How do you make your book smaller?

Does editing really reduce your book size?

Back to where it all began

Over the last period I have taken myself all the way back to the start of my book to begin the editing process. I’ve been in mixed feelings about this part. Many people say it’s the hardest bit and really time consuming but for me I was kind of looking forward to it. To read through my earlier work and perfect it so that it reads true.

New and Improved

The result is also mixed. I’ve come a long way over the last eight months and I can see that my writing has improved which means that I have to edit quite a lot. In some chapters I must have literally just plonked on the page stories from my memories or diary. As I read through it I can now blend them in with other text and make the book flow.

Linking Messages

It’s interesting to read what I was like in my rehabilitation and how the same messages come up in my athlete years. I know that is the whole point but its great when you can see it all tying up nicely together. The down side with editing is that it takes absolutely ages! Wow. I can go over a paragraph that I’ve already written time and time again trying to get it right. I’ve really blitzed the editing to give me a good start and I’m already up to chapter 5.

Ticking Clock

The way I see it is the sooner I get the book out to peer review the better. I can hear a ticking clock. When I’m working on my book I’m in control but when I give it to other people to read then I will be waiting…just waiting. I know that there will be other things I can do while I’m waiting but it won’t be the same. Getting the feedback from these people will be exciting and daunting at the same time but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Streamline

The main thing that I’m conscious of is the size of the book as it’s huge. With the editing that I have done so far I haven’t come across any obvious chunks that I can remove. I’ve managed to streamline some parts but it hasn’t made a massive difference to the word count.

I’m hoping in the nicest way possible that my peer review will help me to reduce the word count somewhat because I will definitely need help in that area.

There is always the question of splitting the book in two but I don’t think that will work as this is my first book. It makes me wonder if anybody has had to do anything similar and split their book into more than one publication?