[TfTi] Your Book Will Not Be Perfect

[TfTi] Your Book Will Not Be Perfect

How do I know?

Let’s start with lots of experience finding typos and other errors. In the books of big name authors, published by big publishing houses. In books by less well-known authors, some of them self-published, others by small or hybrid publishers.

And most recently, in the book I just released with my co-author, Michele Molitor, I Am Perfectly Flawsome: How Embracing Imperfection Makes Us Better.

After several rounds of editing, proofreading, a couple dozen beta readers commenting, and a careful review of print proofs, we clicked publish. So far I’ve found two typos in the version that’s for sale on Amazon right now.

So in that sense, the main title could be seen as the book itself admitting and embracing its flaws!

Which brings me to the inspiration for this edition of Tips from Tom’s inbox, a newsletter item from Chip Conley, entitled 3 Ideas Missing From My Book. Along with that, we’ll take a quick look at two other recent inbox items: one from Maria Popova, On Giving Up: Adam Phillips on Knowing What You Want, the Art of Self-Revision, and the Courage to Change Your Mind, and from Seth Godin, I Was Wrong About Sun Tea.

I think you’ll agree they come together to make a useful point about writing, indie publishing, and life.

When Will Your Book Be Done?

That question gets an answer (of sorts) from Conley’s piece, where he laments,

“The challenge of being an author with a big publisher is that you deliver the final manuscript about a year before the book comes out, which means new ideas may percolate to the surface that won’t be captured in the published book.”

In traditional publishing, your book is done when you reach the deadline and are forced to deliver that “final” manuscript. A good deal of editing will take place before the book is published, but it’s unlikely you’ll be allowed to add significant new ideas, like the ones that came to Conley.

He’s provided a solution (of sorts) by writing about them in his blog. He also teases their potential inclusion in “a revised edition” of his book, Learning to Love Midlife. No hint on when that might happen, though. And to me at least, there was a sense of frustration and regret in his phrases like “I wish I had spent more time in the book” and “I wish I could have amplified …”

Now, you might think my main point is that he could have avoided all of that by indie publishing his book. Yes and no.

Taking the indie route would have given him control over when to declare the manuscript final. And it would have shortened by months the time from there to published.

In addition, he’d have complete freedom to make minor changes and corrections after publication. I’ll be uploading a new file to our Amazon KDP account to correct ours soon.

Not only that, but he’d have control over whether and when to publish a “revised and expanded edition” as our client Mary T. O’Sullivan did with her book, The Leader You Don’t Want to Be, when, for example, new insights from the COVID experience became important.

But that would not entirely eliminate the problem of new information and evolving ideas during the writing process. Michele and I struggled with that as we kept finding new studies and bouncing new perspectives off each other.

That’s where the value of a developmental editor like Yvonne really emerges. She was instrumental in helping us create a book we could be proud of, while at the same time helping us see that it was time to “declare good enough” and “let the baby be born” to use some of my favorite phrases.

Isn’t That Giving Up And Accepting Mediocrity?

No. And for those who asked that question, please read our book and understand how the question itself becomes a barrier to completing your work and a danger to your mental health.

In our book, Michele and I urge you to learn to live in a paradox mindset of striving for excellence while simultaneously embracing imperfection and finding beauty in the flaws in everything.

Conley’s piece should teach us the same lesson that the first judge I worked for after law school tried to hammer into my head. Speaking about the legal memos I wrote for him and the court opinions he wrote, he often told me:

“No piece of writing is ever done. You just run out of time to add or edit.”

The problem for indie authors, of course, is that we set the deadlines ourselves. And we can let perfectionism and imposter syndrome convince us that we need an extension to get the “final” manuscript just right.

In the piece by Maria Popova, she talks about the art of self-revision and the courage to change your mind and points out that both of those are central to learning and growth. That applies to your writing and all of your work, as well.

Godin’s piece is an amusing story of how he learned the truth about how sun tea brews (it’s not some magic interaction of sunbeams piercing tea leaves). He admits he “was enamored with the story and stopped being curious,” closing with, “Curiosity is a choice.”

Combine that with Popova’s admonishment that the kind of “giving up” or “letting go” she’s talking about is absolutely necessary to make room for your next idea. Or project. Or life stage. In Godin’s case, he had to be open to letting go of one story to make room for his curiosity to find a better one.

For authors, declaring good enough and clicking publish is not about mediocrity. It’s about letting the excellent, though inevitably imperfect, work you’ve done out into the world to propagate. And about getting on to your next.

But What Will “They” Say?

First, be careful who you allow onto your “they” list. Avoid those with negative, pessimistic mindsets. And banish the ones who criticize others in order to build up their own self-image.

Instead, grow your network of honest critics, those you trust to offer feedback that will help you improve your craft. Get them involved during the writing process, as soon as you have a rough draft that a trusted resource or small group can read and react to. Your professional editor will help you decide when.

Toward your release date — the “deadline” you’ve set — expand to your group of beta or “ARC” (Advance Reader Copy) readers, who’ve agreed to read and review the book. When their reviews come in, from our experience, you’ll be able to stick to your release date with a growing confidence in your writing skills and the message of your book.

Despite its imperfections, the reviews of ours on Amazon have been heart-warming. To give just one example from an anonymous “verified purchaser”:

“This is such a beautiful, relatable, helpful book … enlightening and freeing.”

By adopting our flawsomist mindset and applying it to your writing, you’ll be well on your way to publishing your work, knowing that it’s not perfect. And knowing, too, that those new ideas that keep coming will make the next one that much better!