Some writers despise revisions. Others don’t mind them or see them as another chance to improve their work. Depends on the editor’s comments and how extensive the requested changes are to be. An eight page single-spaced revision letter is going to provoke a different response than an editor telling you to tighten your story. This is what I’ve been doing for over a week now, morning to night, scouring for redundancies, passive verbs, removing "he said, she said"s, and adding instead a character tag or line of action. My editor suggested I break up some of the longer paragraphs, look for places to add more sensory details, and tone down one of the, ahem, hot sex scenes. It’s intense, neck-bending work, especially when my book is a loooong 451 pages. Remind me to write shorter next time!

I’m halfway through, while she’s waiting on the manuscript to set a release date. I’d like to do a final read-through before turning it in to make sure I caught everything. I’m adding snippets of dialogue here and there so this version may end up even longer. Thank goodness I haven’t had to cut the word count! It’s a great story, and I’m enjoying reading this wild space adventure again as I hope you will when it is released. I think of it as Lara Croft meets Star Wars with its cocky space pilot hero and tough chick heroine. The cover suits her perfectly:

                                                 

I learned a lesson from the readers of my Bad Hair Day mysteries who requested a Yiddish glossary. I never did get around to that, figuring it was too late as I was already into several volumes of the series. But I did create a glossary for my paranormal romance. However, for Silver Serenade, I’d scribbled down a list of futuristic terms in my notes but didn’t submit it with the manuscript. Since my editor requested a Glossary, I am typing this as I go along with the editing. This story has lots of sci fi terms, and although you can figure them out in the context, a Glossary will be fun for readers.

Creating other bonus materials is another lesson I’ve learned along the way. Again, I did it for my later paranormal romance (that’s making the marketing rounds), but not for Silver’s story. So I’m also doing a Reader Discussion Guide while thinking about what else might be appealing to fans. How about the political structures of the various inter-planetary government alliances? Character profiles? Descriptions of some of the worlds our protagonists visit?

As a reader, what kinds of bonus materials do you like to see from authors?

I always say revisions are when the true magic happens. :)But yes, 8+ page revisions letters are daunting. I should know, lol. For bonus materials, definitely glossaries, and in your case, diagrams of the space ships would be cool! Short messages to the reader written by the characters are also fun.

I'm doing the same process with editing although I don't have an agent or editor yet. I'm putting together a style sheet with spellings of character names and unusual words.
Many of my critique partners have requested familie trees. I've written out explainations of the calendar and numeric system(base twelve)used in my stories. I don't know if I'll include these or not in the final versions of my stories.