A More Professional Product

One of the great things about regularly engaging in any activity is that you improve with practice. Writing is certainly like that. Over the past few years, I couldn’t help but grow as a writer as I completed two novels and several shorter pieces. The downside of this phenomenon is that work which was “really pretty good” for my skill level at one time is no longer a good example of what I can do now.

Last fall, I began working with a new editor. Before I make it sound like there was something wrong with Julia, my original editor, I wish to say she is a talented and professional developmental editor. I would not hesitate to work with her again, and I would recommend her wholeheartedly. Julia added a lot to my first two novels, Beautiful and Beautifully Made. I followed almost all of her advice, even when I found it difficult. It turned out she was right!

So I polished Beautiful as best I could, and I self-published it in the spring of 2023 after not landing a literary agent. You know the story if you’ve been following my blog. Last fall, my new editor, LeeAnna, who is more of a copyeditor than a developmental editor, began work on Beautifully Made. LeeAnna had two advantages besides her natural talent:

• Julia had already worked her developmental editing magic, and
• my writing had improved.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for you to read Beautifully Made. However, you’re going to have to wait a bit because I’m making another attempt to find a literary agent. LeeAnna read Beautiful and said she could improve that novel as well. The advantage of doing this would be that if a literary agent was researching me and found Beautiful, they would see a more professional product. This made sense to me, so we did it. I confess the number of changes LeeAnna and I made disheartened me, though most were minor. But that’s why writers who take their craft seriously hire editors.

The second edition of Beautiful is now available as a paperback or e-book on Amazon or through IngramSpark if you wish to support your local bookstore.