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June, 2015:

25,000 manuscript edits in a single image

I made around 25,000 revisions to the manuscript for ‘Rum Luck’, from when I first queried agents to when I sold to a publisher a year and a half later.

Here’s what that looks like when crammed into a single image:

Merged Changes

(Thanks go to Amy McCullogh and Will Hill for first doing this with the edits they got back from their respective publishers.)

I almost didn’t post this.

It’s tough to be a writer who is sitting on a manuscript that hasn’t yet found a home. No one needs to make that time any more difficult that it is already. And there’s no doubt – that’s a lot of changes. A veritable sea of red. Quite possibly a very daunting sea, depending on where you’re at in the writing process.

Don’t be discouraged.

When that manuscript first left my hands, it was perfect in my eyes. But only in my eyes. It needed more.

That red is the ‘more’, those elusive improvements that could only come through outside feedback – in my case, the beta-readers, prospective agents, my former agent, a professional editor, potential publishers, and eventually the editors at Five Star – including the eminent Deni Dietz.

Over a year of editing.

I didn’t listen to everyone, all of the time. But I did look for trends. If several readers made the same suggestion, I took it very seriously. And even when one reader said there was too much description and another not enough, I asked myself – is there a problem with the description?

And by slogging it out – getting rejections, making changes, and repeat – I was able to get the feedback needed to bring ‘Rum Luck’ to where it needed to be. And get shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis award. And then get a book deal.

Aspiring authors – don’t worry if you think your book isn’t quite ready for prime time. You may just need to ask your beta-readers for a map to help navigate that sea of red.

Update: I’ve had some feedback to the effect of ‘OMG is that even the same book?’ – the answer, surprisingly, is ‘yes’. This is pretty much the exact same story as what I started with. I mostly streamlined the descriptions and removed a lot of unnecessary scene direction – character’s shooting each other looks every three lines, or spending half the book drumming their fingers on something. I also took out a lengthy flashback and added another day to the timeline. The dialogue, however, has remained virtually unchanged.

I used to live in fear of re-writes – I’d think, “I need to make sure this is perfect, or I’ll lose it all during the edits” – but the truth is that if it’s gold, you’ll find a way to use it. And if it’s not gold, you won’t miss it when it’s gone.

Rum Luck is coming out from Five Star Publications in February 2016. To stay in touch, join my mailing list (sidebar) or ‘like’ my facebook page.

Short Lists and Lessons Learned

I was very pleased – and more than a little surprised – to hear that ‘Rum Luck’ was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada’s Unhanged Arthur award. It still hadn’t sunk in by the time the news had appeared in ‘print’, either. It was only a day or so before the Arthur Ellis awards dinner that it started to feel real – around the time I realized that I should probably have something to say if I actually won. (Insider Tip: Think Academy Awards – short and sweet.)

While ‘Rum Luck’ didn’t take the prized marionette – congratulations to Elle Wild for the win! – there were a few points I took away from the process of taking part in the Unhanged Arthur contest two years running:

Practice makes publishable: The previous year, I’d made the Unhanged Arthur longlist, but advanced no further. Thankfully, the rules of the contest are such that you can reapply provided that the manuscript in question hasn’t already made the shortlist. So, I took in another round of beta-reader feedback – along with a healthy dose of what I’d learned from sending out the work to publishers and agents – and did a massive rewrite. The shortlisting was proof that it paid off.

Take time to connect: Particularly up north, there aren’t as many opportunities as you’d like to connect with other writers and industry professionals. Add in a beautiful venue – the Arts and Letters Club – and some table wine, and you’ve got the makings of a great night. I particularly enjoyed speaking with Sian Bumsted of Whodunnit Mystery Bookstore in Winnipeg, who offered valuable insight into what independent bookstores hope to get from emerging authors. Independent bookstores thrive on curating hard-to-find content for their readers, so emerging authors shouldn’t be shy about getting in touch with indie bookstores.

Shortlists matter: When you’re trying to break into the writing scene, you take every advantage you can get. If an emerging author is selling a book at an event or trying to convince a bookstore to stock their work, then being able to say the book has been shortlisted for an award is almost as good as being able to say that it’s won. To be blunt, potential readers – even those who enjoy a book’s premise – appreciate any reassurance that the book will also be readable and not riddled with errors.

So huge thanks to the Crime Writers of Canada for putting this together – particularly the Unhanged Arthur for unpublished authors. I’m sure it was a ton of work, but very much appreciated. We need more contests like this.