THE JOURNEY OF WRITING: HOW A TEAM CAN BRING FORTH A GOOD READ

Hello all you young adults and young at hearts,
I am Susan Chambers, author of TJ AND THE WINGED VISITOR. A 21st century super read adventure story.
Today, I am continuing from my last blog which is all about TEAMWORK.
After a time, I decided to give another professional editor a go.
This time it was a lady. She had been through the book, and now sat opposite me. We talked for a while and then she said to me ‘why can’t the winged visitor be an angel?’
I looked at her and said, ‘But it is not an angel.’  Then she said, ‘But why can’t it be an angel.’ At this she took a blue pen with silver writing on it out of her pocket. There was a glass angel on top of it, and she held it out towards me.
As I studied the angel on top of the pen, I thought… why can’t it. From that day, I knew how to adjust the story to be more reader friendly. My only issue was, I didn’t know what the angel looked like. I mean how many of us have ever seen an angel? Were there many types of angels, and how would I know what type of angel this winged visitor was to be. It was something to ponder on.
Not many days after, I was with a family member, and I was telling her about the visit and what the lady had said. And I said, ‘But I don’t know what the angel looks like.’  Almost instantly, she was smiling and said, ‘I know what it is to look like.’ ‘It is like this… and it is like this… and it wears this… and it has big white wings.’
I sat there dumfounded but… I knew that description was perfect. I was also very thankful that she had a creative mind and was willing to share her abilities.
So, I did more writing and more changes. I have a daughter who is technically skilled, much more than I am. She took the story from A4 PAGES to a book format. This was not really… necessary, but I suppose it made me feel good.
Then I decided to engage another editor, and they are not cheap. She was worth every cent. She read through the story and then asked me lots of questions. One of the main things that did not gel with her, was that the winged visitor seemed to be one way at times, and at other times completely different. She said, it was like it had two different characters and/or personalities. I heard what she was saying, and I knew why, and my answer to her was ‘Why can’t it have both?’ She is a teacher, and told me later, that all through classes that day, she kept thinking ‘Why can’t it have both.’
She did not take over and do it all herself. She worked with me, as the author, I really enjoyed that. If something needed adjusting, she explained why. At times she added her own insights, which I could accept or reject. She was so in-tune with the story that I accepted most of them. She corrected grammar and the story flowed perfectly. As I said, worth every cent.
The document was now ready, but not every publisher I approached was ready to receive it, and time was moving on. Until one day when I was on the internet and reading through some information on book competitions in Australia. I noticed that underneath was information on a publisher in the United Kingdom, and they were accepting submissions. I decided to send a manuscript and it was accepted. (I had to change it back to A4 pages to do this)
After this happened, I was now involved with the submissions team, then the editing team (even though the story had been professionally edited here). Then the graphics team, then it was ready for the printing team. And lastly, I have dealings with the marketing team. There were also other minor players along the way who all contributed in some way.
As I said before… in my experience it takes a TEAM to bring forth a great read. I am very thankful for all the amazing people who intercepted my life during this journey, from its inception to the conclusion of phase one of TJ AND THE WINGED VISITOR.
Search TJ AND THE WINGED VISITOR, this book is NOW AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE at Austin Macauley Publishers, Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Target, and many other outlets. Please give me feedback and do reviews at austinmacauley.com and Goodreads.com
GET IN QUICK TO GET YOUR COPY… ITS SELLING FAST.
TJ AND THE WINGED VISITOR IS ALSO ON UTUBE…CHECK IT OUT.
Until next time, your blogging friend and author SUSAN CHAMBERS

Post Views : 94