I'm giving blood today, and for some reason I'm just a bit nervous. I've given before, I don't get queasy or nauseous, but it's been about two years (since just before I got my tattoo) and I feel like it's my first time.
In other news, my editing is going well! I can't remember all the times I've had to stop, shake my head and say, "What the hell, Ken?!" Right after I finished The River Runes I was flush with excitement and ready to start selling a million copies. So it's not surprising that I got impatient, half-assed my line edits, and convinced myself that my pixelated cover art was awesome.
Ouch. Here I am, almost a year later, and only now doing proper edits and re-writes (oh, and I have a much better cover that I am in love with!).
What have I learned? PATIENCE! Holy rusted metal, Batman, be patient with your work. Putting out something that isn't quite finished isn't going to help anyone, and may even be harmful. Learn from my mistakes and don't publish or send queries to agents and publishers until your book is DONE. If you can afford it, hire and editor. If not, edit once, walk away from your story for at least two months, (if not longer) and then do another edit.
Oh well. :) I'm happy with where The River Runes is now. Even if I wasn't, it's not like I could take it back, so what's the point in being upset? I'll fix what I can and make it better.
Besides, everyone loves a second edition, right?
Thanks for reading,
buh bye then
Thanks for the reminding of a important lesson.
ReplyDeleteLike the cover of The River Runes. I too learnt about querying the hard way. I should not have queried so fast, I should have taken a few opinions before jumping into the query bandwagon.
ReplyDelete@Liza- It's a lesson that I hope not to forget when I finish the next one :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachna. I still like the old cover, when it's small enough to hide the imperfections. The new cover is brighter, stronger, and I think you can really tell that I have learned a lot about graphic art since the first. (although there is still so much I hope to learn!)