Is Your Book Good Enough for Publication? A Cold-Blooded Assessment
By Guest | February 8, 2014 |
photo by Martyn Seddon
Lisa Cron here! Today’s post is by Jennie Nash, my friend, colleague at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and the book coach who helped shepherd Wired for Story to publication. I asked Jennie to write this post because she had seven clients land top agents in 2013 and, well, she’s just really smart about this stuff. I love what she has to say.
Jennie is the author of seven books and the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of No Blank Pages, an online tutorial site that offers step-by-step guidance to help writers finish books that get read. No Blank Pages is in the beta launch stage, and they are offering Writer Unboxed readers a special start-up deal. You can check it out at noblankpages.com/WUspecial and visit Jennie at jennienash.com Take it away, Jennie!
Is Your Book Good Enough for Publication? A Cold-Blooded Assessment
There are so many good reasons to write. It’s cheaper than therapy, a painless way to escape reality, a fun way to spend a rainy weekend, an easy hobby to pick up when you have small children or aging knees, an ideal way to preserve family history, a fantastic way to express your feelings, a good excuse for spending all day in coffee shops, and the most reliable way that I know to way to make sense of an often senseless world. But here’s the catch: none of the reasons that make writing good for the writer make it good for the reader. Now that the doors of publishing have been thrown open, I believe it is the responsibility of the writer to make sure that they aren’t confusing the two. When you make the decision that you would like your writing to be read by strangers, you are leaving the realm of what writing means for the writer and entering a world where what writing means to the [pullquote]When you make the decision that you would like your writing to be read by strangers, you are leaving the realm of what writing means for the writer and entering a world where what writing means to the reader must come above all else.[/pullquote]reader must come above all else. What this means, at its heart, is that it’s the writer’s responsibility not to publish a bad book. What it means is that you must assess your manuscript with the cold-blooded focus of a leopard on the hunt.
Bad is a subjective term, obviously, and there is a very wide range of what bad can mean in a book. My task here is not to try to define the range. It is to offer you a system for assessing if your book falls safely outside of it. This is a system that I have developed after publishing seven books, teaching hundreds of beginning writers how to get started on their book projects, and successfully coaching a dozen writers (and counting) from vague idea to book on the shelf.
Before I get to the steps, I’d like to talk about when to take these steps. To help with that, I have outlined 5 stages in the book-writing process. Note that all these stages go far more smoothly if you start out with a solid blueprint for your book, but that’s a topic my host, Lisa Cron, has spoken eloquently about in this space so we don’t need to go there.
- Stage 1 is the stage when you just want someone to tell you that what you’ve done is okay, if not brilliant, because you want the assurance that your idea is at least viable. At this stage, you might have one or two or three chapters written.
- Stage 2 is when you’re ready for someone to take a slightly more critical look, but you still want them to tell you that what you’ve done is okay, if not brilliant. At this stage, you might have 50 or 100 pages.
- Stage 3 is when you have a very solid draft and you’re ready for a tough story analyst to come in and tell it like it is, even if their critique results in your having to do a major re-write, and possibly eat a lot of chocolate ice cream. You might throw out 50 pages at this stage. You might re-start the book at chapter 5. But your story is whole.
- Stage 4 is the stage where you have a super solid solid draft and want someone good at facts, grammar, and continuity to put your manuscript through the ringer so you can polish it to a high shine.
- Stage 5 is when you’re ready to send out to agents and editors, or to self publish. Your work is as perfect as you can humanly make it.
I think the best time to give your book a solid assessment is between Stages 3 and 4, which is fairly late in the game. You know your work isn’t ready for the final polish, but you can safely ask, “Is my book good enough for publication?” because if the answer is No, you simply go back to Step #3 and keep revising it until you are ready for Step #4. Everyone knows that revision must happen. It’s not like a giant surprise. So it’s a good time to make a cold-blooded assessment and still be in a position to deal with the consequences. Here’s how:
1.) Do YOU think your book is good? Doctors often say that patients come into their appointment knowing precisely what’s wrong with them, even when what’s wrong is something obscure. The same is true with writers. I often have writers come to me saying that they fear their opening is weak, their middle sags, their ending doesn’t pay off – and they’re always right. Writers who are this self- aware are smart. They have assessed their work, found the weaknesses and sought help. The opposite are writers who refuse to even assess. They write what they write, get to “the end,” and believe the world should roll out a red carpet, no questions asked. There is no stepping back and evaluating. There is no effort to think about the readers’ perspective. There is just ego. And it almost always turns out badly. They try to get an agent and amass a pile of rejections. They self publish and end up giving most of their books away. They often become those people who say that the whole system is rigged and that you have to know the right people to get published these days. Before you go out into the world with your book, take a hard, honest look at your work and make sure that you think it’s good. Separate out the reasons you wrote it, the pleasure you took in the process and that one awesome sentence on page 47 that just sings, and focus on the whole. If you were a reader, would you buy this book?
2.) What do your dearest friends think of your book? Start by asking three people who love you to read your work — but ask them in a particular way. You are not asking them to tell you that you have done and awesome job and that they are proud of you and just knew that you could do it. You are asking them to rip it to shreds. Yes, that’s right: ask them to tell you what they hate. When I’m doing this, I often tell people that if they feel like putting the book down and not finishing it, they should stop reading and just tell me the page number where they stopped. That is incredibly valuable information. So go to the people you think will be honest. You do not want love, here. Love is not useful. You want the truth. Brace yourself for it, and don’t do this before you can handle it. If a work is new and fragile and you are feeling shaky about it, this is exactly the wrong approach. Other methods are called for at that time. But if a work is as good as you can make it, you need to put it to a test. This is a safe way to do it.
What do you do with the feedback you get? If you get a consensus, listen to it. If you do not get a consensus, listen to each piece of it. Does anything ring true? Were you called out in any way that resonates with you? Be honest. Don’t hide from what you know. Face it — and then decide how to address it in the work.
3.) What do strangers think of your book? I wrote a detailed explanation of how to do a book club beta test for Compose Journal, which involves a whole group of strangers and months of preparation. I will give you the short-hand version here. Find some kind strangers. Friends of friends. Perhaps the nice woman who cuts your hair. Perhaps the gal in your office who always has her nose in a book. Ask them if they would be willing to read your book. Ask them to tell you honestly what they think of it. It can help to give them some specific questions – i.e. for fiction: Did you sympathize with the main character? for nonfiction: Did you feel that the tone was both authoritative and understandable? Then repeat the feedback protocol for #2.
4.) What does a professional editor think of the book? Hiring a professional editor is an investment in your book, to be sure. The best ones are not cheap, because editing takes an enormous amount of time. The editor is looking at everything from pacing and rhythm, to structure and style, to tone and point of view, to continuity and chronology, to the way you handle dialogue, scenes and chapter transitions, to the point and payoff of the whole thing — and once they have analyzed all that, they will walk you through the steps you need to take to go back in and improve your book. (This is known as developmental editing. If you are looking for someone to take your words and polish them to a high shine because, um, you don’t want to do it, you are probably looking for a ghostwriter.) Only go to a professional editor when you have done absolutely every last little thing you can do to make the book awesome. That’s when you’ll get the most for your money. And don’t do it – really don’t do it — unless you are going to be open to what you hear. I can’t tell you the number of people who pay me a lot of money to edit their manuscripts and when I give my feedback, their reaction is to argue – to tell me why it makes sense to have that long, boring opening, why it’s okay that their chronology is confusing, to insist that they have shown, not told, because look there on page 87: they describe how blue the sky was. That’s showing, right? What makes me want to cry was that many of them had great ideas and were just as talented as the next writer. What they lacked was the understanding that it’s just not easy to write a good book.
5.) What does an agent think of your book? Agents want to say yes to your book. That is what they’re there for – to say yes to books. But if you get a string of agents saying no – particularly if they are saying no with form letters — you have to consider that there is a problem. In my four years as a book coach, I have had many dozens of writers come to me with manuscripts that are getting rejected. The writers are in total despair and want to know what’s going on. I ask to read the query letter and first chapter – which is exactly what most agents will be reading. I have never – seriously never – not immediately seen the problem. It is always crystal clear what the problem is – and usually it’s that the writer hasn’t even thought about steps 1- 4. Agents are highly trained good-book assessing machines and they are excellent at their jobs. When a writer has worked hard, assessed their book, sought outside feedback and used a professional editor, odds are very good that they will get actual, real-live human feedback from agents. They might not get signed —because publishing is subjective, and luck and timing always play a part — but they will get a real response. Which is a sign that their book is good enough for publication. Which is the point of writing something you hope strangers will read.
6.) Be willing to walk away. Walking away from a book you have written is one of the most difficult creative decisions you can make, but sometimes it is the best and bravest thing to do. If the feedback you are getting is that you have written something sweet but not awesome, good but not great, okay but not commercially viable, then don’t put yourself through the agony of publishing it only to have the world tell you the same thing. Put it away and move on. The lessons you learned from writing that book will not be lost. You’ve got to put in your 10,000 hours. So keep writing. What you learned will seep into the next book, which will therefore absolutely be better.
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
What an awesome post. I am presently grappling with the challenge of standing back and seeing my book ‘like a reader’. I have a headache. But I’m thinking of it terms of ‘no pain, no gain’. Maybe it gets easier? I don’t know. But the practice is bringing some interesting possibilities to light. And some glaring mis-steps. And after reading your post, I get that this is as vital a part of the process of writing fiction as any other. Maybe more. Thanks for the much-needed encouragement and rock-solid coaching.
Well…. No it doesn’t get easier ;). Sorry to be the beret if bad news! But you’re doing the right thing. Dig in and carry on!
*bearer of bad news. Geez!
I rather liked beret of bad news. I thought perhaps you were designing a new line of millinery attire for writers.
I love this post, Jennie. Thank you so much for writing it.
I was a little hesitant about the reader alway / so much being more important than one self, and felt the sentence “If you were a reader, would you buy this book?” more fully fits a sentiment that makes the rest work for me. Thanks so much ;-)
oops, looks like i shoulda taken another second before running off to see grandchild # 5 (i yr old this Wed)
meant “about the reader always being so much more important” –
sorry ’bout that ;-)
One of the best posts I’ve ever read. Thank you!
I am a freelance editor in addition to an author, and what I see so often–is work that has potential, but is not at the point the author thinks it is. I love seeing that spark within a jumble of a manuscript, that paragraph that’s near perfect that shows me that a person CAN write (not everyone can). And yes, often the ideas are so strong but the stories are not.
I urge my clients to review and critique others’ work. I think it’s one of the best ways to gain insight into your own. I started reading for agents in 2009, as well as development editing for private clients. Reading good and not-so-good books has taught me what I do and do not want to do in my own books. And I STILL need constructive criticism and feedback as well.
I think everyone can take your words to head and heart – published, aspiring, and beginning writers.
Sing it, sister!!! We should be friends! Email me via my website ;)
Great post… Yes, being able to walk away is a tough one for most of us. I’ve even found writers having a difficult time walking away from a word or a paragraph let alone a book.
thanks, Lou
Thanks Lou!
“Be willing to walk away”–yeah, but I walked away from two novels I wrote after a snowstorm of rejections only to discover years later that the two novels are terrific and I should have kept on submitting. One is a comic novel about advertising which was pre-Mad Men and before its time and the other the agents in one shop were divided on, which I should have taken as a signal to persevere. Your point is well-taken but before one walks away, make sure you have given your work a fair chance.
Yes, absolutely! Walking away too soon is not recommended , either! It makes me cry when writers do that. Not really… But you get the point. I recommend sending out 6 queries. If it’s no, evaluate the feedback. Revise your title, query, first pages as needed.Submit 6 more. Keep evaluating. If the ms is being requested and rejected perhaps you need to revise. If you’re getting glimmers of hope but no bites go until 50. Many writers stop after about 4 rejections. You’ve hardly begun at 4!
Because “good” and “bad” are subjective, just write the best book you can. If you love it, chances are someone else will, too. Listen to others’ advice if you want, but be careful about changing your work to suit others’ personal preferences.
Write your book your way, make it the best you can, and let the readers decide.
Good luck!
Great article. I love #1 especially. I’ve really had to train myself over the years not to settle for any sentence/paragraph/chapter/character that I don’t feel is “perfect”. Inevitably when I’ve settled for good enough, in whatever area I’ve felt a little weird about my agent or editor immediately pinpoints as problematic. It makes for much more time spent editing but if something seems a little off in some indiscernible way, I will revise and revise and revise (or delete altogether) until it feels 100% right. If you think it’s not quite there, random readers will certainly agree. And will be less gracious about it!
Sounds like a good plan.
A good post, Lisa, and you hit home on some points I can relate to where I am in my writing journey. I just finished a book (it is my third), but it may very well be my third unpublished book. I think back to the years that surrounded the first two books and some of the naive attitudes I had about publishing, but if anything those years have taught me to be cold and objective. I’m looking at hiring an editor with experience working in the trade industry for this book – your stage 4 – not only to improve it and give it a good chance before I look at submitting to an agent, but so that I can raise the ante.
Meanwhile, I’m moving onto the fourth one so I can keep learning and making my craft better.
I hope I am getting close to the querying stage. I certainly have gone through the emotional and analytical stages you’ve outlined and wish you’d written this post 4 years ago! Thanks for the confirmation that I’ve been on the right path.
It sounds like you’ve worked hard. Good luck!
Jennie (and Lisa), thank you for the well-considered points. A couple of the points stabbed me because I’ve been shopping around (unsuccessfully) a second novel that feels finished to me, though it’s only gone through four beta readers. One of my challenges is that I edit fiction myself, so I can pretend that the story arc is artful, the characters compelling and the narrative heart pulsing. However, we all know that editing one’s own work is shabby self-abuse.
I may let it sit for a bit, return to it fresh, and see if any nagging sense that it’s not good enough is more than my habitual flailing psyche flogging itself, but rather accurately reflects some tangible structural deficiencies. And then turn it over to an editor who looks different from the one I see in the mirror.
Lol! Sounds smart!
Do YOU think your book is good? What do your dearest friends think of your book? What do strangers think of your book? What does a professional editor think of the book? What does an agent think of your book?
That’s funny (not haha funny). You must be clairvoyant. Those are the very questions I ask myself. I haven’t gotten passed the first two yet, but it’s one of my new resolutions. Make it to the third question (Online Writing Workshop).
I’ain’t gone be walking away from nothing.
I’m gone get’er done.
I could walk away from my publishing attempt, but not my story. I’d save it and/or rewrite it.
Better!
Dammit!
I’ll utter the famous words to my story. I WON’T QUIT YOU!
Lots to chew on here. Those good rejections hurt the most … because you see where you are at and where you want to be, but can’t seem to close the gap. But I’m keeping at it! Thanks for a great post.
Ha ha! You GO Brian!!
Wow! This article is one for my KEEP File for sure! Thank you for this useful way to proceed with my book. It is only a rough draft today, but these steps will be so helpful in the months ahead! Thank you.
Susie Klein
You’re very welcome. Best of luck!
“I often have writers come to me saying that they fear their opening is weak, their middle sags, their ending doesn’t pay off – and they’re always right.”
That’s encouraging, Jennie. One of my goals is to be that self-aware in my fiction.
WUers, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jennie in another class than the one she’s currently putting through beta-testing. To know that she’s worked with Lisa should tell you enough, but to add my two cents to the feedback, Jennie is awesome. Honest, reliable, professional, and only interested in helping you produce good work. I like my feedback blunt-but-kind, and IMHO that’s Jennie’s speciality.
Thanks for this wonderful endorsement, Jan. You are VERY self aware about your work. You’re going to make it happen, I just know!
This is WONDERFUL advice, and so well organized! I’m going to print it out and use it as a checklist for all future books I write. I’m between stages 2 and 3 on my most recent (nonfiction) effort, and I’ll try to run it through the following traces.
I’m so glad you found it useful. Enjoy!
Excellent post, Jennie! As a freelance fiction editor and author of craft-of-writing books, I’ve seen manuscripts at all the stages. I love how you tell it like it is! I’ll be sending my clients to read this, and sharing it on social media for more aspiring authors to read. Kudos to you for laying the process out so clearly, without soft-soaping it.
Jodie Renner
Great post, Jennie! Thank you. I am a beginner, working on my debut novel. I took several writing courses in college, but that was several years ago. I quit writing to “get a real job”, and just resumed by life-long desire of being a novelist about two years ago. I started a platform, started reading blogs like WU, and all the usual social media. I started a blog. I wondered what kind of blog I could do, being such a novice. I kept reading that you should blog about what you are passionate about. What else could it be? I’ve been an avid reader all my life, so I decided that I would review books–but not just any type of books, I would dedicate it to the debut authors who need the most exposure. I also read the classics and the A-list authors as well, so I won’t repeat amateur mistakes. It has helped me more than I can say. I have learned so much. My biggest hurdle is that I seem to be studying more than writing, but I am still struggling through the plotting part now. I want to know where I’m going first, but maybe I am being too cautious and should write some scenes. I am learning as I go, and what I learn I try to impart to my blog readers. :)
What a great story! There’s nothing better than reading to learn how to write…although you make a good point that at some point you DO have to start writing! If you know where you’re going and WHY (I have to say that or Lisa would be upset!) perhaps you could jump in and write key scenes just to see how it feels, if the voice/tone/POV are right.
Good strategies, Jenny! However, I’d like to know how a writer with a publishing contract can afford to take all those steps, and ultimately even walk away from a novel they’re working on. Aren’t there deadlines to meet?
I’ve often thought that was the reason that many published fiction writers have great first and second books (they had the luxury of time to rewrite and polish them to their satisfaction) and then their work begins to go downhill, with rushed, not-totally-satisfying endings especially. Hopefully by then they’ll have fans loyal enough to overlook the decline in quality.
I’m behind on writing my fourth novel, but I’d rather hold up its publication than read fan reviews that say, “I really enjoyed the first three but this one just isn’t as good.”
Writing a book with a tight publisher’s deadline is a whole different beast. The process gets extremely compressed, and the quality CAN definitely be compromised. I did a major revision of a novel with FOUR WEEKS to go to my drop dead deadline, and it made the book infinitely better — but YES I wish I had had six weeks or eight or twelve. My friend, the novelist Dianne Dixon did indeed walk away from a book under contract at the 11th hour because she decided that there was no way she could fix the book and she thought that brining it out would hurt her reputation. So it’s a delicate dance. Hopefully your publisher will let you wait and your fingers fly fast across the keyboard!
Jennie – I think what I needed to hear the most is telling MY readers to rip my book to shreds. That gives them permission to really get down & dirty with my manuscript. You definitely know your stuff. Thanks.
Yes — you have to ask for what you want from your readers. There are so many thing to think about when reading — how will they know what will help if you don’t tell them?
Throughout my long and hard labor to bring to life to my latest novel — a sequel — I wrestled with a growing sick feeling in my stomach that readers would be upset about what I was doing to the happy, in love, committed couple I’d given them in book one. But I loved the characters and felt their darker, grittier story had to be told, so I ignored the sick feeling and finished the novel. After polishing it to a warm sheen, I had five readers, all who enjoyed my earlier book and would be painfully honest, read it. All said the same thing — they hated what I’d done to the couple they’d fallen in love with previously. It made them sad, mad, like a close friend had been tortured. That nagging feeling in my stomach had been saying “write for the reader,” but I ignored it for what I wanted. As much as it kills me, I have decided to walk away from the book. I may be able to strip it down and use it for parts (particularly the sex scenes), and it’s a major deposit in my 10,000-hours-to-good fund, but I’m heartbroken. Absolutely heartbroken. Should that be another rule — don’t fall in love with your work.
Thanks for such a timely post and for the unspoken reminder that we are not alone.
Sophia Ryan / She Likes It Irish
Oh Sophia, that DOES sound heartbreaking to be sure! It’s such a difficult thing, because you have to write what you love — but if you want to be published you also have to think about the reader. What to do if those two things clash?? It’s like an actor who becomes known for playing a certain role and no one wants to see them do anything else…. All I can say is that it seems like you are being very brave to make your decision. And YES, it totally counts towards 10,000 hours — probably at more than 3x the normal rate ;)
There’s a really good article by the author of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, about doing something similar to what you’ve written here. When I first read it sometime back, I wasn’t sure I liked his reasoning, but I’ve come to understand and admire it. https://insidetv.ew.com/2013/06/02/game-of-thrones-author-george-r-r-martin-why-he-wrote-the-red-wedding/
Either way, like Jennie says, you’re being very brave.
Merging one’s needs as a creative person, and having it acceptable to the folk around us, hmmm, age old stuff – so you’re in good company I think. Best wishes ;-)
Thank you, Felipe. ;-> Sometimes a figurative ‘kiss to make it all better’ really does work! Sophia
This post was perfect timing! I just finished my first draft of my first YA novel, and am ready for steps 2-6. I’m going to share this wonderful, informative post with all my writing buddies. Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge.
You’re welcome, and thanks for passing it around. I’m glad to heare that it might be helpful.
Great post! I’m in the midst of querying right now, with mixed results, so this is particularly timely. As an aside, I HAVE to read your Zelda book now that I know of it; I recently found out that Zelda (Sayre) Fitzgerald was my great-great aunt. (I’m part of the Sayre family.) Cheers!
Thank you for such a clear and organized evaluation of the writing process. I agree with most of what you say, but I do feel that agents are overwhelmed with queries right now and a strong query letter, possibly knowing someone who can steer you to the right kind of agent, and having a foot in the door does count.
I self-published and sold about 500 books so far, to a lot of strangers. I took their comments to heart. I think asking those who didn’t finish it where they stopped is a killer good idea.
Perfect post for my timing! I am about 2/3 of the way through the first draft of my memoir wip. The clarity and conciseness of your evaluation of the writing process is so helpful. I intend to share this forward. Too good not to pass along!
Jennie,
Thanks for this tough post, (tough, as in ‘tough love.’) Your stages are gates of realism, and to borrow from the frenzy going on in Sochi, we only qualify by going through the gates.
During the year I worked on my first novel with a development editor, I finally became willing to be cold-blooded toward my writing. She helped cut through my illusion about this art. I began to see it as a choice of practicality. Readers–whether they know it or not–are cold-blooded. They like what they like and they only process what we put on the page.
As for the early feedback process, finding friends who are able to be honest is not a slam dunk. I, too, have done the “Tell me what page you stopped reading on” gambit. Great hearts behind voices are hard to find.
Very practical advice. I will certainly keep these tips in mind. Thank you.
[…] by Jennie Nash, reblogged from Writer Unboxed […]
I especially liked the advice hidden in point 2. If readers stop, they won’t want to tell you. It’s too confrontational. But if after a few weeks they haven’t kept reading, just telling you the page number is a huge help. One of my readers gave up on a rough draft and told me where. Then I fixed it. So much better to find out from him than to have other readers hate that section!
Excellent post.
The only quibble I might have is that hiring a good editor is not simply an investment in your book. It’s an investment in your career as a writer. When I work with a client, it’s less like helping a given book and more like an intensive, one-on-one writing seminar. The book gets better in the process, but so does the writer.
[…] reading the excellent article, “Is
Your Book Good Enough for Publication: A Cold-Blooded
Assessment“, recently posted on Writer Unboxed,
I considered the replies to my query submissions, the
[…]
I love this post, so informative, so ruthless, so real. But what is also real is a group of writers who get rejected by agents, dozens of them, over and over, with form letters. Then they self-publish, sell some e-books, read the criticism then revise and upload again. They write more books, quickly, and self-publish more e-books. Soon (and usually in less time than it takes us to do all those steps you’ve outlined) they’ve got a library of books out online, even a few sequels, all getting read & critiqued & revised. They get a following. And they get paychecks, monthly, and more reviews and more paychecks. Maybe they even self-promote like a mo-fo and before you know it, they have sold millions of books and also get seven-figure brick-and-morter deals. All by ignoring the route I am taking, which is the one you outline. Sad very sad. But true. What is also sad is that I just STOPPED reading, but the 2nd chapter, a new novel by a number one bestselling author. It extremely well written, impeccably researched and sings in a perfectly pitched voice. It just didn’t hook me. Should she have published that novel? Was it ready? I am absolutely certain the answer is a SCREAMING YES. But I stopped reading it. Sad. Very sad. But true. All roads do not always lead to Rome.
I love this post, so informative, so ruthless, so real. But what is also real is a group of writers who get rejected by agents, dozens of them, over and over, with form letters. Then they self-publish, sell some e-books, read the criticism then revise and upload again. They write more books, quickly, and self-publish more e-books. Soon (and usually in less time than it takes us to do all those steps you’ve outlined) they’ve got a library of books out online, even a few sequels, all getting read & critiqued & revised. They get a following. And they get paychecks, monthly, and more reviews and more paychecks. Maybe they even self-promote like a mo-fo and before you know it, they have sold millions of books and also get seven-figure brick-and-mortar deals. All by ignoring the route I am taking, which is the one you outline. Sad very sad. But true. What is also sad is that I just STOPPED reading, but the 2nd chapter, a new novel by a number one bestselling author. It extremely well written, impeccably researched and sings in a perfectly pitched voice. It just didn’t hook me. Should she have published that novel? Was it ready? I am absolutely certain the answer is a SCREAMING YES. But I stopped reading it. Sad. Very sad. But true. All roads do not always lead to Rome.
If your family and friends are divided about if the book is
good or bad, that’s usually a very good sign. I had a very close
family member who told me point blank she wouldn’t buy it and
wouldn’t let her kids read it either. She thought it was too crude.
Another in my family is a national board certified teacher for the
age level I am writing for and she said the boys in her class would
love it. We had a pretty good debate about it over Christmas break.
Mixed reviews are worth their weight in gold. Because no two
readers are alike.
Amazing article. I loved it. And as in the moment I am in the process of working over a book of my own, it came just on the right time.
Thank you Jennie,
Cheers,
Jane
Can any one tell me if my book is good i haven’t finished yet but here goes
The wish….
Chapter 1
Hello my name is Olivia but my amazing friends call me Liv, I am 15 years old and go to the local boarding school. I live with my dad (Kevin) and my two younger brothers (Liam & Jack) on a tiny farm in New Zealand.
My life is just as normal as any other 15 year old girl raised by her dad, i hate shopping, but i LOVE spending my money on junk food. And i love to ride my motorbike, that’s mainly it. OK so maybe i’m a little tomboyish, but to be honest i was raised by my dad, don’t get me wrong i love my dad but i never really had a female to look up to.
Chapter 2
“Liv!!” the voice was faint, then “LIV!!!!” a tornado of dark hair hit’s me as my best friend bowls me over,
“mads!” I squeal as we hug each other “how was your summer?”
“Oh Liv it was great” Maddie says still hugging me “what was yours like, you look like you’ve been to Fiji!” she says as she looks at my newly tan body
“I did actually mads” I admit as we walk, with our arms linked together, to the dorm sign in, Maddie suddenly stops
“There’s something different about you Liv” Maddie looks at me hard “ohhh your hair!!!” she squeals looking at my blonde hair “it’s way longer than i remember!”
“Is it?” I pull my hair to my face and study it “maybe i don’t know” i sigh and flick back my hair. As we wait in line to find out where our dorm is we fill each other in on all the things we did this summer holidays. Finally we reach the front of the line and have to stop talking.
“Hey Liv, hey Maddie how was your summers?” a tall boy asks as i walk to we walk to our dorm.
“Good thanks Mike” Maddie says distracted by a tall boy, that I think is new, walking through the corridors.
“Hey Mike, yeah my holiday was OK i guess” I answer as i ruffle through my bag “did you get the postcard i sent you?” Mike smiles broadly
“Yeah i did” he says waving it in my face
“Haha very funny” i say as we walk, Mike is one of my most loyal friend i have ever had, well except for Maddie.
“What dorm are you in Mike” i ask finding my phone in my bag and pulling it out,
“Oh 34 boys dorm” he replies “same as last year” he frowns “how come i get the same old dorm every year when you get a different one?” i smile at him
“I don’t know Mike” I say looking around “hey have you seen Maddie?”
“She was there before” Mike thinks for a moment “maybe she was following that boy she was looking at earlier”
“Maybe, but i should go find her” I look up and down the corridor “bye Mike”
“OK, bye Liv” Mike says as he disappears down to the boys dorms
Chapter 3
“MADS” i yell down the corridor “Oh hey Summer, have you seen Maddie?”
A tall tan girl looks at me fondly
“hey Liv!” my other best friend smiles, “Maddie, um mm yeah i think i saw her heading into our dorm”
“Wait you’re in our dorm!!!!” i smile and hug her,
“Yeah i am” Summer smiles hugging me back
“Well I’ve got to find Maddie” i say smiling fondly at Summer “so good seeing you Sums, Bye”
“bye Livy” Summer says turning back to her group and getting back into the conversation, I turn on my heels and stride to our dormitory door, which had each person’s name on it:
Summer
Liv
Madeline
Rebecca
Rose
“Yay” i whisper to myself, all the girls in my dorm get along really well and i love every single one of them!.
I pull the oak door open and look around the dormitory, Rose and Rebecca are sitting on their beds unpacking, i spy Maddie on a bed unpacking as well
“Madds! I found you” i exclaim throwing myself onto the bed she’s sitting on.
“Where were you looking?” Maddie asked
“All your favorite places!” I sigh “what beds mine?”
“I saved you a bed by the window and by my bed!” Maddie explains triumphantly
“Awwwwww thanks Madds” I hop off Maddie’s bed and drag my stuff to my bed and start to unpack.
Chapter 4
I finish unpacking just as the Matron came and did a dorm check, we all had to line up in our uniforms and stand still while the Matron went through all our stuff,
“where is Miss Olive?” the Matron glared at us,
“you mean Summer?” Maddie questioned
“MADELINE STRONG GO TO THE HEAD MISTRESS’S OFFICE RIGHT NOW!” the windows rattled as the Matron bellowed
“but Mis..” Maddie began
“NO BUTS MADELINE GO NOW” the Matron was in full swing now and Maddie shriveled back in fear,
“yes Miss” Maddie said her voice shaking
Thank you SO MUCH, for this post!! <3 I personally think that my work is pretty good. I feel it has its own spirit. Reading this gave me more confidence ^_^ I've explained the story to some people I know (distant family members friends, my Mother XD) and they all said the plots and the mystery of it was amazing :D One distant family member said she never expected a story to be so nice <3 That made me SO happy to hear of her, and gave me a LOT of confidence to my work. I am still REALLY anxious whether publishers agree with their opinions though XD I want to publish the book the traditional way, mainly because I don't have a job yet (underaged – 15) and I REALLY do NOT want to make my parents pay for me to self publish. My genre is a tie between fantasy and mystery, and has a lot of lessons – mainly about how people instantly expect their fate to be a certain way. One thing that I am proud of is having no villain. Well… from the beginning, it looks like there is a villain, but he is prooven innocent; in fact, the most guilty character is supposed to be one of the heroes (no main characters either ^_^ Just one of the basic characters has the deepest story, and lets just say, she is the most important person to my book's world). Although I have a question :3 Is it good, if you switch the point of view, from one character to the other? You know: Eg. Ch. 1 Is one of the heroes' point of view, and in like Ch. 8 In a completely different area, we get the point of view, of the "villain".
I just wanted to welcome you to Writer Unboxed, ‘Elgora, and to encourage you to continue down the road your passion leads you. Keep reading the articles on this site and you will eventually glean everything you need.
Write on!
This is encouraging stuff as I come to the end of a first manuscript, asking myself, “What’s next? Wasn’t writing over 80,000 words the hard part?” Now, I realize writing the words was only just the beginning, and the truly difficult part is what’s next – revision, feedback, revision, feedback, etc… with the understanding that in the end, I may never show my manuscript to the wide world. Sobering to be sure, but I just think back to when I was at 20,000 words and thought even writing upwards of 50,000 would be impossible for me. In the end, no matter what, I can at least feel satisfied I’ve reached a word-count goal I had once thought impossible, and the accomplishment from that is my reward. I don’t depend on writing for money, and I’m grateful to have it as a hobby.