EDIT, EDIT, and EDIT SOME MORE!

Anyone can write a book- it's not difficult-right?  Well you might think so when you scroll though some of the titles now available and see the poor quality of work that is out there-But the answer to my question is a resounding NO!-and I found this out the hard way!  I have been working on a four book series for over five years.  When I started -I wrote when I had time, which wasn't often, and I didn't worry about spelling errors, or grammar errors, I just wrote, filling the pages up, one after the other, until finally- I filed it away in the "someday" folder.  When my husband and I made the decision to have me stay at home and devote all my time to putting the final touches on the book-I went in head first.  I researched everything-I googled and googled until my head pounded, trying to ensure I knew exactly what to do.  I went through my first book with a fine tuned comb and I believed after months of revising and correcting that I had a QUALITY book.  I found a friend who was a graphic artist and I hired her to do my cover.  I made the difficult decision to go the self publishing route this time, although way back when I had a publisher interested in the story.  Self publishing just looked to be not only more profitable, but allowed me to maintain control.  I like control...I LIKE it a LOT!  So I started by uploading my prized possession to Smashwords-not an easy endeavor I might add-but one I felt was well worth the trouble-and Amazon-which was WAY easier.  Sales started coming in immediately and I was stunned-and reviews-AWESOME- 5 stars-granted they were from friends and relatives-but they all contacted me and told me how much they loved the book!-and 2 reviews were from people I didn't know-so I was well on my way to a successful venture....right?  Again....the answer is WRONG!-I am grateful for the wonderful words of praise from all those who bought my book-even if they didn't post a review-but the fact is there were ERRORS!-It didn't matter that I'd read it over and over, or that I had three other people read it over and over-what mattered is that my book was exactly what I didn't want-POOR QUALITY!-I found this out after sales began to slow-even when I had a successful free promo-there were no reviews, and sales dropped to 1 or 2 a day-if that.  I began to panic!  What the hell was wrong?  So per a previous post I wrote-I submitted a request through a writer's blog I belong to and low and behold the truth came out-QUICK and simple-your not a bad writer, and your story line is quite good- but there is quite a few issues- like you moron- do you know the difference between THEN/THAN-or how about not using a 'cliche' sentence as your very first one!-(That one stumped me a bit- since I guess I'm a tad on the dumb side-didn't know there was such a thing as a cliche sentence- but by gosh leave it to me to make it stand out!!!-Simple fixes-right- WRONG again!- I sat down believing that all I had to do was go through the first chapter and revise it a tad- take this out- add this- and correct all the then/than issues- which was quite easy because I updated my office program and it did it for me-but of course I was warned not to trust the program 100% so I went through each and every line of my over 300 page book until I was satisfied-but as I did that- I realized- oops- since I made the changes in the first chapter- this doesn't sound right-and this is repeating something I already said earlier- and this is way off now because I made that change- and finally as I pulled a complete chunk of my hair out I was forced to once again read my book from start to finish-is that difficult- no...not unless you've read the same material at least a thousand times- than no matter how good the story line is your SICK OF IT!-Never mind that my second book sat next to me-begging to be finished-there wasn't much to do- just a few revisions-until I suddenly realized that I AM a moron- because now I have to go through that book- and the third and the fourth because of even though I blew threw English- and it was my favorite subject- obviously one of the many boys I had crushes on- kept me from learning the correct use of some words!  So I'll give anyone who is thinking about submitting their life's work a bit of advice-something I should have listened to on the many nights I sat reading massive quantities of information on how to be a successful "indie" author-EDIT you fool!  EDIT, EDIT and EDIT some more-and when you think your good to go...take a deep breath and EDIT AGAIN!  Don't count on your readers to spill the beans- don't count on your beginning sales or any reviews-UNLESS they clearly state- YOUR EDITING SUCKS!-BINGO- Had I had just one review that had said that-I probably would have cried- but in the end I would have saved a whole lot sleepless nights- wondering why my book hadn't hit the best selling list yet-IT is an awesome story-but I wouldn't buy it either if the idiot that wrote it didn't have the decency to produce QUALITY work.  Free or not-it ain't worth the time or effort- HAHAHA- ain't-...love it- that was done on purpose folks- I'm not that BIG OF AN IDIOT![image error]