Friday, June 15, 2012

The Senator's Secret

The first round of beta readers have read my newest book, The Senator's Secret. I am thrilled with the response so far. One of the readers was already familiar with the story, as I'd discussed the plot line with her, and bounced off ideas. The second beta reader, only read Lessons, and other than that, didn't know what the new book was about.

I am thrilled to report she loved the twists and turns of the plot - and was unable to figure out who-done-it. She made one recommendation, on strengthening one of the characters, which I will do, before sending off to the second round of beta readers.

The book then goes to the Editor.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Yes, I screwed Up....

It doesn't matter how many beta readers you have, how great of an editor you hire, or how careful you are when making revisions - there will be mistakes.

Earlier this week I found one in Lessons. It was a biggie. The very first word, in the book was misspelled. Well, maybe misspelled is not quite accurate. The main character is Alexandra, which is the first word in the story. Guess what I did - yep, I typed Alexander.

And no one caught it. Perhaps some reader out there saw it, but none commented on a review, or sent me an email. I read that page hundreds of times - I even listened to it using Microsoft Reader.

I did a control+F on the file, and found three places in the story where Alexander was used instead of Alexandra. The other two were also overlooked.

So, I immediately made the corrections, and uploaded the files. The new version is showing up on the preview of the Kindle version, yet not on the paperback. I understand it takes over a week for the preview to reflect the new file - yet if someone orders a paperback, it will be the new file.

If you have an eBook of Lessons, you should be able to upload the corrected version, and get rid of those pesky Alexanders.

On a happy note, last week I finished the first draft of The Senator's Secret, which is the sequel to Lessons. It is currently off to the first round of beta readers.

It  is a murder mystery - romance, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Much less sex in this new book - but it is a different story. I don't think Lessons could be told, without the sex scenes.