New Cover
A New Edition (Second) of A Bridge to Treachery is coming out soon on
Amazon in paperback and Kindle. My debut novel of the same name was originally published about five years ago. I’ve made some revisions to the structure of the book by shortening the chapters (there are now more of them), quickening the pace. The New Edition has a new cover as well.
Publishing a revision to a novel is a fairly controversial concept. Some would say it’s not a good idea. They assert that authors should leave well enough alone and go on to other projects. But, admitting that one’s first effort seems lacking in some ways also has its merits. It’s hard to resist coming out with a New Edition when it’s clear that you were not at your best in the earlier version. The emergence of independent publishing and ‘print on demand’ has made revision a viable option.
Another dimension of this process confronts the limitations of the publishing contract that I signed with the original publisher. It was a subsidy publishing contract that had an upfront payment required. Some critics would immediately question the wisdom of that move too, but in the years since I signed the contract I have found that authors who publish independently wind up spending amounts that are pretty close to what I spent, if they want to turn out a quality product. I really had no idea of how the publishing process unfolded either. So, I learned a lot from the subsidy publisher, and only regret that the arrangement ceded most of the control issues to the publisher, and this adversely affected my marketing efforts. I had no control over price, and any innovative marketing ideas I read about were not acceptable to the publisher.
What are your thoughts about revising? Consider sharing them with me and others by commenting below.