Three-time literary fiction author, funeral director, and
constant gardener A.B. Funkhauser returns with a warts and all discussion about
second editions...
Second Editions - The Ultimate Do-over:
a guest post by A.B. Funkhauser
Keen to get to the next book in the series, I was reminded
that, five years post release, it was probably time to redo my old book covers.
Why not? A lot of writers I know do that and with terrific results.
Surface re-do’s ignite interest, drawing fresh eyes to what
in reality has been on the shelf for far too long. Successful, trending anything
pays close attention to color, movement, the change of seasons; those things
that catch the eye and move the soul. And so, too, is it with covers.
I love messing around with Paint, Paint.Net, Photoshop. And
I love that as a newly minted indie author with her own imprint, I have the
time, resources and freedom to experiment any way that I choose.
No wonder I didn’t win any cover contests
The old covers, it turns out, did more for me at the time of
publishing than they ever did for the readership. What I thought was a cool
homage to the funeral home I worked at (yes, those are the front and back doors
to the old place) had nothing whatever to do with the contents inside the books.
I needed faces, people, animals; anything with a pulse. Readers like that,
studies show.
Before
After
But there was something I didn’t bank on; something that was
so obvious it answered all the questions I couldn’t answer when first put to me
by betas and readers years ago.
They saw what I didn’t
In the five years post publish, I had grown as a writer. I
had also grown as a reader, and that’s where revisiting the old work really
jolted me.
I remember sending my final drafts out to betas years
before with all the hope and excitement new writers have. What I had, I
thought, was fresh and exciting with lots of experimental plot devices and time
slips that would really bring the reader into the visceral experiences of my
protagonists.
They didn’t get it
Who’s talking? Who’s dead? I’m confused? came back at me in
urgent rushes that sent me running for the safety of my large, fuzzy afghan. I
moped. I sulked. I made significant changes before printing — indeed, I was
picked up by a traditional publisher whose editors had serious goes at my
“experiments” before press — and still, years after publishing and among the
heralds and critical praise my work received, I still got 'I’m confused' from
some reviewers who didn’t dig my vibe.
What was I missing?
Writers from all genres look upon their early books with an
equal mix of fondness and cringing; fondness because these works are the
flagships that got them started; they cringe because they’re the babysteps, the ones
that could have done better with an extra scene, less exposition, or a more
over the top villain.
So, what did my work lack or, indeed, have way too much of?
Let me tell you…
It lacked the distance a writer needs to edit with
readers' eyes
To rebrand under a new imprint, I really thought all I had
to do was change the cover and the logo. But then I cracked the spine and
turned the page and began to read. I still loved my work. I still laughed at
the jokes. But I could not get past some of those fatuous, indulgent sentences
that went on and on and on and on…
Sure, my signature character spoke English as a second
language, so he was bound to be a bit heavy on the adverbs. But it was the
literary stuff, the lofty descriptions of the basement and its cobwebs that
sometimes went a bit too far. No longer the writer but a reader with editor’s
snips, I could see with years of distance that everything the critics gently
pointed out to me years ago was…gasp…correct.
Chop, chop, chop
Is it wrong to go back to our first editions and fix them? I
don’t think so, especially when so many of us function as indie authors and can
do a lot of this stuff on our own. Certainly, the danger is always there that
something might be lost in the cutting or worse, the original heart and premise
gets buried under extra scenes.
I don’t do that—add or take away large blocks—but I do
correct the spelling errors that creep by no matter how many eyes look at it
before press, and I do get rid of the over the top words, phrases, and
digressions that, frankly, have lost their meaning with time.
How did these murky passages get past me in the first place?
The answer is simple: I am a reader now reacting to the words, not the writer
who knew every facet and nuance of every scene and character.
Distance is the thing
Distance, that physical entity that is so hard to grab on to
when writing fresh and then trying to self-edit after, becomes possible with
second editions. The best do-over I can possibly imagine is the one where the
goofs in my scripts spring out at me in glorious 4D.
I am a writer who has never stopped writing. With the
writing, I inevitably get better. The same is true for painters, sculptors,
brick layers, race car drivers, piano players; anyone really who practices what
they do often and with joy.
As I set to work finishing the fourth novel in my series, I
will keep in mind the words of the betas, ARC readers and later, the critics
who offer sharp, stinging, critical appraisals of my latest. I will not mope. I won't flinch. In fact, I'll take the work and place it far, far away until
such time as I can tackle it again…with reader’s eyes.
A.B.’s next novel POOR UNDERTAKER is set to
release in Fall 2020.
Wow!
Such a helpful article that gives us a real look at the process of putting out a second edition...
Guest Blogger Bio
Wow!
Such a helpful article that gives us a real look at the process of putting out a second edition...
Guest Blogger Bio
Wow! Such a helpful article that gives us a real look at the process of putting out a second edition...
Guest Blogger Bio
Toronto born author A.B. Funkhauser is a funeral director,
classic car nut and wildlife enthusiast living in Ontario, Canada. Like most
funeral directors, she is governed by a strong sense of altruism fueled by the
belief that life chooses us and we not it.
Her debut novel, Heuer Lost and Found, released in April 2015, examines the day to day workings of a funeral home and the people who staff it. Winner of the Preditors & Editors Reader's Poll for Best Horror 2015, and the New Apple EBook Award 2016 for Horror, Heuer Lost and Found is the first installment in Funkhauser's Unapologetic Lives Series. Her sophomore effort, Scooter Nation, released March 11, 2016 through Solstice Publishing. Winner of the New Apple Ebook Award 2016 for Humor, and Winner Best Humor Summer Indie Book Awards 2016, Metamorph Publishing, Scooter picks up where Heuer left off, this time with the lens on the funeral home as it falls into the hands of a woeful sybarite. Her third effort, Shell Game, was released in 2017. Tapped as a psycho-social cat dramedy with death and laughs, it pits competing protagonists in a death match with a comely black cat as their muse.
A devotee of the gonzo style pioneered by the late Hunter S. Thompson, Funkhauser attempts to shine a light on difficult subjects by aid of humorous storytelling. "In gonzo, characters operate without filters which means they say and do the kinds of things we cannot in an ordered society. Results are often comic but, hopefully, instructive."
Funkhauser is currently working on Poor Undertaker, a prequel to Scooter Nation.
All of her books are currently releasing as Second Editions under the Out of My Head Publishing imprint.
Author Links:
Website: https://abfunkhauser.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abfunkhauser/Website: https://abfunkhauser.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamfunkhauser
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/A.B.-Funkhauser/e/B00WMRK4Q4
A.B.'s Books:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.funkhauser/
Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13726412.A_B_FunkhauserAmazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/A.B.-Funkhauser/e/B00WMRK4Q4
A.B.'s Books:
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