It's DONE! Or is it....?

           Just a few short days ago, I was ecstatic about FINALLY finishing the last chapter of a book I've been working on for a little over a year. When I say working on, I don't mean I wrote a little here and there, I mean working on. Okay, so I may not have devoted 40 hours a week, but who really has time for that? I dedicated many long and grueling hours, and found myself on many occasions staring at a computer screen until four in the morning, knowing I had to get out of bed two hours later. So I was thrilled! I was finally DONE! Or so I thought...
           Before I started picking my work apart myself, I started doing some homework in search of the next few steps on my road to fame! (That was sarcasm). So far it seems when you're "DONE!", you truly are only at the beginning. Step one, of course, was self-editing. I'm still working on that.... Step two, find an editor. This step I found quite interesting. I browsed through literally hundreds of editor's web-pages and at the end, I found myself no better than where I began. Oh the monotony! Though they all had different credentials, experience, guarantees, and payment options, overall they come off the same. One after another claimed they were better than the rest, faster than the rest, and smarter than the rest. It seemed like they were bombarding the web browsers with attempts at selling themselves. All too quickly I was uninterested. Failure #1 - don't bother with the web pages.
          After a lot of wasted time, I devised a better plan to pick out my own editor. I skipped the technical web pages, and browsed through blogs written about editors. Lo and behold, at the end of every one was heaps of comments by the editors themselves. There, I found REAL words from editors. I got a better feel for each one, learned how they operated, and even took notes on which to avoid (there was a plethora of nasty comments and bickering amongst them). I knew what I wanted in an editor, and by skipping their "I'm perfect" ads, I was able to choose one I thought best suited my style. Thankfully, I was able to avoid all those stuffy librarian types who would tear me to shreds and be pushy about it.
          Now here I am. I've worked through 6 chapters of grammatical editing and sorting out everything that doesn't fit. I've pinpointed quite a few large problems that will need to be reworked and rewritten. Yeah, more writing. Just when I thought I was done.....