Ending the Hiatus
Posted by scgreen on April 14, 2008
This month tends to get crazy around the house. Within the span of five weeks, all four of us have birthdays. My son turned six. My daughter, fourteen. My wife, twenty-seven. In two days time I will be a whopping thirty-two years old. Sprinkled within those four dates are also a father-in-law, nieces and nephews, and a few friends. So if I’m not attending a birthday party, I’m either hosting one or planning one. The current tally is: Attended=1, Hosted=2, Guest of Honor=0. As the month goes on, I’ll keep you abreast of that total.
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During a rare moment of quiet this chaotic month, I managed to slip away to see one of my favorite authors on his most recent book tour. This month Jim Butcher released his tenth book in the Dresden Files series, Small Favor. For about a half an hour he answered questions and related amusing stories. A few of them I’ve heard from previous signings I’ve been to. One thing I found interesting that heard for the first time that day was how many drafts his books go through before reaching the everyday reader. Seven.
There’s his first draft. Then he makes his own revisions. Then it goes to some beta readers, and he makes changes according to them. Then off to his agent and more revisions. From there it’s to the editor and a fifth round of edits. The publisher and then the copy editor bring the tally to seven. By that count he has seven versions of every book that he has written.
It was an enjoyable afternoon, and I’ll probably see him again if he should happen tour through this town for later books.
