Remarkable Rewrites, Part 2: The Wonderful Claire Wilder

So after that lovely cliffhanger I left you with last Monday, I thought we’d pick things back up with Claire Wilder’s responses.

cue wavy TV screen image Last time on The BBW Blog we learned that both Claire Wilder and Katherine L Evans opted to unpublish books they had already published to rewrite them then republish them. 

Katherine wanted to update her Romance in New Orleans series to take a deep dive into her characters and stories, bringing the reader more emotional connections with her characters, and creating more intense and full developed storylines.  Claire Wilder rewrote her Jewel Lakes series to change the point of view (POV) of her first 3 books (originally written in 3rd person) to match the POV of the last books in the series (written in 1st person).  Even though I hadn’t read their books before the rewrites, I still really wanted to know the why and how behind the process. So I asked. And they provided truly insightful feedback to my questions.

Now, I had originally planned to do this as one long blog post, but I was finding my thoughts getting muddied by going back and forth between the replies. So, faithful Bookwyrms, you got 2 separate blog posts.  Today, you get to hear from Claire Wilder, whose Jewel Lakes series is complete in its rewrite and available for immediate binging!  If you missed it, or want a refresher, you can read Kathryn L Evans’s feature post here: Remarkable Rewrites Part 1 

My commentary is thrown in below, too- I’ll set it off with ** so you’ll know when you’re leaving the author’s brain and entering mine. cut back to normal TV screen image

BBW: Why did you decide to revisit and rewrite/re-edit/rebrand and then rerelease your novels? 

CW: Book three of my Jewel Lakes series, His Hot Mess, is very special to me. I identified deeply with Sadie, the slightly scatterbrained MC. While I wouldn't call myself flighty, I would say I'm not very organized and prone to messing up--a lot! When I wrote the story, I found Sadie would not let [me] write her in third person. I tried! So against all sage advice, I wrote His Hot Mess in the first person point of view. In the end, [I] found I loved being closer to ALL my characters, and continued on in first for the remainder of the series. 

However, now I had a series with two different points of view, and it didn't really feel complete. I also heard from several lovely readers who discovered me with His Hot Mess or later books that third person was a dealbreaker for them. Who knew? I hemmed and hawed for a long while about going back and editing the earlier books to change the POV and now, with no new releases for a few months (I'm supposed to be taking it easy, oops) I decided to bite the bullet and make the change on all three third-person stories. 

 ** I love that Claire listened to her character (Sadie), even though it meant she had an inconsistent POV in the series.  But what a beautiful mess that turned out to be. Sometimes the chance you take and the rules you break turn out to be the absolute best way forward.**

BBW: How long after the original release did you decide to revisit and rerelease your novels?

CW: It's been about a year since my first three books were released! 

BBW: What was the most difficult part of your decision?

CW: Waiting as long as I did! Also the persnickety task of actually making the changes.  

 ** As an editor, I can definitely say making a switch in POV is not easy. It’s not just plug and play, copy and paste.  It has the potential to change the tone and pacing of a story.  Understanding that task is definitely a big part of taking that risk. **

BBW: Did you let readers know your plans?  If you did, how did you get that information to them? If you did not, why did you choose to keep that information private?

CW: I did let my readers know I was considering making this change, but I haven't widely shared the information in any marketing material yet. I'm trying to go easy on myself right now and am more concerned with having the series fully complete rather than doing a big splashy re-release. I will probably instead spend more energy sharing the series as a whole down the road. 

 ** Part of being an indie author is knowing what you can safely handle and what you can’t, and allowing yourself to stick within those parameters.** 

BBW: What has been the general reaction from readers and other authors who know you are planning to rerelease your book(s)?

CW: I know some readers are excited--especially those who much prefer first-person POV and didn't read the first books in the series because of that. On the other hand I have some diehard fans who love the books as-is! So I'm really curious to see what readers think, and of course to meet new readers with this soon-to-be-complete set. 

 ** I’ve said this to several authors lately: You will never ever please everyone. But you have to do what is best for you, as the writer.  Your readers will find you and love you for your authenticity in your writing. And that goes for genre as well as POV choices. **

BBW: As part of your rerelease, are you making other changes not involving the actual text of the book? Title? Cover? Something else?

CW: I'm changing the titles and making slight tweaks to the covers of books one and two but not the series prequel (TOUCHING WOOD)! 

 So beautiful Bookwyrms, what do you think?  Ready to take a deep dive into the Jewel Lakes and Romance in New Orleans series?  I applaud both of these authors, as I did with Avery Maxwell, for taking the chances they did.  Pulling a book, spending the time to rewrite it, then republishing it takes a huge effort- emotionally, mentally, and often physically as well. And what better way to show these authors that you appreciate their work than to buy and read their books.