As I go back through my first draft and begin reading through the almost 80,000 words I’ve written, I get a sense of accomplishment. Which is a strange feeling, given that I’ve yet to finish the book entirely, I’ve yet to sell a single copy, and I’ve hardly even told anyone that I was writing a book in the first place.

That said, I’m chugging away and reading through the entire book — trying to find flaws in my story or characters, trying to make sure it all makes sense, and that the ending is good enough for what I want it to be.

Things I’m looking for are sometimes simple; did I say that character A was tall or short in the beginning? So I stick to that towards the end — to more complex; did the entire story flow the way I wanted it to?

Some are easier to track down than others, and so far I’ve found more typos and grammatical errors than anything else.  I think having someone else read it will be beneficial since I can get an outsider’s perspective on it.

At the same time, that’s terrifying.  Sharing something with someone for the first time scares me.  Letting people into my world that I’ve created and meet these characters that I’ve brought to life — it’s frightening.  What if the first person I let read either just doesn’t get it, or they just flat out don’t like it?  I’ll feel like a failure.

I plan to read it twice more myself — first editing for grammar, second editing for content — before letting anyone else read it.  Once I get some feedback, I’ll start searching for a real-life-not-friend editor to go through everything for me once and help me get everything ready for general consumption.

Thanks to the software I’m using, I can generate all of the files for iPad/iPhone, Kindle, and NOOK all at once and upload them to the appropriate stores to be sold, for which I’ve already been approved (more on that process later).  The next big milestone (aside from editing) will be the cover art, which will be incorporated into those website’s stores, as well as the book itself.

I also have to sit down and try to figure out what the description of the book will be.  Given the complex nature of the story, it’s tough to summarize it in a way that not only makes sense, but doesn’t give away the ending.  It’s proving more difficult than I thought it would be.

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