When I wrote Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts, I was fulfilling a lifelong dream. I will never forget the feeling of writing “The End” and sending the manuscript off to an editor! The book did really well, getting great reviews and spreading awareness of the reality of Human Trafficking in the United States. I was very proud of this story!

Fast forward six years. I am deep in the trenches of getting my bachelors degree in English/Creative Writing through Southern New Hampshire University. I have learned a lot, been shaped as a writer and thinker, and challenged to make good things better, better things excellent.

After taking a marketing class geared toward authors, I listened to my professor’s advice to use previous projects as content. I decided to pull up my manuscript and make sure the resources in the appendix are up-to-date because I want survivors to find real help. In the process, I began reading my own novel.

(It’s crazy that you can write a story and still forget a lot of details! The brain is a weird organ.)

Anyway, I wasn’t two pages in before I realized several things:

1. I have changed as a writer. A LOT.
2. I hated the way the book was formatted. (It looked like a blog on paper.)
3. I wished I had included more details, like facial expressions, body language, sights, smells, and sounds.
4. I used WAY too many “ands” and “thats”. (Newbie mistake that is very common!)

So, what’s a writer to do?

I didn’t feel like I could promote something I wasn’t satisfied with. Do I go back and fix it? Republish the book? Redesign the whole shebang even if it takes weeks to do so?

The answer is yes.

Published stories can be revised

Now, I’ve heard some authors say “never go back and change a book because it represents who you were at that time.”

I call bull.

For me, going back and fixing all the issues I now see has been incredibly encouraging, showing me in actual black and white just how far I have come! It’s ok to take advantage of the opportunity to have a re-do, and I’m so glad I did.

This is one story that will change you.

Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts (Revised and updated!) is now LIVE and available on Amazon! If you haven’t read the original, you need to dive in to this important story of friendship, courage, and survival.

If you purchased the original book and would like to see what has changed, I would love for you to do so! I’m offering a free e-book version of the revised book to anyone who purchased the original. Just email a screenshot of your online purchase (available in your account history on Amazon) or a photo of you holding the original book to alifeofsimplejoys@gmail.com.

Will you share my writing?

I have one more request: Please share Paper Dolls: Trust Your Instincts with libraries and schools as well as anyone in ministry, public service, or working with young people. We must do everything we can to raise awareness of this cancer that is, quite literally, in our backyards. Melody, Hannah, and Kelley’s story is a great way to do just that.

More soon,

Jeanine

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