The Final Draft

Last month I mustered up all my courage and hired a professional editor to edit my work. I was extremely nervous as the person I chose to do the work was an accomplished author and also someone who edits books for a living. I was afraid she would be repulsed by my amateurish writing. Instead, she was very supportive and encouraging. That's not to say that she didn't have constructive criticism and didn't tell me that I use weak verbs at times, etc. But she told me she loved my book and thinks it should be published. I was ecstatic. It cost a bit of money to do this, but I think it was worth it for my confidence. I have now sent my second query letter and a book proposal to another publisher just this week. We'll see what happens now.

The editor scaled my book back a bit (by about 5000 words!), but it's a leaner, cleaner machine and she kept my voice also. I guess with this economy that's what we're all looking for anyway. I suppose if this publisher doesn't like it I'll try with one or two others and if I still don't get any bites I'll just have to give the 'ol self-publishing a whirl. No problem there, just a bit more work and money involved...Oh yeah, money...Ok, well, slight problem, but we'll figure that out when/if the time comes! I figure if these folks will love it, the public will love it and want to make a movie out of it and the next thing you know, we've got the new "Sandlot" series, only this one is nonfiction...Who knows?