If you’ll indulge me with one more book post, there was a timely feature yesterday from USA Today.

If you followed my mini-series last week on self-publishing a book, you might have thought, “Man, that’s a lot of steps.”

Well, it’s no cakewalk when you go with a traditional publisher either.

USA Today followed author Lucy Score for the year she spent writing her most recent novel, ‘Mistakes Were Made’.

The article and 6-minute short follow everything from plot concept to printing to launch, and even with several bestsellers under her belt, Lucy still feels the grind.

While her journey and mine share little in common — hers includes influencer package stuffing, signing 5,000 advance copies, and not one but two small armies (above) — there’s one part of her story resonated deeply — finishing the developmental edits.

The dev edits are the real b*tch of the process because you’ve already gotten your thoughts down, in prose, in your voice, in an order you thought made sense, and then fresh eyes come in and suggest necessary but onerous changes.

It’s like making a beautiful dinner, only to realize at the table that you undercooked the chicken.

Back to the kitchen.

But once you’re through those, you can move on to copy edits (the more technical edit/polish), which signals the move from the writing process to the production process.

And while no one will throw you a ‘dev edit complete’ party, the internal relief is real and you can finally exhale a bit.

But just for a bit. Then the process continues.

💡

-Wes

P.S. - Here’s both Lucy and me at our respective relief moments (mine just last Friday at 5pm).