Editing Your Book: What Are the Best Editing Hacks?

About this video

Editor James Rancid (as transcribed) warns that shortcuts in editing and book creation are detrimental. A shortcut is doing something cheaper, faster, easier, or with less effort, but typically you lose the very thing you tried to save — money, time, effort, or reputation — and pay more on the back end. He gives an example of a brilliant coach and entrepreneur who came to him in tears after working with three other editors in succession, giving each a few days and paying a couple hundred dollars apiece to get it done as quickly and cheaply as possible; those editors ruined her book. She then paid him more and took more time with him than with any of them, and got the book she wanted, which became a cornerstone of her business, got her a huge magazine spread, and helped her build a business that enabled her to travel the world. James says the same shortcut pattern appears in writing a book too quickly, writing completely alone, or just putting something up on Amazon and marketing it heavily, and it returns as low sales or few clients. His book Buy Once, Cry Once covers seven shortcuts people take and seven ways to stop.

Key takeaways

• A shortcut meant to save money, time, or effort typically costs you that same thing on the back end, plus reputation
• Hiring cheap editors for a few days each ruined one client’s book; paying more and taking longer with one good editor produced the book she wanted
• Shortcuts appear not just in editing but in writing too quickly, writing completely alone, and publishing just to market heavily on Amazon
• Quick and cheap work probably will not be very good, and it shows up later as low book sales or few clients driven by the book
• Before saving time or money, look for where you are taking a shortcut and consider whether taking the long way around will get a better result

Episode details: published October 3, 2017 · 4:31 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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