My road to getting published – Should Friends and Family Read Your Writing? Part II

One friend, one I was most anxious to share my accomplishment with, never read the book. Each time we talked, I held my breath…would she like it? Was she not bringing it up because she hated it? Did she think it was too stupid to comment on? After several weeks of not hearing a word from her about it, I finally lost all composure and blew up. Why hadn’t she read it? Didn’t she understand how important it was to me? She gave me several excuses…that she had been too busy, that she had started it but hadn’t had time to read it. I wonder now if she had been worried about having to be honest with me about it. What if she HAD read it and didn’t like it? What kind of position would she have been in then? How would she tell me?

Now the book has become a sensitive topic for both of us. I still don’t know if she’s read it. Now that I have an agent, and now that it seems the book could actually be published, we can’t seem to talk about it.

I never should have asked her to read it. I should have relied on my writing group, the trusted few whose work I admired, the ones who I could count on to comment and suggest in a way that didn’t make it a personal issue.

I know now who to ask to read. My sister, my writing group, my agent and that’s it.

Everyone else can wait.

My Road to Getting Published – Should Friends and Family Read Your Book?

Everything I’ve read says not to ask friends and family to read your work. And as much as you read this advice, it’s still hard not to do it! You’re proud of your work and you want to share that pride with the people that mean the most to you. Sometimes, they give exactly the feedback you need, that extra enthusiastic push that keeps you working on your dream. Other times…it’s not so good.

I asked a friend of mine, who is a newspaper editor, to do me the favor of reading and editing the first draft of my book. She seemed excited and supportive of the idea, but then never read it. I never knew if she read it and hated it but didn’t have the courage to tell me she hated it, or if she simply didn’t have the time or inclination to read it. I would have been far better served to offer her money to do it, or to just hire an editor I didn’t know.

Others I asked to read, old writer friends, family members, seemed to take FOREVER to read it. They’d say they started it, and were enjoying it, but they never seemed to finish it. It made me think my ending sucked, or that I wasn’t able to maintain the interest of the reader. I made excuses for them like, it’s hard to read a huge, single-sided, double-spaced book in bed or no one wants to read an entire book on their computer screens…but I also thought, that if one of THEM had given me a book of theirs to read, I would have read it! Asking them to read and not getting a full response on the book did FAR worse for my confidence than good.

My sister, on the other hand, was fantastic help. She tore through the pages as quickly as I could send them. She gasped at the right places, gave me great advice for things to change and add, and motivated me to keep working.

But sometimes, you simply shouldn’t ever, ever, EVER ask! More on that next time…

My Road to Getting Published - The Novel Workshop

I believe in the power of the workshop. The hard part is finding a group of writers you know and respect, and developing trust – trust that you will honestly comment on their work in exchange for an honest assessment of your own. If you’re lucky enough to have such a group, their help can be invaluable in pointing out the holes in your plot, the places where your characters are not acting true to form and of course, to red pen the thing to death so that stupid spelling and grammatical errors don’t get between you and a potential publisher.

I tried to find a group through the local writing association, but never did get connected with anyone. I eventually took a writing class at a community college and my group was pulled together from the students in that course.

We were a lucky group. The writers in our group are all very talented and reading their work was a joy. Because they were so talented, it was easy for me to take their wise comments and suggestions and put them to work in my book.

My group worked through email. None of us could find the time to meet and geographically we were too far apart to meet practically. Online may have provided the convenience we needed, but there were definite disadvantages to not seeing the faces of those who were giving feedback. You had to trust that the comments you were getting were honest.

There are many online workshop possibilities. Here are a couple. I haven’t tried them, but I might…

The Writers Online Workshop
http://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/index.asp

Writing 2 Sell
http://www.writing2sell.com/online.htm

My Road to Getting Published!

I expect to make several posts on this subject in the coming weeks and months. Not that I KNOW I’ll be published anytime soon. One can’t know that until a deal is signed. However, I have managed to make a huge step in the right direction so I’m feeling far more confident then a few weeks ago at the prospect that some day, perhaps if I’m lucky, I will see my mystery in print.

What was the huge step?

I now have an agent! I’ve been working that into conversation when I can…my agent. My AGENT! It’s pretty darn exciting.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

I first wrote a book. Sounds like a simple concept, but apparently there are folks out there who think they can sell an idea for a book. For non-fiction that may be true.

If you’re trying to sell a novel, you need to have written a novel. Until you finish step one, you’re not going to get published.

So, I wrote a book. I had many folks read the book. Some of my readers were writers, some were friends (more on that later) and some were family (also more to follow on that topic). I took much of their advice, passed on much of it and worked until the final product barely resembled the 1st draft. I’m pretty darn proud of how it turned out.

For several days, I sort of enjoyed that accomplishment. I had written a book!

Then I got to work.

BTW, if you're interested, you can read a portion of the 1st chapter of the book here: The Lethal Frame - a Mystery Chapter 1