Foothills Fae Academy book has gone through a makeover because one of the biggest complaints I’ve had about this book is too many POVs. I believe in listening to criticism; if many people feel these points of view should be taken out, then I will do so. However, at the moment, I have other projects I am working on, and this book is already published. I do want people to read these books, though, and I should have done more before it was published, like vetting an editor who scammed me out of $4000. However, I could have found more beta readers when none of mine got back to me. I originally sent it to many beta and arc readers but never got a response, but I could have done more to find people. That’s on me. It will probably be rewritten once I am done with the third book now that I know everyone hated the extra perspectives.
This next part is for anyone who wants to know why I added Rachel’s, Carly’s, Sierra’s and Jared’s chapters in this.
Rachel’s chapter was meant to be for foreshadowing since she isn’t the only one who had her parents switched. I wanted to show from the beginning that something more ominous was going on there, especially with the blond couple - you’ll find out more in the next book, but I didn’t want to use a core character. Ellen isn’t meant to know this until later, so I couldn’t use her or her visions.
Carly’s, I am still trying to figure out how to rewrite these chapters through Ellen’s point of view because I wanted to show the aftermath of what happened after Amber left and how unstable Bernice truly was. These chapters are important, but I can rewrite them through Ellen’s vision. My main reason for writing it through Carly was because I was trying to warm myself up to both Carly and Sierra, and I felt I’d be nicer to their characters if I put myself in their heads. Carly was originally meant to die in this book, but she got a reprieve.
I did Sierra’s chapters because I did Carly’s, but the truth is, those chapters were always meant to be Amber’s. I originally wrote all of Sierra’s chapters through Amber’s point of view, but then I switched them out to Sierra’s point of view, so this one will be easy to fix since it’s not needed to have it through Sierra’s point of view. I just have to find Amber’s chapters because I have no idea where I put them. I know I did not delete them; I saved them somewhere, but I don’t know where.
Jared’s chapter was mainly because these characters are thirteen, and I wasn’t comfortable writing blood and gore through their eyes yet. In later books, I do that, and there are real battles, but the chapter was originally Ben’s, and I struggled with writing it, I had huge writer’s block for it since I was stuck with Ben’s chapter. But I will write Ben’s chapter in the future and take out Jared’s.
It’s why there wasn’t a battle at the end, either. I wanted to give these characters a bit of a break because things get real in the later books, and I started them young. I know other authors have done battles with characters the same age or younger, but it was something I struggled with. I chose to start them at thirteen because it’s meant to be a coming-of-age tale, but also because of something that happens in the fourth book.
In the future, the only added point of view will be Rachel’s in this book.
I’ll refrain from adding extra points of view in the future, and instead, I am going to make another book for those chapters because there are some important plot points in some of them. Besides Jared’s and Sierra’s chapters, which aren’t actually necessary, I wrote some of those points of view for a reason.
In the next book, I put extra points of view in the back of the book, such as Mason’s, Jerry’s (Ellen’s brother who was meant to have a bigger role later), Ellen’s grandmother, and the character who contacted Sierra in this book. The two latter are actually very important. Jerry’s was added because he was supposed to have a bigger role in the fourth book because he goes to a different school and finds out a lot of information. However, I’ve scrapped that storyline, and instead, we will see his chapters through Ellen’s visions or through stories the characters tell. His chapters will be written but will be included in the back for people to choose to read.
Eventually, I will take those chapters out and put them in a new book, as well as some other points of view I wanted to write in books three and four. I noticed one of my favourite authors doing the same thing and got the idea from them. Then, people can choose to read them instead of having them forced on them, and they won’t have to be confused by too many points of view. At the moment, they’ll all be put in the back of the books as bonus content. Once the series is done (it’s four books), I will take the chapters out and publish a new book with them for people to choose to read if they want because there will be many.