How many drafts of your book do you need to write? One. Five. Twenty.
Most writers will give you a different answer. However, whatever they say, one draft is never enough.
Your first draft is rarely your last draft. Even if you’re editing as you go. You need to go back to reread and polish your first draft. Often you’ll find plot points that haven’t been resolved, conflicts that need more action, dialogue that requires a spruce up.
How many drafts it takes you will depend on the quality of your first draft. This is how I would normally do it.
1 – Write a quick draft of the novel
2 – Read the novel and make notes, edit scenes, add and remove scenes
3 – Read through your novel and correct any spelling, grammar errors
4 – Get an editor to go through it
5 – Read through it again and see if I can pick errors up
6 – Put it together, ready for formatting and publishing
That’s six drafts. I’m not rewriting the entire book from scratch. There’s an entire book to work with. It might sound like a lot but is it really?
It’s a natural progression. Each stage taking a different amount of time.
Once the book is drafted, it can take another 3-6 weeks to get it edited so realistically it would be possible to release a book every 6 – 12 weeks.
In an ideal situation anyway but with work, family and sleep, well we got to be realistic with our own timetable.
You don’t want to hit publish on your first draft, or even your second draft. It’s important to go through your book several times. As you gain experience you’ll be needing fewer edits but you will always need some.
Don’t fool yourself into believing that your work is perfect. It’s isn’t. It never will be. But that’s ok we’re not aiming for perfection. If we did we would have a quarter of the books we do.
At the bare minimum, I recommend three drafts – the first one to get the story on paper, then you edit/rewrite yourself, and finally, you get an editor to go through it.
If you can’t afford an editor, find a beta reader or get a friend who enjoys reading and is good with the English language. I have a teacher friend who looked through my first book before I sent it off to an editor.
Editing is expensive but it’s a necessity if you want to put out a professional book.
It’s more expensive not to edit.
Think about how long it takes you to write a book.
How many hours have you put in to pour your heart out on to the page? Blood, sweat, and tears? I know, it’s ridiculous. And most of us do it for nothing or peanuts.
Don’t you want your reader to receive the best possible version of your book?
I know I do.
So to recap, don’t worry about the number of drafts it will take you to write your book.
Just write.
The first draft you are getting your story down on the page. You’re telling it to yourself. It’s going to be much different on the page than what you are seeing in your mind. It’s almost a large project that is likely to evolve with each chapter as new ideas emerge.
The second draft won’t take you as long. Your story is down on the page. You read through the book as a whole to check when it makes coherent sense.
Does the story flow?
Have all the questions been answered?
Is the climax exciting?
Is the ending satisfying?
During this take of your writing process, you can use a highlighter and highlight sections that aren’t making sense that you can go back to later.
On the third round, go through your highlighted or circled sections and fix them up as needed. The amount of time this stage will take depends on how clean your first draft was. If you pick up any inconsistencies and grammar or spelling errors feel free to clean them up.
Once you’re happy with the changes, read through again and proofread as you go.
Happy?
Fantastic. Send the book to an editor.
You’re kidding, right? Four rounds of edits and I still need an editor?
Yes, yes you do.
You will find that you’re book still has errors that readers will pick up on even if it has been to the editor.
It’s inevitable when you’re working with 80,000 words. But you want to get it as error-free as possible.
If you can’t afford an editor, grab a trusted friend who’s a voracious reader and has an excellent command of the English language.
When your book comes back with changes, go through them and change what you feel applies. You don’t have to change everything, it’s your book after all, but make note of any comments and questions that apply.
Now read through it again, with a ruler, line by line. Don’t rush. You will be surprised to find more errors. Fix them.
Your book is ready for the next stage.
I know, it’s intensive but no one said publishing a book was going to be a walk in the park.
Yes, you can write the first draft, upload it and click publish in a matter of days but is that the sort of product you want to have out there? Do you think readers are going to come back for more if you publish another book if your first was laden with spelling and grammar errors, story inconsistencies, and poor formatting?
I don’t think so.
You want to publish work that you are proud of.
So don’t get hung up on the fact that it might take you several drafts to get your book ready to get published.
Your major concern is writing the best book you can.
If you continue with writing, which I hope you do, you will find that while each book isn’t necessarily easier to write, they’re all different after all, you will find that you might need fewer drafts to get them done, especially if you are writing a series.
One of the advantages of ebooks and print-on-demand is that if errors are still being picked up after publication you have the ability to go back and fix them before uploading a new version of your book for readers to purchase.
And you will find errors even after an editor has gone through it.
It’s inevitable.
Just make sure to go back and fix them immediately.
Writing a book is simple but before you have a publish-worthy product ready it will take several drafts. In the end, it doesn’t matter whether your book took three drafts or thirty, all that matters is that once you’ve published you are happy with the final product and your readers are going to love your story.
How many drafts of your book do you usually write?
Resources I Recommend
If you want to make a living with your writing:
30 Days or Less To Freelance Writing Success
If you need to organise your writing:
If you want to format your books beautifully:
Vellum
Books I Recommend
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Successful Self-Publishing: How to self-publish and market your book in ebook and print (Books for Writers 1)
Business For Authors. How To Be An Author Entrepreneur (Books for Writers Book 5)
Write. Publish. Repeat. (The No-Luck-Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success) (The Smarter Artist Book 1)
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