Writing advice to my brother # 3 - reviews and reviewers of your WIP

    I am pleased you have received your reviews back, all of them. That is an achievement in itself, you must have a great circle of friends, keep them close. I get the fact you are confused by a couple of responses but consider this. Your friends may not be reading within their genre, and are not experienced, reviewers. They are doing this because they are your friends and have volunteered to help.

 

As to the others, great outcome. Where to from here? Despite the advice/observations returned to you, be selective in what you take out of the comments. Remember, it is your novel. Thank each person for their efforts, they may offer their valuable services again. The benefit of this, they are invested in your work and, are now experienced enough to accept your guidance on what you require.

 

However, simply because a reviewer comments on something, that does not mean a re-write of that chapter. However, if a comment is made that your main character, or any character. Has blue eyes on page two, but brown eyes on page fifty-seven. You need to dig deep and correct that. Similarly, if he/she is described as six two but later, described as five nine. You need to fix that. Those observations are invaluable. The comments on dialogue need to be carefully considered.

 

In my case, one of the most beneficial observations made was this. Your female characters while believable, require a female character able to balance out your male lead. I rang the reviewer to discuss this observation, and here is what she told me. My female characters fit well into the novel and did as was expected of their roles. However, there was no major female lead to add to my male character’s role. This caused a re-write, because it made perfect sense, producing a more rounded product in Rhyka Hawk-Wing, Scavenger Lord. Furthermore, it was a great lesson in the novel reconstruction and, a clear sign of what fifty percent of the reading audience was looking for in dystopian novels.

 

Sift carefully through what you have, applying only that which builds a better product. When you complete your WIP, consider whether you will then seek out a professional reviewer or, whether you will opt for submission to a publisher. 

 

In my experience, publishers employ highly professional, exacting editors, who will put you through a grueling editorial review several times over. The benefit here is, you will relearn forgotten skills, improve on what you have, and understand the publisher’s standards for your next submission.

 

What do I mean by this? Double-spaced, Courier New, 12 font, indented paragraphs, margins set to the required standard, capitalizations as described, and so on. Have a look at the publisher’s website. In most cases, you will have a submission section that will contain a list of minimal requirements. Follow them to the letter. Nothing will piss off an editor more than some fancy, flowing script like this throughout. I know it would me. 

 

Such a script submission will cause two things to happen. One, it will distract from the quality of your work. Two, it will most likely be rejected outright as editorial staffers are usually flat out reading properly formatted work, and you will never know whether that editor read your work. Nothing worse than a standard rejection letter/e-mail.

 

My preference. Follow the basic rules. Do the submission in the required format after building a successful query letter. In so far as that query letter goes, spend as much time compiling your query letter as you did chapter one and your concluding chapter. Your query letter is the catalyst for an editor or agent to call for your manuscript. 

 

Lastly, if you have built a loyal following already. Albeit small as it is, feed that with praise. Encourage your friends to publicly review your final work on Amazon or Goodreads, or wherever else they frequent in the reading world of book purchasing. Reviews are damned hard to achieve, even after you review another author’s work. I know, I’ve done this and the silence of quid pro quo was/is deafening. 

 

Meaningful, insightful, encouraging reviews are worth every word because, they literally speak volumes to a reader seeking to put down cold, hard cash. I read numerous reviews before I purchase. 

Goodreads is a great place to do that. You will be amazed at the efforts people go to get over their impressions of an author’s work.

Bless them all, I say.

 

    Hope this helps. More later.

 

    Cheers

 

    Ralph