Revision

I am not much of on for doing major revisions. Once I have finished a book I can make changes, for sure, add bits tighten up plot lines, drop a couple of red herrings, maybe strengthen a characters motivation or even add a minor sub plot.
But doing a major revision is something that strikes terror into my feeble heart.

My agent and I have decided that a standalone novel titled Child of Mine needs a substantial shift. I did not write this book to be a mystery, but a suspense. There is no mystery about who done what and why. The bad guy has a point-of-view throughout the book as he plots his evil ways. Hiss boo. The suspense is intended to be whether or not our heroine figures him out in time.

The response we got from the publishers she submitted it to was that they felt this didn’t work. They want a more traditional mystery with a whodunit element and a surprising reveal at the end.

Now, I’m not one to stand on my art and insist that my vision can not be tampered with. Tamper away!

I’m a bit nervous about doing it, as I said major rewrites are not something I’ve attempted before. But I’ll give it a go. It might work, it might not.

But if I don’t try, guaranteed it won’t work.