I’ve been working on Always And Forever for about nine years now. Well to be honest, I became discouraged on many occasions. Especially when I received rejections from newly solicited agents. I had gone through the novel for the umpteenth time, and I knew I had corrected every little mistake that could have possibly been overlooked during previous reviews. So, it would probably be more accurate to say I worked on the book for nine years off and on. Some of those offs were many months in duration.

I’ve tried to walk away from the book, but I can’t.  It’s a great story waiting to be told. It’s also a thorn in my side. As much as I try to push it away and move on, I find myself drawn back into the story and a desire to see it published.

One of the Agents I sent my work to, said I had a great premise but the story was riddled with grammatical and structural errors, head hopping, and dragging dialogue. It wasn’t ready for publication.

I took her constructive criticism to heart and took courses, read books, and worked on my manuscript feverishly in an attempt to make it publishable. Well here we are Nine years later and I still have a piece of work riddled with grammatical and structural errors, with no head hopping, and forward moving dialogue.

I’ve had friends read my novel and point out mistakes. I’ve used several online grammar programs, but I still have a piece of work with an unacceptable number of grammatical errors. It’s not ready.

A month ago, a lady that I know started an editing business and said she would love to look at my work. As a favor to me, she reviewed and provided corrections to my prologue and first chapter no charge.

I was appalled at the number of errors she cited. I have no idea how I could have missed so many small things. I was seeing for the first time what the literary agents were seeing when they reviewed my work, and I fully understood what the one agent had offered when she said it wasn’t ready.

Needless to say, I have hired her to help me with the rest of the book. It is an expense, but I’ve come to realize that we can’t edit our own work. As authors, we are to close and can’t see what jumps off the page for people with trained eyes.

Maybe it’s time to bite the bullet. And yes I know that’s a cliché,  but it sums up perfectly what I’m trying to say 🙂

Something to think about.

-Jan R