Authors sometimes ask me, \u201cHow do you know when your book is finished?\u201d I\u2019ve known authors who couldn\u2019t let go. They just kept rewriting and revising. Some continue on for years making changes to their stories or their nonfiction books. Ebook publishing is great for these authors as they can rewrite, revise and resubmit their books for publication in ebook form over and over again. I\u2019ve done it once with my first in the Klepto Cat Mystery series, Catnapped. I pulled the original version, rewrote it and ultimately published the revised book just this month. <\/p>\n
So when is your book finished? When you can walk away from it with a sense of satisfaction and pride\u2014when you can concentrate on a new project\u2014a sequel, perhaps.<\/p>\n
How does it feel to finish a book? I\u2019ve been writing for publication for forty years. I experienced the writing of my first book in 1978. And I can tell you it was exhilarating when I dotted my final i and crossed my final t. Until June of last year, I have always written nonfiction. I have had no problem finishing a book and being confident that it was complete. After having written and published 38 nonfiction books, I can tell you that the experience is always the same\u2014I complete the book and never look back. For me, writing nonfiction is almost a science. You write what you know, you do tons of research, you organize the material logically and you present it so it is easily understood. <\/p>\n
Fiction, however, is more art than science. There are more possibilities and options. You have more liberties with characters, the storyline, the tone of the story, the backdrop and every action that moves the story along. Sometimes the story writes itself. Sometimes you write yourself into a dead end, you decide to add a major new element to your story or you change the entire direction and theme of your story. Other times the story seems etched in stone\u2014a done deal\u2014unmovable. Right or wrong, you\u2019re finished.<\/p>\n
I finished Catnapped<\/em> and Cat-Eye Witness<\/em>\u2014both part of my Klepto Cat Mystery Series several times. And that\u2019s the beauty of the ebook. You can do a revision and resubmit it fairly easily. Just double check to make sure the new version is the one being sold to customers. I can tell you from experience, it is awfully embarrassing when you find out that you are promoting and selling the old version, after spending weeks doing a revision. <\/p>\n