12 Steps for Revising Your Novel

Nancy J. Cohen's avatarNancy's Notes From Florida

Revisions on your novel can seem like a never-ending task. This seems especially true when you get a letter from a reader years later to tell you about a misspelled word. We’re never going to get it absolutely perfect, but we can do our best.

revision steps for your novel

In an earlier post, I’d mentioned the Five Stages of Writing. I’ve also talked in other posts about line editing and other techniques for improving your work. What comes next after you’ve sent the book in to your editor? Here’s a list of suggestions:

1. Make the corrections advised by your editor when she sends your story back with comments.

2. Check your formatting throughout the manuscript after making a series of changes. Be sure all chapter headings are consistent. Turn on the paragraph symbol in Word and look for misplaced sentences or extra spaces. Do a search for [space]^p and replace with ^p…

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LOVE LORN Book 1 of The Twisted Love Series Written by Bestselling Author Amy Manemann Co-Authored Series with USA Today Bestselling Author Stacy Eaton

LOVE LORN

Book 1 of The Twisted Love Series
Written by Bestselling Author Amy Manemann
Co-Authored Series with USA Today Bestselling Author Stacy Eaton

Continue reading “LOVE LORN Book 1 of The Twisted Love Series Written by Bestselling Author Amy Manemann Co-Authored Series with USA Today Bestselling Author Stacy Eaton”

AUGUST 15th 1939 – The Bridge of Deaths

Piece Keeper by Antwan Floyd Sr.

1) What inspired you to write this book?

 

    I wanted to write a story
about a street smart/book smart Black male in the detective genre, I feel like
this genre of mystery/crime fiction is ripe for black authors.
2) How long did it take you to write the book? 
A year.

 

3) Coffee or Tea? 
Tea.
4) Describe your special writing place 
Any place clean and quiet.
5)Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Panster? Good word, Iol. I am definitely
a planner.
Thank you for the interview.

 
About the Book:

Teresa Prince, a small town girl with a big
heart, had dreams of working in law enforcement her goals put on pause in the
worse way possible. Will she overcome this tragedy and emerge triumphant with
her mind and soul intact? Or will the mental anguish be too much for her to
bare? 

James, a twisted soul with ideas of love and
grandeur with a woman that doesn’t feel the same for him, at least not yet.
That will all change if he has anything to do with it. Also, her old flame has
stepped into the picture. Will James be able to win her over and make her the
love of his life before the flame is rekindled between her and her ex? Or will
he be left in the cold while they live happily-ever-after?

Black Love was always a white collar kind of guy
more so than a gangster when an unfortunate incident occurs in a small town in
Illinois he rushes to the side of his ex-fiancé to attempt to save the day. It
does not take long to figure out that not everyone wants to see justice served.
On top of that, his feelings for his past love may not only cause conflicts in
the case but also add a rift to his new relationship. Will Black put his past
behind him and find out who violated Teresa? 

In this fast-paced tale of pain, misguided
passion, and lost love we follow these three souls as they embark on a journey
of romance, rape, and retribution. When there’s no one to count on but yourself
will you stand and deliver? Or bend and break? Each will face that question in
the midst of what they once thought was true. They all find out that when love
turns to war, someone has to be the Piece Keeper!

 
Book Links:
Piece Keeper via Amazon  
Piece Keeper via Barnes & Noble  
Read an Excerpt:
Prologue
The
streets were desolate and cold. James shook off the chill that shot through his
bones as he pulled the skull cap slightly down over his eyebrows not leaving
very much of his face to be seen. He took his time moving to the ATM machine.
He had transferred a small portion of his money from the offshore account to
his account in the states. He had been in Burr Ridge for almost a week now.
Nothing or no one, other than Witherspoon, was connecting him to what happened
to Teresa or the others he’d dumped in the river over the past year. He knew
Witherspoon would never speak and their employer had no idea who it was and
didn’t want to know. He felt bad about not trying to bring Teresa. He
contemplated that she was better off without him. He slid the bank card into
the machine, keyed in the code followed by the amount he wanted to withdraw,
and then waited for the machine to spit the bills out. Once the money was out
he retrieved his cash and card and went back to his car. He had nothing to
worry about yet he still felt compelled to get out of Illinois. He wanted to
see his sister before he left because he didn’t know when he would see her
again. As he climbed into his car and started the engine, he heard the sound of
a click behind his head.
“You
can have the money and car,” he said. The person behind him remained silent.
James
spoke again. “It doesn’t have to end badly. I haven’t seen your face so you can
just take the cash and go. Everyone’s happy.”

 

“This
isn’t just a robbery,” the woman’s said as she pulled the trigger.
About the Author: 
 
Antwan Floyd Sr. is a Publisher, Author, and Reviewer. He publishes Crime Fiction novels under his publishing company Maleah Solange Books. He has released two titles
in the Black Love Detective Series: Piece Keeper & Cannibal in the City. He has also written Dope Fiction and Dope Fiction pt. 2 “Greed Between the Lines”. Originally from Chicago, IL he currently resides in Indianapolis, IN where he is penning his next novel.
 
 
Contact the Author: 

What I Have Learned from Chronic Illness – Guest Post by, Tina Frisco…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

The opportunity to learn presents itself more often than most of us recognize. We ignore or do not hear the knock on the door to our hearts and minds. We become outraged or sickened when engaging with or reacting to someone whose behavior strikes fear in us. We allow our attention to divert to the trivial when facing something that makes us uneasy. Yet everyone and everything we encounter is a mirror, a reflection of ourselves.

I have been off line for most of the past six weeks, coping with a flareup of fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue. When homebound and at times bedridden, it is a challenge to feel connected to the outside world and not slip into depression. I constantly have to remind myself that I am not alone. My shaman teacher told me this early on:

The first lesson of power is that we are alone.

The last lesson of…

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Star review for “The Healer”: ‘A psychologically astute book’

Christoph Fischer's avatarwriterchristophfischer

I’ve spent another week with festival work and have neglected my own marketing. So I’m all the more grateful to have found this latest in depth review of my medical thriller “The Healer” on Amazon:

The story is deceptively simple. A woman suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer, desperate, follows the advice of her personal assistant and approaches a healer, Arpan. I am not sure if he would call himself a “faith” healer, but he insists that those he treats should be totally invested in the process, including transferring 50% of their assets to his account. Although he states all that money goes to charity, it caused suspicion and scandal years back, and he has been keeping a low profile ever since. After much insistence and a different deal, he agrees to treat Erica, who also has secrets of her own. There are strange conspiracies surrounding Arpan and his healing process…

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Tips and Tricks

Tina Frisco's avatarTINA FRISCO

I always appreciate authors and bloggers sharing
information that makes my blogging life a little easier. Over this past year, I’ve picked up several tips and tricks that I’d like to share with you.

WordPress

1. Check comments regularly for Spam and Pending.

Many of us have experienced our comments on other blogs being relegated to spam. This is disconcerting, as the blogger might think we’re not visiting their blog; and we may have no way of
letting them know we are. Check spam first, because when a
comment is marked Not Spam, it will be moved to Pending. Then go to Pending and marked Approved.

2. Close comments when appropriate.

We might choose to close comments on our posts for several
reasons: e.g., we’re going on a blogging break; we’re reblogging and want readers to leave comments on the original post.

To the best of my…

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Jazz Age Wednesdays 26 ― Hullaba Lulu

Smorgasbord Health Column – Nutrients that work better with others (Part Two) – Iron and Vitamin C and B2 by Sally Cronin

My First Breakup by Dhruba D. Roy

About the Book:

“Oh God, why me?”

This is perhaps what we think of when we go through a ‘breakup’.

This story is about Anirudh and Anvi.

Both of them have their own thinking which are not alike.

The story begins with Anirudh meeting with and accident. As he slowly succumbs to the pain, he starts reflecting about his bygone college days where he found his love for music. He loves Anvi dearly who is a long-lost friend of Anirudh.

The story reveals how Anirudh struggles as the hands of reality strikes him down.

Book Links:

Amazon * Goodreads


From a Writer to an Author



It feels good to be an author of a book. It’s sort of a recognition that distinguishes anyone from being a writer to an author. To be honest, I never loved writing in my childhood. In fact, I would even question the need of writing an essay during my school days. Many a times I was even caught copying while writing an essay during my English literature classes. So, why did I become an author????



The answer is very simple. I had something stuck in my head and it was tingling me from the inside, asking me to get it out. So that was the moment when I decided not to ignore my feelings and rather express them in the form of creative writing. I started putting down my thoughts on paper and before I could realize, I noticed this thought of mine to be about 240 pages thick with around 55,500 words, quite a fat thought huh!!!



Yes, I had just drafted my first story, but I wasn’t done yet. This was my creation, so I decided to give it a name, a name with which I could call it. After days of brainstorming, I came up with a name that I though would perfectly suit the theme that the book tried to portray, and there it was ‘My First Breakup’.



Now it was time for me to make a decision if my creation, this though, ‘My First Breakup’ was good enough to be read by others.



“Nah!!! No body cares about what you have to say…..



No, it’s not gonna make sense to others”, my Practicality forewarned my Imagination. But then again,



“There might be somebody willing to hear you out.



There might be people out there ready to accept your thoughts for what they are”, my Imagination countered back.



At this juncture I decided to get my book published. It is difficult to get a book published but I believe, if we have faith in our work, we eventually get what we want no matter how long it might take.



Being an author is not something that I have ever considered myself to be. I still feel I am no author, I am just a narrator who likes to tell stories for what I perceive them to be. “My First Breakup” is a story that I feel will connect with many of us as we all know that there is a phase where most of us fall in love only to snap out of it.



“My First Breakup…. Learning to let go!!!”

#Dhruba D Roy






About the Author:

Dhruba Das Roy  is a freelance writer, a musician by passion, and a software engineer by profession. He is from Assam, but born in a small town of Meghalaya, where he finished his schooling. He then obtained his degree in engineering from the esteemed college of National Institute of Technology. He discovered his love for music there and was the lead vocalist of his band, “The Rozarts”.

He loves rock and roll and is a great fan of the pioneers of rock and roll-(Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen and the list goes on).Unfortunately, as engineering life came to an end, the band had to split. Recently, he moved to Kolkata where he is working in one of leading software service based companies in India.

Not everyone can put their thoughts into words. Dhruba had never tried his hand in writing; but he had an experience, an experience which changed his life for the better. Being a vocalist, his only way of expression was through the creative way. He decided to pen down his thoughts and he discovered that writing came naturally to him. His thought process in the novel relates to the general mass in many ways. He decided to stretch his limits and ended up voicing his thoughts in a different way this time.



Contact the Author:

Website * Facebook * Twitter