The Keepers – A New Author’s Bumpy Road
Things seldom go as planned. I, for one, am the type who would like to have my life mapped out, color coded, and filed in alphabetical order. Sounds like a mundane existence eh? However, coping with ADD, a full-time family, a J-O-B, and my love of writing makes me a little crazy at times.
When my first novel, The Keepers, debuted I was ready to hit the ground running, and that’s just what I did. My sales background lends me to being a marketing bulldog and the sales were rolling in! Who wouldn’t be happy with that scenario? I’d built a ton of momentum, and things were going great. However, in my rush to get the book out there, I didn’t stop to read over what we had published. That being said, the novel generated a lot of great reviews and fans. I’m forever grateful for the zest with which my growing list of followers nabbed it up, devoured it, and then supported it.
A few weeks in, I got my first lousy review. This happens to everyone, and I didn’t think much about it. After a couple of weeks, I got another review that wasn’t exactly glowing. I believe you can’t please everyone, all of the time, and if you try, you’ll make yourself completely insane. But, both the reviews mentioned bad editing and that bothered me. You can - not like a book, because it’s not for you, but to not like it because the editing is poor is another story.
Having read a heap of Astraea’s books, I knew this wasn’t the norm. That’s probably why I didn’t take the time to scrutinize the editing. When I pulled up a copy I realized there truly was a problem and I went to my fabulous publisher, Stephanie Taylor, and brought it to her attention. We aren’t really sure what happened, maybe the wrong version got pulled into copy, or maybe we were so amped up on new novel fever that we missed the corrections. Who knows?
Truth be told the reason doesn’t matter, we just knew we had to get it fixed. Steph immediately pulled it down and sent it back to the editing department. Now, being a new author, I was crushed. My baby was going back in for an overhaul, and it had just begun to make waves! However, I knew it was the professional thing to do. We couldn’t have a great story out there that deserved attention, but have people turned off because the editing wasn’t up to par.
Just like anything else in life, you’re writing career will throw you curve balls. After I wiped a few tears and dusted the dirt off, I was excited because I knew in the end the product that was delivered to my readers would be better, even if it meant a small hiatus.
I just wanted to take this time, to thank everyone who has stood by me and patiently waited while we corrected our technical difficulties. I also want to thank Stephanie. Astraea is a new press, we haven’t made our first birthday yet, and she handled the entire thing with class and professionalism. I hope you will all enjoy the new life that was breathed into the book. No content changes were made - for those of you who have worried about this!
I look forward to hearing all the good reviews on The Keepers and my new novel Jamais Vu! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, once again.
Cheers!
Monique O’Connor James
