Book Review: "THE SIMPLE WAY TO EDIT: How to edit your book in three easy steps" by Ian Stables

Kindle Unlimited

⭐⭐ out of 5

If you've read any of my other recent book reviews, you'll already know that I start them all off in the same way - by saying that every book I read and review starts off with the full library-load of stars and that I'm always hopeful that they will all still be stuck firmly in place by the time I close the back cover.  You'll also know that I'm not shy about removing stars but that I always give my reasons within the review - they don't just vanish.

I borrowed this book because I've written my first ever grown up (as opposed to adult) memoir and I haven't got the foggiest clue what I'm doing with the editing so I'm hoping that this book will take me by the hand and lead me gently towards getting a more polished first draft.

Let's get going shall we?

The book is only 30 pages and the first screen on my Kindle says it'll take less than 30 minutes to read, so we shall have to wait and see... I'm starting to read at 1.44pm so it should be finished before 2.15pm but we shall have to wait and see.

I already disagree with this author... they are saying to edit your manuscript as you go and you'll be left with a finished manuscript at the final full stop instead of having to go through it all from beginning to end and potentially forgetting your train of thought as you wrote each section and I can see how that might be good for shorter manuscripts and/or those with a very detailed plan, but it's not what has worked for me so far.  I'll keep reading, but if I'm already disagreeing so soon, I can't see me getting much benefit further through the book.

That's the first star gone for use of a brand name potentially without permission and also a search engine for the same reason, so we're down to 4 stars and not a single word has helped me so far, so the second star is wobbly too.

Now the author is saying that you should leave the editing until you've finised writing your book - make up your mind!!  That's the second star off!

The author is finishing their book by saying that you shouldn't edit as you write, even though that was one of their first tips - to edit at the end of each small section!  Which do I believe please - the advice at the start of the book to edit each small section as I go or the advice at the end not to edit at all until it's completely written?  That's 3 stars gone now!

What a complete waste of 42 minutes of my life that I'll never get back!