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If you are in writing to make money, it doesn't pay to rewrite. If you rewrite half as much you can output twice as many books per unit of time. Now, some people will play the "quality" card. But ...
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#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26262 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
If you are in writing to make money, it doesn't pay to rewrite. If you rewrite half as much you can output twice as many books per unit of time. Now, some people will play the "quality" card. But quality of writing comes from talent, not from rewriting. Iron won't become steel no matter how much you pound at it. The only time it makes rational sense to rewrite is if your work derailed from your original idea halfway through and you want to rewrite the first act to match the second and third acts. In this case, you can minimize waste by keeping the discarded half so you can write an appropriate ending later and release another book.