Looking back and moving forward
It's exciting to get another book up for sale. It's exciting to get the second book of your series up on Amazon for preorder!
And now, Married Mischief is up there. It's just $.99 if you preorder it now. And I'm so excited about it all.
But the past few weeks I've also taken a step back, and realized that, wow, I now have three books online, available for the world to see.
I had never gotten my first book, Loving Eliza in print. The cover I had for it wasn't high enough quality, so I just never tried again. Two plus years later, I really wanted to hold that book in my hands. Writing a novel was a bucket list item for me. It was huge.
So I went through the whole process. I made a brand new cover, I designed it myself, I got my author proof, and then ...
Then I remembered that I never intended to publish Loving Eliza. I had written it eight years ago, just for me. The formatting was a mess, I saw six typos oand grammatical errors in just five minutes of editing, and I was so embarrassed.
I tried so hard on New Love, and I tried just as hard with Married Mischief to get them perfect, or as close to perfect as I could. But I forgot all about Loving Eliza.
It had been years since I looked at it. And when I went to publish it two years ago, I *assumed* that, sure, I had edited the crap out of it all those years ago. It was good to go. And if there were a few typos, so be it.
It didn't matter as much to me then as it does now. I wasn't sure I'd ever write another book. I doubted I'd ever publish any book at all. So little effort was put into getting my first book out there.
Family and friends read it, and were very encouraging. But I didn't really try to find an audience outside of them.
Then things changed. I embraced being a writer whole-heartedly, and I committed myself to keep going, to write an entire series! To never give up.
I was so busy looking forward, that I forgot to look back.
Today I am righting that wrong. I changed the entire format, I fixed so many typos and made everything consistent. I really did my best to make my first book up to the caliber of my other two.
So, if you read Loving Eliza with all its errors, I'm sorry. Amazon tells me it will automatically update any ebook copy that's been sold, but no one is going to know that. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and for not ripping me a new one. I would have deserved it.
Today, not only were several items fixed, but I submitted the new and improved Loving Eliza for print.
I cannot wait to hold that book in my hands, and I feel so much better knowing that it won't simply be 'good enough'. Because I want to be better. I want to be the best I can be. And I've done my best to improve with every book I've written.
But we all have to take time to make sure our best foot is forward. Even if that means going back and doing a full gut edit of a book you wrote eight years ago. Because once again, I've never been prouder of that book than I am right now.
- G.G. GleasonLoving Eliza
And now, Married Mischief is up there. It's just $.99 if you preorder it now. And I'm so excited about it all.
But the past few weeks I've also taken a step back, and realized that, wow, I now have three books online, available for the world to see.
I had never gotten my first book, Loving Eliza in print. The cover I had for it wasn't high enough quality, so I just never tried again. Two plus years later, I really wanted to hold that book in my hands. Writing a novel was a bucket list item for me. It was huge.
So I went through the whole process. I made a brand new cover, I designed it myself, I got my author proof, and then ...
Then I remembered that I never intended to publish Loving Eliza. I had written it eight years ago, just for me. The formatting was a mess, I saw six typos oand grammatical errors in just five minutes of editing, and I was so embarrassed.
I tried so hard on New Love, and I tried just as hard with Married Mischief to get them perfect, or as close to perfect as I could. But I forgot all about Loving Eliza.
It had been years since I looked at it. And when I went to publish it two years ago, I *assumed* that, sure, I had edited the crap out of it all those years ago. It was good to go. And if there were a few typos, so be it.
It didn't matter as much to me then as it does now. I wasn't sure I'd ever write another book. I doubted I'd ever publish any book at all. So little effort was put into getting my first book out there.
Family and friends read it, and were very encouraging. But I didn't really try to find an audience outside of them.
Then things changed. I embraced being a writer whole-heartedly, and I committed myself to keep going, to write an entire series! To never give up.
I was so busy looking forward, that I forgot to look back.
Today I am righting that wrong. I changed the entire format, I fixed so many typos and made everything consistent. I really did my best to make my first book up to the caliber of my other two.
So, if you read Loving Eliza with all its errors, I'm sorry. Amazon tells me it will automatically update any ebook copy that's been sold, but no one is going to know that. Thank you for your patience and understanding, and for not ripping me a new one. I would have deserved it.
Today, not only were several items fixed, but I submitted the new and improved Loving Eliza for print.
I cannot wait to hold that book in my hands, and I feel so much better knowing that it won't simply be 'good enough'. Because I want to be better. I want to be the best I can be. And I've done my best to improve with every book I've written.
But we all have to take time to make sure our best foot is forward. Even if that means going back and doing a full gut edit of a book you wrote eight years ago. Because once again, I've never been prouder of that book than I am right now.
- G.G. GleasonLoving Eliza
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