Writing Life

So last month I got the cover art for Dangerous Surrender.



Then a few days later, I found the cover on New Concept Publishing’s upcoming ebooks page! http://www.newconceptspublishing.com/sneakpeek.htm All of sudden the book seems much more real and less so at the same time. It’s actually going to be out and it has my name on it, but it looked so different that it’s almost as if it belonged to someone else.

Next, I noticed that I had not gotten any edits from the lovely publisher. I enjoyed a whole day of a story-must-be- perfect fantasy before the edits arrived. Not perfect, no. In fact, there are corrections on practically every page. Dutifully, I hunker down to make all the corrections. Mostly small stuff, some of which would never have occurred to me in my newbie ignorance, others I can’t believe I missed.

After making all the requested changes, I take the lovely editor’s advice to heart, making a clean copy before sitting down to read my book aloud one last time. More corrections, lots more. Even with all the polishing and editing passes this story has gone through there are still mistakes and when it leaves my hands next week there will doubtless still be errors in the copy. It’s been humbling and enlightening to go through my first professional line edit. The process has also raised my admiration of published works. What a lot of effort, by so many dedicated people, goes into making a story the best it can be.