Pebblepup's Writing Den

How do you know if you are ready to publish? That’s a very good question. There’s a lot of information on it. The answer is both simple and complex. It’s simple in that the answer is simply, it depends.

Did you reach a deadline? This could be a self-imposed deadline or one that someone such as a teacher or publisher has set. If so, you need to publish. That’s harsh. It could just mean that your rough draft is done.
If you are satisfied with the story, or you can’t find any errors, you are likely ready to publish. This is the end of the revision stage of writing. Make no mistake, every piece of writing needs revision.

You need to read your piece and look for errors in grammar and spelling. I usual ask my computer read the work to me. That’s a good way to find typos and odd sounding text. I’m not talking AI here. You want the computer to read it without interpreting it. You’re just looking for spelling errors, grammatical errors and typos.

That’s not to say you never want someone else to read the piece. You do. You want them to give you feedback on what they think of the story. That’s important. You know what you wanted to say. You know what your intentions were. Having someone else read the work, can provide some very good feedback. That’s a good way to learn if you achieved your goal of communicating your thoughts to another person. If the other person tells you they understood what you wanted to convey, you are ready to publish.

Another sign you are ready to publish a work is when you feel you can move on, or you want to go on. This one may only indicate you’ve lost interest. This is the hard one. Depending on the other things, is the work as error free as you can make it? Are you satisfied with it? Have other people told you it’s good? If the answers to those questions are all yes, then you are ready to publish, if you find you want to move on. If the answers are no to all or most of those questions, you’ve just lost interest.

This is what I mean when I answered the question of how you know when you are ready to publish with, “it depends.”

You are the only one who can say when you are satisfied with the work. If you have a deadline and you’ve reached it, that’s the signal to ask the other questions.

Don’t be shy about asking those questions. Be honest about the answers. Remember that there is the possibility that you could overdo the revision. So look at your work carefully.

Have you reached a deadline? Have you found and corrected all the errors? Are your satisfied with the piece as it is? Did you ask someone else to read the work and make comments on it? Did they give you good feedback? Are you ready to let it go and get to work on something else?

If all those questions are answered with yes. Publish. You are ready.