Bit The Bullet

 

I couldn't take any more dithering. I've been working on this revision for far too long.

Back story, in case it needs rehashing: I wrote a novel I titled, "Radio Crazy" sometime around 2016 or so. Radio Crazy was the second novel I ever wrote, and I was feeling pretty cocky about my mad skills. I queried it widely, only to be rejected by every literary agent inhabiting the earth. That in itself meant nothing ~ everyone knows agents' reputations by now ~  then in desperation I began submitting to independent presses. One person bit. Based on my sample pages, she replied that my writing was "lovely".  

Then she read the full manuscript. She absolutely, unequivocally hated it. She responded that she found herself skimming pages. Oh, and that my main character was unlikable. All valid criticisms, but they were devastating. Here I thought was a writing phenom, only to learn that I was an utter failure. 

So, what would any clueless author do? I self-published it. I only had two novels under my belt, so I tinkered around with covers ~ hired a cover artist, hated the finished products, played around with them some more, finally came up with something presentable; revised their presentation multiple times. Radio Crazy didn't sell one copy (nor did my first self-published novel).

A couple of months ago, I decided to take a look at my novels on the Amazon preview feature. Their formatting, which I did myself prior to the advent of KindleCreate, was horrendous. So I set about fixing them. I reformatted The Apple first, then Once in a Blue Moon. When I got around to Radio Crazy, I was appalled. The novel reeked!

It was either unpublish it or make it better. I abruptly unpublished. True, it had been sitting on Amazon for years, and true, no one had ever purchased it, but just in case some random person suddenly decided to take the plunge, I was determined to not let that happen.

But what to do with all those words? There were a lot of good words intermixed with the bad ones. There was an actual story that I'd buried in reams of crap. Why not at least try to salvage it? 

My forte is novellas. It took me a while to discover that. and I only did by accident. Could I convert Radio Crazy into an acceptable novella? Man, it was a challenge! I deleted pages, chapters of filler. Then I set about turning my unlikable character into the semblance of a presentable person. To say it wasn't easy is a hysterical understatement. It was torture. But once I committed I had to see it through. 

Today, at last, I'm satisfied. Or as satisfied as I'll ever be. 

And I published!

But I took the weaselly way out. I set it up for pre-order. What's nagging at me is the cover. The first iteration I did just didn't cut it, so I tried again. But to be honest, I still don't like it. I've got time ~ about a week and a half ~ to design a better one. I guess that's the beauty of a pre-order. An author has time to fiddle.

I saved the dreaded blurb for last. There is simply no way to write a good blurb. I did the best I could and, per my motto, I didn't overthink it.

So, the old Radio Crazy is now Whispers in the Dark. It has a bad cover, but I will fix that.  

The best news of all is, I can now move on. I'm itching to write something new, especially after all these weeks of manuscript hate. I'm ready for a palate cleanser. 

Yes, despite the chronic throbbing behind my eyes, I did it.

Once everything is arranged the way I like it, you will get a first look.