Ten Days in Panama … in paperback

On By TomIn Achievement, General, Insight, Novel, paperback, Promotion, Review, Uncategorized

 

Ten Days in Panama was my second novel, and having first been marketed as a thriller, I amended the description to romance. The first publication of this title was in December 2013 and it’s had two makeovers since then in terms of the manuscript.

As I told my son when he left home to live abroad, ‘if we’re honest with ourselves, about every five years we think we know it all’.

In my humble opinion, the advice I gave that young man is never more accurate than with writers. We may write, revise, edit, rewrite, and so on, but if we go back to a piece of work we were proud of five years earlier, we’ll find things we want to amend. I’ve been plying my craft (and learning) since 2007, and it’s due to my targeting of a higher standard that I’ve delayed paperback editions until recently.

In Ten Days in Panama (paperback and digital), I’ve reduced the sexual content to a softer tone. If there are any readers out there who like my style and crave explicit sex scenes, check out Tom Benson – Erotica.

– The cover of the book is now brighter and I’ve reduced the strapline, and I believe in this case brevity works.

– For me, nothing has been more important or more of a challenge than tightening the manuscript to improve the reading experience. An example would be the removal of most dialogue tags, to be replaced by character activity.

It was a labour of love to produce this story the first time around, and I spent many months creating characters, situations and a story which would live on in the memory. I’m pleased to say that none of the original aspects of the tale has changed in the process.

To those who strive to maintain an updated and informative author website, you will appreciate the joy of adding a ‘paperback’ button to the page for a title. Now I have two of those buttons on display, and in the coming months, I’ll be working hard to add them to my other novels.

Thank you to all who pass by and take the time to leave their thoughts.

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*Remember, if you don’t want to buy a paperback and you don’t own a Kindle, the Kindle App UK is free and it can be downloaded to a PC/Laptop.

If you’re not in the UK, don’t feel left out … Kindle App (from Amazon.com)

 

8 thoughts on “Ten Days in Panama … in paperback”

  2. Julia Lund

    Well done, Tom. I admire the way you have worked to hone your craft. I identify so much with what you say here. One of these days, I will revisit my two Kindle books and revise them somewhat in light of what I’ve learned over the last few years. Perhaps I will then look into producing paperbacks. I saw on Twitter the other day that the author of The Kite Runner would write it very differently now …

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello Julia, and thanks for the visit. Yes, it’s tough to admit you could do better, but for me, one of the irritations is the change in conventions.
      For example, in my earlier work, I adhered to the accepted guidelines for writing numbers in different ways. (According to the A, B, C of Writing). In some cases, they should be figures and in other instances written as words. I had so many comments over the past couple of years I decided it would be one of the areas I’d amend. So much for text books! 😀
      It’s a long journey as you know, but as long as we’re prepared to adapt, we can enjoy ourselves on the way to entertaining others. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Hello, Paul. Yes, it feels a bit special, but as I said in the piece above, I’ve been targeting a higher standard, which I’ve been doing since I started in this game. I know from your recent work that you are of a similar frame of mind. 🙂

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