Guest post: Resurrected - by Jason Parent on his relaunch of What Hides Within

Resurrection

Several people have asked me why I am re-releasing What Hides Within, especially those who liked the story and didn’t want to see it altered. I like the story too, but its former presentation did not live up to its full potential. It’s no secret I never liked the original cover. Beyond that, every work I have released since has been meticulously edited. What Hides Within was years in the making, and the final product looked as though I rushed to publication. The truth was that I had spent a fortune in editing from editors I shouldn’t have been using, and my own knowledge of both writing and publishing were not where they needed to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely happy for the opportunity my first publisher gave me. It was an invaluable learning experience essential to my growth as an author. Maybe you’ve seen an original copy of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. It’s a beautiful book, but it’s riddled with errors. In later editions, these errors disappear. And why not? If you have an opportunity to fix something, you’d be a fool not to.

Now, I’m no Stephen King. I know that. But I’d like to think I strive for his same high standards. So when my contract was up, I pulled the book from market and signed on with Bloodshot Books, where I believed What Hides Within could see a brighter future, knowing what I now and should’ve known back then.

The cover isn’t all that has changed (though it’s everything I hoped it could be). The book has gone

through additional edits from both myself and people I trust. I kept the voice of the novel – the sarcasm and the humor – the same but streamlined some of the action and cut out the excess.

Overall, I was happy with the response to the first edition and always believed What Hides Within to

be a rather unique story, but I was never 100% happy with the original product. Now, the book has the

cover and the story I intended. Sure, even with the new version, Bloodshot and I hit a few stumbling blocks on the road to publication as is the story with every book. But we overcame those quickly and produced a stand-alone novel I’m proud to have my name on.

And now that I am happy with the story, I am ready to continue it. Expect a spinoff this year.