After I finished writing my first book, The Black Elf of Seaward Isle, I had some friends read it and asked for their comments, specifically asking for any errors. I received rave reviews so I self-published it. Then I realized it was a mistake. My first review noted a lot of punctuation errors as well as a poor opening scene with too many characters. I corrected these errors, published 
it again, and worked on my second book, Tangled Omens. This time, I found an editor who gave me several minor corrections to make and she encouraged me to have my first book edited. I did and made the corrections to my published novel.
Just before I published it again, I found a book called, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King. After reading that, I decided to make another round of corrections. I posted a blog about the book on my website, www.theblackelf.com and received a message from one of the authors, letting me know about her website, www.theeditorialdepartment.com. I took advantage of her offer to have ten pages edited for a small fee and when I got it back, I was impressed. I made some corrections and sent in my entire manuscript.
After a few months, I didn’t hear anything and found out that the assigned editor, Teresa Kennedy was leaving the company. If I wanted to let her continue, I could do so. She took my book to her new job which turned out to be running a small indie press, Village Green Press, LLC. She completed editing the second book and edited the first once more. I found her editing advice was extremely useful although somewhat blunt and difficult to take, but I made the corrections, rewriting whole sections of my books.
After that, she offered me a contract to publish the entire series (for a fee) and helped me with editing the third book, Blood Mission, the book covers, formatting, a book trailer, distribution to various book sellers, and some publicity. She even had me come up with a bonus story, The Island Game: The Inside Story of Seaward Isle, to explain the island and help sell the trilogy.
I’m very happy with the way the first series has turned out. It’s been a tremendous learning process for me and I intend to continue.
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Joni Parker was born in Chicago, Illinois, but left the windy city at an early age when her family moved to Japan. Upon return to the United States, her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona where she graduated from Camelback High School and began college. However within months, Joni quit college and joined the Navy where she became a Photographer’s Mate. After 3 years in the Navy, she returned to college and got married. She got a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and an MBA before she returned to the Navy. As a Commissioned Officer, Joni attended the US Army Command and General Staff College, completing a Master of Military Arts and Sciences Degree. She retired from the Navy with over 22 years of service and spent several years traveling the United States in a motorhome with her husband. When he died unexpectedly, Joni returned to work for the federal government in a civil service job. Five years ago, she started writing and retired once more to devote more time to her new passion. She currently lives in Texas.
Her latest fantasy books are The Black Elf of Seaward Isle, Tangled Omens and Blood Mission.
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The Story Behind the Book 