When should you stop revising and publish your book?

There’s a point in writing your book when you have to stop writing and rewriting and just publish it.

The trouble is, nobody knows when that is. I like Dan Poynter’s advice to publish when your book is 95% ready. Print a few hundred, get some reviews to add to the next edition, fix a few typos and do it again.

I have a friend who’s been working on his book for about 10 years now. At least twice now, he’s been ready to publish, print and get the book out there. At least twice, he’s changed his mind and his editor and has gone back for revision.

I wonder if that book will ever be finished. I hope it will.

I think publishing a book is like growing a garden. Every year I discover one rogue plant in my yard that oversteps its boundaries, or one non-performing perennial, and always there are weeds I can’t get rid of …And next season I will try to make it closer to perfect again.

The good news is that when you publish your book, like cultivating your garden, you get to try to correct your mistakes in the next edition or format.