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Revision: How Much is Too Much?

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How attached are you to your MS? While waiting for my book to come out, I submitted a second MS to my publisher. I wanted to see if she would pick it up. She really liked it but wanted me to make it fictional. The premises of my MS, “Squirrel Mafia” is my year-long war with the squirrels in my backyard. The book is 100 percent true.

When she told me she wanted it I took a step back. It would mean a major rewrite if not me totally starting from scratch. I did like the idea for I could envision where I would take it. But I love this MS a lot. I love it so much that I turned that down and decided to keep it as it is. Yes I could have had a potential book being published. Now a days who am I to turn that down? But I did not want to take away from the vision of this book I wanted the world to know how truly evil squirrels are. I should know. I been observing them for a while now.

So again I ask how attached are you to your MS? Would you have broken down and rewrote your MS or not? I can imagine there are authors out there who do make the change that is asked of them to get their book published. I don’t mind slight revisions but when it is no longer what you had in mind then I have to say no.

Will this hurt me in the long run I don’t know. I been submitting “Squirrel Mafia” actively since August. But I am now done. I have had some nibbles and am hoping someone goes for a second bite. Just this week I had one publishing house ask for a formal TOC and a cover letter with my marketing plan for the MS.

I believe in this MS. Even if it means I end up self publishing it. I don’t want to change it so much that it is a shadow of what it once was. For me that would be worse than it not being published at all.

Do You Abandon Your Book?

 

 

IMG_0233Even though my book got picked up by a traditional publisher, it doesn’t mean I don’t have to spread the word and do some marketing of my own. This is tough for I am by all accounts a shy person.

Times are tough for books. They are competing with ebooks, tablets and people giving away their books for free for reviews. So a year before I started actively submitting “Jasper, Amazon Parrot:A Rainforest Adventure” I hit the social media scene.

You can find me here:

-Facebook

-Google +

-Twitter

-Linkedin

-Pinterest

-Goodreads

-Shelfari

I am on a few others but these are the big ones. I started to network, meeting various people in various stages of their book. Along the way I met some awesome friends. I came across people who helped me in so many different ways. Ami who worked on my query letter that got my book into a few editor’s hands. I met my editor, Nancy, who is just amazing with her talents. I have met writers who have helped me with questions and problems when it came to social media. This is a market every author, whether self published or traditional, needs to tap into. It is pure gold for the taking, you just have to reach for it. And by the way, it is how I met my publisher.

It is time-consuming when you first start. This was the main reason a year prior to submitting I became pro active with my book and the means to promote it. It has been a few years since then and now my social media format just need checking on now and then.

Being shy won’t cut it in this market. You have to take a deep breath and step forward. Your book needs you to be there for it. It can’t do it alone. And why should it? It has been with you for so long why abandon it now?

Cover Reveal for Lyrical Muse

Check out the new cover real from my friend CP.

CP Bialois's avatarThe BiaLog

Welcome to the cover reveal for the upcoming release LYRICAL MUSE a collection of stories that reflects life’s rhythms through the tales of everyday people. Please take a look below!

COVER REVEAL

LYRICAL MUSE

ANTHOLOGY

Music Heals the Spirit as the Words Give Life.’

LYRICAL MUSE

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Lyrical Muse Anthology

Publisher: Michelle Cornwell-Jordan (3CM Media)

Synopsis

Lyrical Muse is a collection of stories that reflects life’s rhythms through everyday people. Each story is an example of the best and the worst of the Human soul. Every life lived has its own melody, and within these pages, the reader is taken on a journey to the blackest depths of a daughter’s murderous soul to the prickly minefield of a jealous woman’s heart and so much more.

So enter of your own free will and allow our whimsical Muse to lead you on an odyssey which just might help redefine your own…

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