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I Hired My Mother to Edit My Book and Fired Her Three Weeks Later
You should never hire a family member
Twenty years ago, I wrote a book and hired my Mother to edit it. The writing experience was unique; the editing was miserable. Three weeks later, I fired her.
I spent a year writing the book, and it was a great experience. It was 2001 when I conceived the idea. There was a book inside of me; I only needed to get started. That was the hard part.
I made mistakes that I’ve learned from over the years.
The first mistake was, I talked to a few friends about co-authoring while floating the idea amongst my circle of beer hounds and whiskey heads. I got no encouragement but statements of artificial support.
“Good Luck, why bother? Are you nuts?” they all replied.
“The hell with you guys,” and off I went thrusting myself into the world of creative writing.
My friends couldn’t comprehend I wanted to spend my spare time researching and writing instead of playing beer pong and horseshoes.
A year later, I handed them published hardbacks, with custom autographs and instructions on reading instead of using the book as a beer coaster. I went from nerd to instant hero in their minds.
