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A Six Week Wait

My Christmas letter reached my nephew yesterday, having spent, it seems, six weeks orbiting the planet. So what went wrong? Nobody knows. We proofread the letter and the envelope. We added the right postage (albeit in a rather strange, printed stamp because the Post Office ran out of "forever international" stamps). We posted it only a few days later than we should have. But six weeks!

And sometimes, no matter how carefully you (or your editor) edits, how well you (or your editor) proofreads, and how perfectly you (or your editor) make sure you've obeyed all the rules, some little errors slip by. The advantage of Print on Demand is you can fix them before too many people see them. If you have friends willing to point things out, and a sweet deal where new uploads of files (to your print or ebook service) are free, that's a really big advantage. If you have to pay for uploads, maybe less so.

If you have to pay for changes, you'll probably want to balance perfection against profit (except there's really no profit in this business). Or you'll have to take an honest view and remind yourself, there's no perfection in this business either. There are probably yet more typos hidden in there that you, your editor, and your best friends have all failed to find.

Never release your book till it's as close to perfection as you can make it. Then accept that it won't be completely perfect and move on. In six weeks, someone might even read it!

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CONTACT ME HERE or click here to... ...I promise not to deluge your inbox! ABOUT ME: See my social networking sites, book reviews and books at http://about.me/sheiladeeth Visit my refracted muse at  http://refracted-muse.blogspot.com/ or view my complete profile on  Blogger   ABOUT MY BOOKS: Find my books at www.sheiladeethbooks.com or visit  www.inspiredbyfaithandscience.com   to learn more about What IFS: Inspired by Faith and Science books. EDITING: To find out more about my editing, rates, schedule etc, please Contact me . BOOK REVIEWS: Read my book reviews on Goodreads . I'm seriously overbooked, but please feel free to c ontact me if you have a book you would like me to review. SOCIAL NETWORKING... FACEBOOK: Meet me on Facebook. Visit my  Facebook Fan Page Visit my Face Book Pages: Five Minute Bible Stories , Mathemafiction , or Tails of Mystery TWITTER: Follow me on  Twitter . LINKEDIN: Connect to me on LinkedIn . GOOGLE+:

Read Reviews of Sheila Deeth's Books

If you've written a review of one of my books and would like me to include it here, please let me know. I love hearing from readers. All quotes from reviews used with permission. CHILDREN'S STORIES: Excerpts from reviews of Genesis People: Imagine a group of children sitting mesmerized when learning about the Creation of the World. (Fran Lewis, author of the Bertha Series of books) How I wish I had found Genesis People when my boys were young! (Ginna Vickory) I think they would have understood the verses better and had fun (Gina Carn) Adults will also see with new eyes and understanding. (Myrna De Mots, preschool teacher) ...fact-based stories capable of entertaining both the young and old alike. (Joyce Bergstrom) Writing with spiritual stimulation from true Bible stories, Deeth exercises “holy imagination” and takes us on a journey with fresh insights into biblical characters, their original surroundings and God’s heart for his people and the whole of creation. (Carl Lee

Ethical Editing

Someone told me recently "Ventilators kill people," adding, "70% of people put on ventilators die. They're killing people." So I argued with her. But what if she'd written an article and hired me to edit it? What if her article began exactly as above? What would I do? My first "edit" would complain that "Ventilators kill people" is stated like fact while, since it's not common knowledge and it's not yet supported by facts, it can only be opinion. I'd suggest she change it to read " I think ventilators kill people." Then, if the article contains an argument to prove her statement, she could end with "So, ventilators kill people" as her conclusion. Next I would complain about the 70% statement, arguing that writers should not deliberately mislead their readers. Looking for minimal edits, I'd suggest "70% of victims put on ventilators die" or "70% of people put on ventilators still die,"