As I said previously, writing (and publishing) a book, is a bit like raising kids; it takes a village.
Last post, I chatted about the cover design, and in this post, I want to thank Lara Colrain from Feather and Ink Editing Services for her work, editing Wolf Mother for the manuscript assessments, line edits, copy edits and to her colleague Nicole who is currently working on the proof read for the print version of the book. Lara has literally spent hours and hours and has taught me so much!
Interesting editing Wolf Mother behind-the-scenes editing fact:
In my first manuscript assessment (January 2019), Lara suggested I make a change to the story relating to Gillian’s husband Jake. Now, as far as authors and creatives go, I don’t think I’m really that much of a ‘diva’. Generally, I can see the merit in the suggestion and implement it. But I did have a mini meltdown over that one particular suggestion Lara made. Ugh! Making that change required a pretty big change to the book (the ending and basic story didn’t change, but weaving the suggested change in, wasn’t as simple as changing a few action tags here and there).
And truth be told, I was worried that by changing that particular part of the story, I was going to turn my little quirky book into one of the ‘same same’ books I was rebelling against. But, I was watching the TV show Younger a few weeks later, when something I’d been looking forward to in the show was dealt with differently than I’d expected, and it hit me: Lara was right (of course she was!). So, we chatted about how I could incorporate her suggestion without losing the essence of the book, and the result is the story that’s published. The solution involved cutting out about 20,000 words, and writing a new 20,000. And you know what? I love the version with Lara’s suggestion, better.
If you want to find out more about Lara or editing, you can check out her website at Feather and Ink Editing Services.
