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Take what you like and leave the rest. Never forget this book is your baby. The feedback, critique and editing you receive is all intended to make your book a better product, but if any of it feels like bad advice, then listen to your gut and develop the book you want to develop. Many people will give you their advice, not all of it is relevant. Take what you like and what is meaningful and apply it. Let the rest just go.
Is editing ever finished? Yes and no.
Yes.
Because once your book is released, or sent to print, yes, it is done. Don't fret the ones already in print - you can't change them. There are still mistakes in many, many books out on those shelves.
No.
Because if you keep picking up your book, you will see either mistakes you would like to correct or sentences you would like to rephrase or story points you would like to enhance. At some point you need to let go and let your baby stand on its own.Readers are forgiving - and usually read over mistakes if the book is engaging. But it is usually very hard for an author to know that there is a mistake in their book and not try to get it fixed.
Case in point:
Angel On Board had been released for over a year - and several hundred people had read it by then. However, one felt the need to call me and notify me of a pretty important and embarrassing omission in it.
One scene of the book has the character going into labor, grimacing in pain and biting her bottom lip.
My edit problem was that I had forgotten the word 'lip' in the above description...
Luckily, even though most of the readers to that point probably didn't notice the mistake, I was able to fix that omission due to the fact that I used Digital Print technology - the books containing the omission became collectors items! That's how to make lemonade out of those lemons.
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