Tuesday 20 August 2013

Faith Awakened becomes A Guildswoman’s Dream: The Why


It’s been six years since I self-published Faith Awakened. Print on demand was a new thing then. I learned much from the success of Jeremy Robinson and his unflinching stance on quallity, whether it be in the writing or the design.

So I ran it through about 20 critique partners, took over half their comments on board, had a kick-ass designer do my cover art, learned typesetting, and sent out a bunch of review copies in print, as was usual in those days.

That first edition of Faith Awakened sold about 500 copies in a year. Not bad for a first try, they say. And it got some great reviews. I was happy.

Then, in 2011, Chila read it. Soon after, she asked if I’d consider republishing it under Port Yonder Press, with a little updating and polishing. Sure, I was keen. She understood the heart of my writing and I had also been much inspired by hers. And I am curious to see what can be done by having a publisher on US soil. My little book had gone as far as it could by itself.


We both thought we’d just update the text a little bit. But when we sat down to do so, absolutely nothing would come. Slowly it dawned on me that the entire book needed to be rewritten. I am not the writer I was at 21 when I began that work, nor the one who published it at 28. I’m better.

1 comment:

Bruce M. Axtens said...

It was pretty good then. I'm still the demanding reader I was then (if not more so), so the rewrite had better be good.