The Problem With Published Books

Yesterday as I was driving home from work, I passed by a place called "Baker Animal Clinic." A quick series of thoughts brought me to the conclusion that "Baker" was either the last name of the person who had opened the clinic or the name of the person the clinic should honour. And then I thought, "Hey, Baker would be a great name for a Jessica!" The reason I thought this was that I had a really hard time naming Jessica Carol from My Best Friend's Brother, who originally started out as Jessica Smith.

That's when it occurred to me that this is probably the biggest problem with finally, finally having a published book - I can no longer change anything. I mean, yes, I could always go back and fix the two mistakes that are contained in those pages (if you caught them and didn't say anything, then I thank you for your abundant kindness), but to change a character's name would be too suspect. It would say to the world, "This author didn't really know what she (or he) was doing."

Of course, now that I've publicly exposed that one truth, you might be thinking that anyway.* And I can't say I blame you. I mean, sometimes I'll read a book and think, "Man, I would have changed this or that before publishing." But it's too late, and there's no going back, not after a whole bunch of people have already read it. Which is why I have my faithful pre-readers, of course. I'll be honest with you - they do all the hard work. My sister points out every typo or grammatical error, my sister-in-law has no problem telling me when things make no sense to her, and my best friend tells me, "This is delightful! ... But that's kind of weird." And they really mean it in the nicest way, which is the great part.

But once it's published, it's pretty much stuck like that. Sure, you can add something for a later publication, an appendage or author's note. You just can't change names or events. You shouldn't need to, of course, but I could see many authors thinking back to older works and having a hundred what-ifs running through their minds. It's awful, but on the other hand, it certainly does a lot to improve my writing skills. It tells me what things I would or wouldn't do in the future. So I guess my "problem" with published books is still something I can use to my advantage.

- Natasja

*To be clear, once I'd named her "Jessica Carol" I was perfectly happy with this choice and wouldn't change it now, even if I could.