Have you ever had that moment when you are so ready to break out your idea on the world
that if you could, you would raise your hand like a student in a classroom and say, “I’m
here”!! Well, this was me. I was so ready to share my story that I just knew if I raised my
virtual hand and told my story that I would be called on, and quickly celebrated like a
football player being tossed on the shoulders of his teammates after a touchdown. Well, let
me tell you, that is not how it went at all. Nothing will humble you like editing your first
book. So here it goes, confident me felt that I was fully informed enough by my “google
master class” that I reached out to an old college friend who had her own published books.
Somehow in my “confidence coma” I thought that she would read my story and lead me on
the yellow brick road to ‘best-selling author land’ where they serve tea and cakes and create theme parks based your book. Well, let’s just say that didn’t happen, but I did get a lot of great suggestions that were very helpful.
The actor in me who never gives up, decided to work on my story more and seek out an
editor. I have learned that when you have a project to get off the ground, the best thing to do is to talk about it to everyone you know. Bring it up in conversation as much as possible
because you never know how someone might be able to help you or give you a suggestion. In a conversation about the book with a friend, I mentioned my need for an editor. She very graciously recommended her husband who was a writing teacher to do my early editing for me. This was the beginning of getting me on track to be a true storyteller. I learned so much during this process. I learned about my writing style, how I wanted to tell the story and how much of my humor I was dedicated to incorporating. I learned how to stand my ground for what I wanted, be open to changes, take constructive criticism and consider my audience when choosing my words. Everything about this process was eye opening.
When I first began writing, the story was about Eunice, a unique unicorn. After a google
research session, I realized that this title literally already existed. Since I was not giving up
having a Unicorn as my lead character in the book, I had to search for another name, and
that’s when I stumbled upon Umi. Although I chose a different spelling, Ume is a fruit.
Something as simple as this little name change and its meaning, took my story in a new
direction. If you would like to know which direction that is then you should buy the book.
Oh, come on, I love surprises, so I refuse to ruin this for you. After about 15 versions of the story, I felt that I was in a place for a final edit, so I hired a freelance children’s book editor. The benefit of having a great editor is that they will magnify your ideas and open doors to your imagination that you may think you already walked through.
At the end of editing, it was finally time to hire an illustrator. If you want to know more about
my process of hiring the perfect illustrator and a virtual mentor I found along the way, check
back in for my next blog post. See you then!