The Artful Edit

Today I spent 4 hours editing someone's work. It was excrutiating. Not because I dislike editing, I actually love editing, but because it was so badly crafted. All the elements were there for an interesting and provacative manuscript but the writing was just, well just awful. There isn't any other way to put it. I was feeling depressed and exhausted, so I picked up the book "The Artful Edit" -On the practice of editing yourself by Susan Bell.

What a great little book! I urge all writers to pick up this gem and read it.
I make no claims to being able to edit my own work, but I think I do have talent with work by others, so all the help I can get is worth it!

Also another word to those who are thinking of self-publishing.
Hark the words of Scott Edelstein- author of 100 Thing Every Writer Needs to Know, 1999.
" If [bookstore owners and editors] learn that you've published a book with a vanity house, they're not only not going to be impressed, they'll probably consider a naive, self-indulgent rube."

You have NO idea how much that statement is true!!!