Revise and resubmit: Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, I received a revise and resubmit for my novel "Stigmaplay". I didn't want to say at the time, as I wasn't sure whether my revision would be accepted or not, but this decision came from the good people at Vine Leaves Press (https://www.vineleavespress.com/)

It was my first time revising a novel based on feedback from a publisher, so I was a little uncertain if I was doing enough. Some of the key broad points they made were that the novel I had submitted was rather tonally inconsistent at times, and the content was quite extreme in places (perhaps to an extent that might undermine its appeal to some audiences). A lot of the novel is set within VR simulations, so I shifted some of the more over-the-top material from the "real world" of the novel to simulations, which I think stopped some of the more surreal elements from seeming too wacky, tone-wise. I also trimmed some of the strongest sexual/violent elements of the novel.

However, there were one or two points in the novel I was keen not to cut or change, though I sensed they might have contributed to the broad request for content changes. In order to justify retaining these scenes, I added a comment in track changes in the Word doc of the revision, explaining (perhaps at excessive length, lol) what I was trying to do with the scene and why I thought it was important for me to keep it. This was probably where I felt most uncertain whether/not I was doing enough, or whether the publisher would go for it. Nonetheless, I braced myself and submitted my revised manuscript.

The good news is: they accepted! "Stigmaplay" is now slated for publication in February 2025. Watch this space!