Raising a book.

I know the idea of 'raising' a book seems ludicrous, but in all honesty, when you're a new writer/author that's about the best way to describe the process.

As most of you know, Birthright (The Dark Gifts series) was my first book.  Boy howdy has it come along way since that day I wrote 'The End' and cried like a baby.  I still have the first draft and the 15 or so that came after.  I don't suppose I'll ever be able to bring myself to delete them.

I still have all the book covers too! LOL  (And I really did mean to say all.)  In total, Birthright has had 3 different covers.

First cover:

This cover was created by one of my closest friends.  I LOVED it with a capital L!!! LOL  But it just didn't gain the interest I'd hoped for.

Second cover:

This cover was created by me.  I loved it too!  Probably more so, because I'm not much of an artsy person, so I was really proud of myself for pulling this off. LOL  

Interest grew and Birthright finally started getting some attention.  After several months, I decided to put it into print.  The interior had a complete overhaul with new additional content and another full edit.  During this process, I discovered that the cover wouldn't work.  There simply weren't enough pixels and every attempt to make it larger ended in complete disaster.  At that point my friend JH Glaze, having great compassion for my almost nonexistent artistic abilities, stepped in to give me a hand.

Third cover:

I can tell you quite honestly that when I opened my email and saw this final result I nearly flipped my wig.  Seriously!!!  I'm still in cover-love with this. ;)

Now beyond the exterior changes, there's been quite a few interior changes as well.  Unfortunately, and to my utter embarrassment, I can't say this book was ready for a market when it was released.  It had some pretty extensive problems, but being 'green' I didn't recognize them at first.  My idea of editing and what editing actually entailed were very different concepts. There were also some small structural issues with the story line that needed to be taken care of.

But like a child, Birthright grew from infancy to late teens over the course of a year or so.  (And so did I.)  Has it grown up completely?  Has Birthright attained adulthood?  Probably not.  We're still growing.  I'm still learning.  But oh my goodness, how far we've come!!!