Some books have a wonderful story but atrocious writing. It takes a good editor to find the diamond in the manure pile. Needless to say, that’s where I’m at right now. Because the books I’m releasing were written quite a while ago, they are “early” writing, and have a few mistakes I now can’t stand.
In other words, Rise of the Iliri 3 needs help. A lot more of it than I expected. Flawed, my joint-project with Kitty Cox, is still on schedule for the end of June (Hopefully, there will be a big release date announcement soon – we’re just making sure we got it right). My July book, however, is putting a wrench in the works. It needs more fixing.
Is it strange that I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s not perfect? I honestly have no idea. To me, this fact only says one thing: I’ve grown as an author. I can no longer tolerate simplistic dialogue tags, weak action, or repetitive verbal ticks. They must be corrected, simply because my readers deserve the best book I can give them.
Unfortunately, it’s breaking my (rather precarious) schedule. I’m hoping to keep up with releasing a book a month, but the next few novels will come at the end of the month rather than the beginning. I think a delay of a couple of weeks should be acceptable if it means my fans are getting a quality book for their money. I mean, even if it’s just the price of a cup of coffee, I know I wouldn’t just throw my money away. That’s what I feel like happens when I buy a crappy book.
But, with enough hacking, slashing, a re-writing, I plan to make all of my books into a prince out of the frog they started life as. And yes, I’m still working on all those sequels you all have been demanding. From gladiators, iliri, and gamers, plus a few tattoo artists, there are days when my release schedule becomes mind boggling. I think I will plan on simply releasing the next book when it’s good and ready to awe the readers.
But first, I need to polish this rock. I think there’s a very good chance it’s going to shine… eventually.