvement. And then they think more editing must be better. It's not always better. And finally, and probably the most common, the author finalizes their book and then proceeds to to edit and edit and edit and never actually get to the point where they release their book. To the world. Do you know anybody like this? If you or someone you love is prone to editing while you write to the point of never completing the manuscript, I have three possible solutions for you. I'll list them from hardest to easiest. The first solution, when you finish writing for the day, write the next sentence and leave yourself a prompt for what you need to do next. Do not go back and read what you've written until your first draft is done. Set the goal of writing a bad first draft but getting everything down on paper. It sets a clear boundary for yourself and you'll be less attached to your book by the end, which will make the whole editing process less emotionally painful. Number two, hire a writing coach and have them hold you accountable to delivering pages every week. It's amazing what you can do when you have a deadline and you're not in it alone. Knowing somebody is waiting for your book can really be the push you need. And here's a big hint. Your first draft shouldn't be good. Your goal is to get that content out of your head onto the page, and then it becomes good through the editing process. The concept should be good, but the actual words and sentences, they don't have to be great yet. So relieve yourself of that pressure. Solution three, if you can't self regulate and you can't keep yourself from editing while you write, then it might be time to hire a writer to assist you. We've had many clients who start off writing their book on their own, but they just struggle. And sometimes it's the busy nature of their life or the fact that they just struggle to sit down and write. But the bottom line is they can't make progress fast enough. And hiring a writer who captures your words for you keeps you from doing the editing desk spiral before you even get a first draft done. It's also a much more efficient use of your time because someone else is doing the typing while you're thinking about the material that needs to go in the book. So that's stopping the graveyard spiral while you write. But what about the rare but still happens situation where someone keeps hiring editor after editor? One of our clients did this. She kept wanting more editors. The first editor made the book 50% better. So. So by her logic, the next one would do the same. So it was good to get more professionals, not less, right? Well, the problem is there's a style to editing, and every editor has a slightly different style. And if you're seeking perfection, it's not going to happen with more people. Because every human that touches that Manuscript may remove mistakes, but they also introduce a few of their own. Sometimes a book changes so much from one edit to another, it makes sense to hire another professional. But usually when you do that, you're not actually making your book better. Typically, what your book will need is a developmental editor, a copy copy editor, and then a proofreader, in that order. And each one should be a different person. If the same person does different kind of edit, you may want to hire a different professional for that. Finally, the last and sadly, the most common graveyard spiral authors take is when your book is done, but you can't stop changing it and release it to the world. Sometimes this happens at book launchers because someone rushed the process trying to get to launch faster, and suddenly their book is done and they realize they missed content that they want to add, or they made math mistakes they should have caught earlier, or they've included something they thought they deleted. Rushing through almost always caus problems when you see your book physically in print because every detail you rushed over is suddenly glaring at you, mocking you. But let's say you didn't rush it and you're still doing this well, how do you stop? At this point, I think you have to get real with yourself and ask yourself what you're afraid of. If you've followed the noboringbooks way, you've written a great book that has a solid hook and it's written to have a powerful impact on your reader. And you've probably set yourself up for success in marketing it and even making money from it. So perhaps you're afraid of that success, or maybe you're afraid of it not doing as well as you hope. I can't answer that for you, but I can help you redirect those thoughts. Stop thinking about yourself and focus on that reader who needs your book, that reader who's going to have a better life because of your message. Now, is it more important that you mess with that sentence for the fifth time, or more important that you publish it? If that doesn't kick your butt into publishing, then this is the final thing I have for you to ask yourself. Are you making the book better with that edit? Will you have a bigger impact on that reader by making that change? If you can truly answer yes, then okay, fine, go ahead. But you're dangerously close to pulling up on that yoke, thinking your wings are level. But they aren't. And while that's not as deadly for an author, it does kill a lot of books. And that's pretty sad too. And I don't want that to happen to you. So please edit your book. Your book needs it. But then stop and then hit publish. Your book will never be perfect. And who wants perfection? Not you guys. I get the most comments when my editor includes some of my many bloopers. So perfection is overrated. But publishing a great book with a few typos? That's not overrated. It's pretty much expected. Have you or someone you love suffered from an endless editing loop? Or maybe you were in it, but you got out? Well, let's chat about how you did that in the comments below. But right before you do that, please smash that thumbs up button. Go ahead, try it. It feels so good. And when you comment the day a video is released, you'll be entered to win some sweet noboringbookswag. We have new videos every Tuesday and Friday. Make sure you catch every one by subscribing to the channel and turning those notifications on. That was fun. Do you want to keep hanging out? This video right here is all about how to properly self edit your nonfiction book. And this one right here is all about those different kinds of editors you should hire. Both are fun and informative, if I do say so myself. I think you'll be happy watching either one. So click on over, I'll put on the coffee and I'll see you there.