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Are you afraid to revise mercilessly?

These are tough words for any writer to hear:  "The agent was intrigued, but to his disappointment, he found the 195,000 word manuscript bloated and self-indulgent."

If you've heard something similar about your book, you should be cheered by the story of novelist Andrew Davidson. He did another year of revision (shaving off close to 40,000(!) words) after that initial rejection, and The Gargoyle is expected to be a big release this Fall.

Read his inspiring ode to revision at the Wall Street Journal. (Thanks, Galleycat)

If you're looking for more revision advice, check out some choice morsels from The Publishing Spot archives.