Monday, August 13, 2012

Whoa...The Edits

Over the weekend if you happened to see a short, red head continuously doing the “raise-the-roof” hand gesture while chirping “Woot! Woot!” it was probably me. You see on Friday I received two exciting emails from Beachwalk Press—a contract for Hijacked, the second book in my Night series and another round of edits for The First Night.

I love the entire publishing process, edits and all.

A couple of months ago when I first signed with Beachwalk, I was certain there would be no problem with someone editing my work. And why would there be? I mean, just as every author does, I poured over each line a minimum of fifteen times adding comas, taking away comas, deleting the extra spaces, taking out the unnecessary, using the most perfect word or phrase at the most appropriate time…the list goes on.

Those who have been there, imagine how my jaw dropped when I opened the first word document full of changes and comments. Don’t get me wrong, I expected some mistakes to be found, just because I’m a first time author doesn’t mean I’m totally clueless…not usually anyway. Needless to say, I was horrified I hadn’t tightened up my story as well as I thought. How could I have missed that stuff? I mean, I’m the type of person, who at a glance, finds errors in office memos and newspaper articles, not to mention published books.

As I read through the comments and made changes as suggested I realized I need someone to read my work and tell me when things don’t make sense or don’t flow on paper as well as they do in my head. I can imagine right now how some of you are asking, “Why would she confess her writing isn’t perfect?” The answer is easy…no one’s writing is, there will always be something that can be changed or added.

Lucky for me and my debut novella, I have Pamela Tyner—word sensei and publisher extraordinaire—editing behind me and making the story I love even better. I can’t wait to see the finished product on December 17th and believe me, no matter where you are, you will probably hear my screams of pleasure…I mean squeals of delight…cries of exhilaration…um…I will be really excited.

Until next time,

Sidda






3 comments:

  1. Yup, I know the feeling when edits hit the inbox. It's so exciting, then you read through and just want to smack yourself over the head for everything you missed (I do anyway!).

    I'm onto lines now, which are super insightful. With every round I learn a little more. Hopefully the next book I send in won't need half of it. It's all a learning curve, and I love it. :)

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  2. Holy Hell, I had to refresh this page four times to read your post. :/ I'm so excited though because me and you are going to be release sisters!!!! Book 2 in my Sex Demons trilogy will be releasing that day. Weeeee. I love edits too. The editors at Beachwalk Press are incredible. I've heard nightmare stories from other publishers, so we are very lucky indeed. *hug* I'm honored to be sharing a release day with you!

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