NaNoWriMo update - Day 12

So, it's time for an update I'm told.

Wordwise I am on top of the world, Felix Baumgartner style. I wrote almost 3,000 words today and plan to write more tommorow (21,000 or 39 pages in total so far.)

As far as the quality of what I write is concerned, yeah.... that's more like being in a Jules Verne story: 20,000 leagues under the sea, I'm waving at a freaky fish with bad mouth hygiene and a lamp thingy hanging from the top of his head as I am writing this. 

I have come to terms with this though. You can't be both prolific and write quality prose, right? Who cares if Dostoyevski wrote Crime and Punishment AND The Gambler in one year, right? Right? 

Anyway. I browsed for cover artists and covers I like, to know what to have in mind when the time comes to make a decision (yes, I already think about that. It helps me relax. That and pictures of cute puppies. You have a problem with that?), and after I was done browsing for covers I made the mistake and looked up how much a professional editor would cost me, when that time comes, too. 

Say my book has approx. 60,000 words when it's done. A standard page in the market is considered to have 250 words. That would make 240 pages. An editor can go through 5 pages (roughly) in an hour as far as my research indicated. That makes 48 hours of work, times 30 (as an average hour rate) and we have .... 1440 dollars or euros take your pick. So either way, this side of the Atlantic or the other, I'm screwed. Big time. Because that would mean I would have to pay beforehand for a book I don't even know would ever make that much money. 

Why pay then, you ask? Well, that's easy.

1. English is not my native language (are you as shocked as I am?) As much as I would like to flatter myself and think I can send something as big as a novel out there to be read, scrutinized and taken apart by native speakers, I know better than that and know that I shouldn't. Not if I want to keep calling myself a writer. Plus, I work with language every day. That is what I do. That is who I am. To let something be anything less than its absolute best, would be like erasing the past 11 years of my life and everything I have learned. So no. I won't do it.

2. As much as I believe in my book, I would really like to have a second, expert opinion on it. An opinion by someone who has read and edited other young adult novels and has helped them become the best they could be. This is especially crucial for somebody who has never published before and only has one chance at a first impression (and doesn't want to do Julia Child because it's easy).

3. Sure I could get a friend to do it for free. But I would really like the opinion of somebody who doesn't know me at all, and doesn't feel like he or she "owes" me anything. As much as you want to be objective, you can't if you know the person behind the story and objectivity is important (well, as much as one can be objective since personal taste is relative.)  

But I am torn. I don't know if I want to pay that much money and not know if I can earn it back. Believe in yourself you say, but believing isn't enough for me. I need to know I have done everything I could to make my novel the best it could be. If people still don't like it after that, well, that would be a bummer, but that's something I would have to live with.

I haven't researched the possibility of a betareader yet. I am just starting to look for possibilities to improve my manuscript after I am done and editing was one of the first ones I researched. 

As far as I know, a betareader goes through the manuscript, corrects grammatical and other language errors and points out plot holes, characterization problems etc. which sounds great. That would mean though, I need to find someone I trust and who is willing to do all of that for free, spend hours and hours of their free time for me, although I can't do the same for them... well, the grammar part of proofreading, the rest I would manage... I think.  

I'll go on looking and hope to come up with a viable solution, because I want so see this through and to publish by the end of next year. So, wish me luck!