Re-editing an old project

As you might be able to tell from the title of today's post, I am currently working on an old project. Now when I say old I mean that this particular story was written at the end of 2009 and finished early 2010 and hasn’t found a home yet.

(Well, it did last year, but due to changes within the company my co-author – yes, this is a co-authored novel – and I decided to pull the submission and try somewhere else, but after we go through the manuscript again and give it a good polish.)

So this isn’t a trunked project, or something I started and need to finished. This is a complete manuscript, currently standing at 89+K.

Edits are good and obviously needed, but how many times should one edit a manuscript?

Naturally, when a story is accepted it goes through a good few rounds of edits to get it looking nice and tidy, but I’m talking about before hand; how many times should you edit a manuscript before you submit it? Is there such thing as too much?

Personally, I think there is. This manuscript is almost three years old. I have pretty much edited it once a year since finishing it – before submitting it to Beta readers, afterwards  and then between submitting. I would never say any of my books are masterpieces and don’t need work, but I do think that a book gets to a stage where it is as good as it can be. A pair of fresh eyes may point out useful things to tweak it and make it that much more better, but at some point you have to say enough. This is the story and it is damn good.

Well, my co-author sent me his edits before Christmas and due to releases, work, and the holidays it has taken me to this point to open this baby up and begin polishing. In one regards it is nice to go through this project again. I love this story. Yet again it is different from anything I have written – being a YA Futuristic Romance – and it is nice to reacquaint myself with the characters and plot, but this is the last time I will edit this manuscript. It is fine the way it is and I fear if it were to go through another round it would be possible to ruin the story completely.

So, wish me luck. I plan – or at least hope very much – to have the manuscript edited and looking fab by the end of the week. Then my co-author and I intend to submit it and hopefully this little baby will have a home before the end of the year. *fingers crossed*