I made what I’m sure is a rookie mistake last night in my editing. I revised an entire chapter based on the comments of my editor only to get to the last page and read, “Rewrite the chapter. Nothing really happens…”. There was more to the comment, but I had just spent over an hour tweaking and making everything better based on previous comments.
Am I angry? No, not at all. The rewriting process was good and I will be able to use some of what I did. The joke, and it is a joke on me, is that I didn’t read all the comments on the chapter before I started my revision.
That could lead to the question: did I actually read all the comments from my editor before I started? The answer is, “Yes”. The problem is, there are 400 comments and remembering where each is can be a problem. I knew I was coming up on a chapter rewrite, I just didn’t remember which one.
Now I know.
The good thing is, now that I’ve revised the chapter, I have to agree with all the comments. I even have a good idea how to fix the problem to address them. The effort wasn’t wasted at all.
I’ve also learned a very good tip that may or may not relate to how most (many?) editors work. They work linearly, out of necessity, I think. A book is much too big to read through and then start making general comments on how to fix everything. I did get that, but there was also the edits for language, believability and so on. Those have to be done on a line by line, paragraph by paragraph basis.
Lesson learned for me: always read all the comments in a chapter before I start revising. Now to rewrite and move on.
Posted by: Michell Tags: 5 rivers, ebooks, eformat, five rivers, indigo, irreverent muse, kindle, kobo, lorina stephens, Michell Plested, mike plested, terry pratchett
The fact that the book industry is changing has never been driven home quite as clearly as it was in the last few days. The first epiphany was when I read a post by my publisher, Lorina Stephens of Five Rivers Publishing. She wrote about how Indigo (the 500-pound gorilla in Canada for book sales) is now pushing the small and indie presses around (post found here). Essentially, the book chain has made the decision to supplement their waning book sales by selling giftware.
Fair enough. If it helps them survive, all the power to them. But, and here is where the bullying comes in, they are also basically pushing the small presses out. Lorina says it better than me by far, so I encourage you to have a read. What it means, in essence, is my physical books will only sell on Amazon, through catalogs and small book stores.
The second time was only yesterday when I heard Terry Pratchett has another book coming out on October 11th. Mr. Pratchett is easily one of my favorite authors so my excitement at another Discworld book was intense. Then I found out that it wouldn’t be available in Canada until November 22. Huh?
So, I went to Amazon.com and checked for a Kindle version. Sure enough, I can get my hands on the book in eformat on October 11th. An e-version isn’t even available through Indigo (Kobo).
So, two strikes against Indigo in one week. Adding insult to injury, I can get the story I want in eFormat cheaper and quicker elsewhere.
I’ve known for some time that ebooks would be taking over; it’s pretty hard to miss all the signs. These last two nails have pretty much sealed the coffin for me.
It has also left a very bad taste in my mouth for the big book chains. I have no doubt that the small book stores will be back in some form eventually once the chains are gone.
I can’t wait.
As you know, I am busy getting my YA novel, “Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero” ready for publication. The journey feels long some days and I wish I could share more of where we are in concrete terms.
Today, I have something concrete to share with you.
I have been EXTREMELY fortunate to have a good friend of mine do the cover for the book. I had always hoped he could do it and when I had the chance to make the introduction between him and my publisher, Lorina, I jumped at the chance. She hired him to do four covers right away and, to my delight, “Mik Murdoch” was one of them.
So here it is. The cover for my upcoming book. I love it and hope you will too.
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