Is your Indie Book Ready for Publication?

It seems like no matter what part of the writing process in which I find myself, I am always dealing with new ideas. Currently, while revising Darkness Descends, my second book, I continually devise new ideas and refine the old ones. That's what revision is all about, I realize. However, sometimes, I have to just shut off the noise and get the book finished.


So,if you are an indie author, like me, how do you know when your book is ready to publish?


Here's six ways to know you're book is ready:


1. You've read it and read it and read it again, and nothing makes you cringe (unless you're going for that effect).


2. You've cut/refined until your story sings on EVERY page.


3. All of your scenes make logical, cohesive sense within the realm of your world that you've created.


4. Every scene has tension, with maybe a bit of release, but not too much.


5. You've tortured your main characters enough, and you're ready to allow your readers to live vicariously through their adventures.


6. You listen to a friend who's read the book and given you specific feedback on what is good and what is crap. Eliminate the crap.


Crap can defined here as: anything that does not move the story along.


Since my book is still bothering me, i.e., making me cringe in places, I still have not completed my latest revision. The cast of this book has grown much bigger, and thus more complex. I don't want it to fall into melodramatic, after school special. (I write Young Adult fiction.)


However, it is almost there. It's the last 1/3 of the book that I need to refine. So close.