Acknowledgements

On Saturday, October 25, 2013, I self-published my third book – Give Me A Reason. I’m happy to report that response for this release has been overwhelming. I’m beginning to receive emails from readers from all over the world telling me how much they liked my story, and more than one has mentioned the editing of GMAR.

As an Independent author, I don’t have a publisher’s editorial department to scan my books for errors, typos and redundancy, or to even suggest changes. What I do have is a small group of friends who have spent hours reading and re-reading GMAR in hopes they can catch the mistakes that I, as the author, can no longer see because even if the word isn’t there...it is in my mind.

These friends I speak of are my editing department. They are my beta readers, looking for consistency. They are my detectives, looking for loopholes. They are copy editors, intent on finding missing punctuation. They provide feedback, suggestions, and critique, and as far I’m concerned...they have done themselves proud.

They aren’t professionals. They have busy lives and other interests besides reading my words, but each found the time to help me in my quest to become an author, and I am forever in their debt.

I’ve read some articles recently about Acknowledgements in books, and some, let’s call them more learned than I, feel Acknowledgements aren’t necessary. The opinion is that the reader simply doesn’t care. The reader won’t even pay attention to the words written to thank others because it doesn’t matter to them...but it matters to me. It matters to me a lot.

At the very end of GMAR, I put a section entitled Acknowledgements, and I thanked my friends for their help, but I made a mistake. I should have put their names at the front of Give Me A Reason...because that’s where they belong.

So I’d like to take this blog post to publically thank Susan, Marian, Joyce, Mike, Bron and Candice for their time, for their eagle eyes, for their opinion, but most of all...for their friendship. Throughout the process they have propped me up when I needed it, jumpstarted my thought process when I got bogged down by details, but they were not only my sounding boards...they were my conscience.

I’m sure “we” have missed a few things in GMAR. We aren’t professionals, and I hope the book isn’t graded on a missing word or a misplaced comma if any still exist. I hope that all those who buy it understand that this novel was not a small undertaking by any one of us. It was a dream of one, spurred on by the friendship of others.

Lyn