A Pleasurable Chore

Normally, once one of my books is published, I don’t go back and read it. By the time it is on the market, I’ve read it at least two dozen times or more during the writing, editing and proofreading. If nothing else, I like to think I know what’s on the pages.

Two things forced me into reading the book again. One, when a second edition is needed or, two when the contract with one publisher expires and I decide to have it re-released by another one. In either situation, it is a chance to read the book again and do some judicious editing.

Such is the case with Forgotten, my fourth novel. I decided to have all the books in the Josh Haman series with one publisher, Penmore, so I got the rights to the book back. Deeds Publishing will keep it available until the second edition is available sometime in late November.

As part of the process, I wanted to read through the manuscript. It was the first time I picked up the book since it came out in September 2015. So, I started reading and making changes. I thought it would take only a few days to go through it. It took twelve.

Along the way, it is getting a new cover as any second edition book should. I loved the first one and we’re trying to adapt it so that it fits in with the other five that are already published, and eventually, the seventh – The Simushir Island Incident – when it comes out.

Reading it was fun and enjoyable. Forgotten is a great story – yes I am biased – and the reviewers agreed. It won three national awards, the logos of which will be on the new cover.

However, editing and proofing it was not! It was hard work because even after three years, often I didn’t see what was on the page. I would remember the passage and think that it was O.K. and didn’t need any tweaks. I found myself forcing my brain to read what was on the page, not what I remembered from three years ago.

The new version of the manuscript now goes to a proofreader and then will come back to me for me to approve all the changes. From there, it will take a few weeks to convert the Word document to an electronic form that can be used by a printer and then it will be re-released.

So it is now on to my next writing project – working with the editor on the final version of The Simushir Island Incident. That’s only one project, I have many more in work. Stay tuned.

Marc Liebman

October 2018