Truth time, y'all.
I made so many edits to The Quest of Dai: The Eroe that I no longer had a copy of the manuscript once I sent it in to Outskirts Press. And I had made SO MANY changes and I had SO MANY versions of the damn manuscript that I didn't even know which one was the final one anymore. So it was literally impossible for me to correct the book without typing it out word-for-word (all 164,692 words of it...) from the published novel.
Based on the suggestion from one of my readers, I requested the HTML files from Outskirts Press, and my representative (the wonderful, super kind woman) graciously delivered them to me.
I'll give you a moment to digest what that means.
Give up?
It means, for the first time in three years, I have a FINAL, COMPLETE version of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe.
In Word.
Editable.
I honestly teared up when I saw the files. I got choked up when I started copying and pasting them into a Word document. And now, as I sit here, literally rewriting the entire thing (oh my god, how did I think this was ANY good three years ago...? How little I knew...), I am overcome with happiness. Because I'm going to make this something I can really be proud of.
I was proud of The Quest of Dai: The Eroe when I published it. Really--I was. But it should have been better. It should have been the story that I wanted to tell. At the time, I just didn't know what I was doing. I was 24, and it was my dream to be published. I wanted to tell my story. I thought it was okay to publish it as it was. I didn't understand that it wasn't okay to just type things out as they came to me and hit "publish". I mean, don't get me wrong, I rewrote the damn thing more times than I care to remember. But I didn't get it. I didn't understand what it really meant to rewrite. I thought rewriting meant, "Making sure it makes sense." (I know, I was 24. I should have known better. ... I didn't.)
But I'm literally giddy as I type this. I'm one page in, and I've already ripped it to shreds and am putting it back together. Properly. Now I know that a book doesn't have to be 164k words to be "the right length." I know so much more now. Things I wish someone had told me.
I'm honestly hesitant to publish The Wrong Path until I fix The Quest of Dai... Because just in case someone likes The Wrong Path and wants to pick up The Quest of Dai: The Eroe, I want to make sure they get a quality piece. The piece that should have gone out in the first place.
So... if you're reading this, I'm kind of begging for some help/guidance here. I'm going to push my ass off to get this done and re-uploaded to Kindle before the end of January so I can still release The Wrong Path ON-TIME... But would anyone be offended that I lied if I pushed both releases to February? (Would it make you feel better if I said I was born in February?)
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! <3
(Also, as soon as I'm done with this, I'm totally sending it back to Outskirts and asking them to replace the paperback version of my book. Because I still really love Outskirts Press. Seriously. If you want to go with a POD publisher, choose them. It's been such a positive experience for me... Even if it costs me an arm and a leg, there is NOTHING like holding your book in your hand if you're a writer. Absolutely. Nothing.)
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