I honestly feel like my editing process, while admittedly draining, was pretty positive. I never felt like my final editor hated the book, and I have heard some horror stories of writers who felt their editor was not honoring their book in the editing process!
I am super grateful for my editing team at SparkPress and their confidence in my writing ability and in the strength of the story of The Goddess Twins. I felt they had great call outs and the suggestions did make the book better.
One of the major changes was me adding on the prologue and making the epilogue to the story. This was a great way to bookend the sisters’ back and forth confessions, and I do feel it added a great flavor to the book, like squeezing a lime on your burrito!
I did have something happen during the editing process that I had to theoretically put my foot down about not making a change. I don’t want to spoil it here, but there’s a purposeful surprise of a character reveal near the end of the book. I felt very protective about keeping this character’s identity a surprise until the reveal. My editor had suggested naming the character earlier in the story, and it was one of the few suggestions made that I rejected.
I honestly felt concern about saying no to my editor, but I explained that this was a purposeful thing, not naming the character, to protect the reveal later on in the book. I really like when I feel surprised by a book or feel like the author was really talented in what they let me know about the universe and what they allow to be revealed in time. I am grateful that this surprise could be retained for the final books. I have had readers give me feedback that they loved the surprise! I hope if you check out The Goddess Twins you feel excited and rewarded by the unfolding story.
