6 Things NOT To Do When You've Finished Writing Your Manuscript

So, you finally wrote "The End" at the bottom of a manuscript that has consumed your life for months, possibly years.

Congratulations!

You've lived with your characters' voices in your head, and they've driven you nuts. They never wanted to do what you thought they should. They have refused to speak for months at a time.

Your family and friends have been supportive, but they're sick of hearing about this project of yours. They've read chapters and think you're brilliant. Of course they do, because you ARE brilliant.

You have this HUGE sense of accomplishment, of relief, and of loss. You should! Those feelings are totally natural. It's difficult to let go and say good-bye to characters and storylines; even if it's actually a "See you soon".

Obviously, your next step (after hitting save 15 times in 3 different locations) is to print out copies, cram them into envelopes, and ship your masterpiece off to agents and publishers, right? Or attach it to an email with a snappy, smart cover letter that reveals you are the next bestselling author.

Don't do that. For your own sake, please do not do that.

Here is a list of things not to do after you've completed your opus, and why those things are a bad idea.

1. Print out copies and hand them to everyone you know

Have you ever typed out a status update on FaceBook or Twitter, only to realize a while later it has typos? You can edit FaceBook, but for Twitter you have to delete and start again.

Those status updates are small. Twitter had us locked in at 140 characters, still may, as far as I know. On average, I see multiple typos in 1 out of every 3 updates on my assorted walls.

Many of those typos are by professional writers/authors.

Now imagine how many characters are in the average manuscript. Considering Freedom's Treasure came in just over 60,000 words, that's a LOT of potential misspellings and general mess ups.

Baring those for the world to see feels an awful lot like running around naked.

What you should do: Toss the manuscript in a drawer for at least a week. I know, I know. You're excited and want to share it. Take some time away from it, then re-read it for typos, fix them, and then throw it back into a drawer.

Yes, I know most people don't actually have printed copies of their masterpiece. It's all on their hard drives. Which brings us to point number 2.

2. Save your work only on your hard drive

Your laptop/desktop is safe. It has the highest encryption known to man. The military weeps with envy at your encryption, and your password creation skills, in general.

That's fine and dandy, but what happens when someone steals your laptop out of your car/backpack?

This happened recently to an author I am friendly with. She lost 30,000 words from her latest book and now has to re-write the entire thing. That's approximately sixty pages in Word.

What to do: Write from the Cloud. I use DropBox. I don't store any manuscripts on actual hard drives anymore. DropBox transfers documents easily between Apple and Windows, and can save you a whole lot of heartache.

Do you need assistance creating secure passwords?

3. Sprint to Amazon and self-publish

The self-publishing option is tempting. We all know the story about 50 Shades of Gray. Written at a kitchen table, self-published with bad formatting, typos, and some not so great prose, the author is now a millionaire (one assumes) with a movie trilogy.

How is this a bad thing? Well, the odds of hitting a best seller while self-publishing, especially when one hasn't used a professional editor or proofreader (at least) are similar to that $1.5 billion Powerball lottery. It could happen... but I wouldn't count on it.

What to do: Hire a professional editor and proofreader. If your manuscript is that amazing, then it's worth the investment. I recommend a cover designer, as well. Authors are often too close to their own story to judge what cover is best for their book. They pick things that mean something to them without thinking about shelf appeal.

4. Let a friend or family member be your editor

Unless that friend/family member has a degree, or an actual job proofing and editing, just stop. Don't do it. Put the manuscript away again, and wait until you can hire a professional.

Why? Your family/friends are close to you. They already think you're brilliant, remember? So what changes are they going to be ballsy enough to bring to your attention?

Admittedly, when I read for someone else, I'll rip it apart. If they didn't want me to do that, they shouldn't have brought it to me. But not everyone is like that.

What to do: Once again, hire the professional. It prevents any potential drama from unfolding.

5. Presume that your first run through is perfect

It's not. Every author has gone through this. We write it out. We love it. It comes back marked up from the editor and when everything is said and done, we lost about a third of our story.

You heard me.

We write. We want to write everything out. Not every reader is going to need or want some of those details. Does it matter if the rose had 5 thorns or 2? It may to you, because it's your story, but it's not going to be your story for long.

What to do: Lock the manuscript back into the drawer I told you about earlier. Pull it out after the first week for typos, then put it back in the drawer.

Many authors suggest putting it away for a year. That's far too long. I believe two months is a good time period. Move on to other projects so the manuscript isn't as fresh in your mind.

After two months, read it. Is it still as perfect and amazing as you thought? Or would you like to re-word more than a few things? Now is your chance. Do a full read through and self-edit, put it BACK IN THE DRAWER and repeat this process another month out.

Each of my books has been re-written five times, on average. And that's before my editor gets her greedy hands on it.

6. Print it and forget it

It's out there. You went against my earlier advice and self-published immediately. You announced on your social media, and many friends and family bought a copy.

Sales look good the first month, and you're officially making money! Great!

Then the sales fall off. You're confused. You've been spamming Social Media and everyone gives you likes or re-tweets. It's well-written! Original! It has a snappy cover! Why isn't anyone buying it?

You move on to your next project, and go back to your normal life. Being an author is nothing like that.

What to do: Did you catch where I mentioned spamming your Social Media? If every update is "Hey I wrote a book! Go buy it!", then people are going to ignore you. You've turned yourself into an ad.

Continue using your Social Media as normal but For every 10 posts about your lunch/kid/school/articles you've read, you get one, I repeat 1, post about buying your book.

I hope you found this helpful. Hopefully you chuckled. Perhaps you recognized some of these in yourself.

Do you have advice you would offer an aspiring author? Feel free to share in comments.

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