Happy Birthday to Me - A Slightly Delayed Novel...Draft #5.4

Today is my birthday. Today I'm officially eligible for medicare, 65 years young.

I had planned a special birthday gift, but, alas, it didn't pan out. Not without the best of intentions and strong effort working towards it.

You see, my goal for my birthday gift to myself, was to submit the full manuscript of my debut novel, "Two Sins Don't Make it Right," that I had originally sent to beta-readers for review mid-November, to official publishing editors for its first professional review.

But, as is often said, "best laid plans..."

After sending the full manuscript to beta-readers on November 12th, I found a large segment, a few scenes in the final quarter of the book, I felt needed changes for the story to make sense to bring to a effective ending. Within days I sent a retraction. I asked beta-readers to stop reading. Most did, a few did not. And, that was okay.

Most authors when writing about topics they are not expert in secure advisors to to be able to present characters authentically. I've done that with two experts in their fields. They are helping me make this story better with every piece of feedback they offer.

One of these two read the manuscript in a week and got back to me with feedback I immediately incorporated into what I'm labeling Draft 5.3. The other needed more time.

On December 12th, last Thursday, on the eve of my submission to the editors, I received an email from the other subject matter expert beta-reader saying she had finished reading and was ready to provide feedback. Her email read, "do you have time next week to speak?"

After a brief email exchange, she agreed to speak that night. Her feedback was just what I needed. It reinforced I was on the right track with this story in presenting the internal and external conflicts of my main characters and just needed to tweak some language to make it more authentic and accurate for the situations presented.

Now, I had a dilemma. To submit Draft 5.3 as I had updated it to that point or take another week or two to incorporate this new feedback and give up on the birthday gift to myself.

I chose the latter.

My birthday gift is to make this story the best it can be as quickly as can be. That means doing something counter productive, what a consulting colleague from a former life says is "slowing down to speed up."

If I submitted the manuscript to editors without incorporating this new feedback I would not be submitting my best work. The feedback from the editors could be redundant to what I already knew the story needed. I'd be wasting their time and mine.

There will be a Draft #6 after the editors feedback. But, that will come off the best Draft #5 I can submit. That will be Draft 5.4 which I've decided will come right after the New Year, giving me two weeks to incorporate this feedback and go through the entire 80,000 words again to improve the line-level writing based on other writing workshops I've taken in the last month. Draft 5.4 will be submitted on or before Monday, January 6 when my wife and I leave for a winter vacation.

This book will be published and be ready for prime time very soon. In relative book publishing terms, anyway. That could be mid-late 2025 or 2026.

But, hang in, it's coming. Thanks for following my journey to being a published fiction author.

Best wishes for a great holiday season and prosperous and healthy 2025!

Thanks for reading, 'til next time...