Thursday, April 2, 2015

If it's good enough for movies, why not for books?


I recently reclaimed my rights to an historical fiction novel first published in 2010. Before I released it again, I did an extensive edit, a journey you can read about on my own blog, entitled Is it Worth revamping an old book? I ended up adding over a thousand words to the book, and I felt I improved it.

Round about the same time, I'd been playing with memes for my most popular book, Morgan's Choice. The result is at the top of this post. Apart from depicting a very sexy battle cruiser, there's all that blue energy, which, as it happens, resonates with happenings in the book. I decided to change the cover, and at the same time, make some tweaks so that this picture corresponded directly with events in the novel.

And that got me thinking.

If I was going to do that, why not add a few other tweaks? I knew some people wanted to know a little more about Morgan's background, and others wanted more about how Morgan's relationship with the hero had developed. When I wrote this book I saw it very much as a space opera with a romance arc. It's one of those stories that sits on the edge. Is it a romance with heaps of action/adventure, or is it an action/adventure with a strong romance arc? I suspect I'd have supporters for both stances. Anyway, MC has been around for a number of years and I've grown as a writer since then. Why not give it my best?

So I did a few tweaks and added a couple of scenes, so the book is longer by about three thousand words. It's a bit like the difference between The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug as it appeared in the first release and the extended edition. By the way, I thought the extended version of The Hobbit was a better movie and explained my feelings on my blog. You can read that here.

I know I'm not the only author who has tweaked a book for a new release. I feel it's one of the advantages we have in this digital age. We can fix mistakes and add depth. But I can imagine some people might think it's not entirely fair on readers. What do you think?

Supertech, the short story that introduces Morgan Selwood, is free just about everywhere.


2 comments:

  1. Love that image, Greta.

    Putting on my reader's hat, I'd totally enjoy a re-introduction of some of my fave SFRs with newer, shinier "footage," as it were. I similar situation was when George Lucas released the original Star Wars trilogy as a set with lots of new re-imagined scenes that supported his vision of how he would have liked the original film to look had the technology been available at the time.

    Did I buy the original trilogy? Sure did. Did I mind spending more money for the revamped version? Not one whit! I was way excited to grab a copy of the newly wrapped trilogy with the cool new scenes. Others may have groused, I have no idea. But I think the majority of fans were enthusiastic, not put off. So there's one take.

    Looking forward to reading your series. This definitely shares a similar theme with mine: "Humanity's past is about to catch up with its future." :)

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    Replies
    1. I ALWAYS buy the extended editions. I still have the videos for Star Wars, as well as the CDs and the DVDs. Love it all.

      Except... sorry George, HAN SHOT FIRST

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