Revised Edition

I have seen posts from other authors on social media talking about when to stop editing. It's true, we could rewrite and edit to our heart's content and somehow with all that work we could still be unsatisfied with the finished product. There are always things we can find to change, tweak, or redo completely. As a whole, writers tend to be an insecure group. We are always trying to make everything perfect but the fact that we can't please everyone all the time is a difficult concept for us. Our work is a part of us and we are putting our heart and soul out there to be judged.

Sometimes, however, it is important to realize there are major changes needed. In my case it was my debut novel Never Give Up. I had started out submitting for a traditional publisher but after I received my umpteenth rejection letter I decided to look for another route. I joined a number of Facebook groups and started looking for suggestions when I saw a start up Indie company who was accepting submissions. I was so excited someone wanted to publish me I ignored my instincts and jumped at the chance to work with them. I allowed their editor to go through and suggest changes. They then created a cover and formatted the book for me.

Having never published anything before I was unaware of just how many problems the book possessed. The formatting contained double spacing and the wrong margins. There were typos and major issues with the dialogue. Even the cover wasn't done correctly. It was pixelated, the color was blurry and blended with the wording, and the font was wrong for the genre. It was something I had to take almost a year to handle both physically and emotionally.

I have now redone the cover and rewritten the story. It will be released once more in a few days and I am glad I had the opportunity to fix a number of the problems. I know given the chance I would just keep working to fix the problems I find but I think at some point we invent problems instead of face the possibility someone may not like our work. Fingers crossed when it releases it finds the same story acceptance it enjoyed before while also being something I can be proud of in style and quality.