My Maiden Voyage with Beta Readers

I've never before used Beta Readers.  In fact, until a couple of months ago, I didn't even know for sure what a Beta Reader was or was supposed to do.

Short explanation: Beta Readers are folks (often fellow writers, but not exclusively) who read your manuscript and give you feedback.  The feedback can take on just about any shape - from formatting to dialogue to plot to structure to punctuation, and everything in between.

A little while ago, I (nervously) sent the manuscript of Frisky Business to six people.  They all got back to me fairly quickly (which in itself was a very good sign.)  

Wow!  What a cool process this beta reading thing is!  The overall reactions were positive, very positive, and obviously that made me do a happy dance!  Yay!  


But, despite the loads of good karma these six people gave me, they also offered criticism - constructive, well-intended criticism.  

I'm so very glad they did!!!

As I read through their comments, I found myself nodding in agreement.  I thought to myself: "Yes... Good point!   ...My gawd, he's right!   ...Wow, her suggestion is terrific!" and so on.  

I can honestly say that there wasn't one point raised by a single one of them that I disagreed with.  So, revisions are being made, and Frisky Business will be a better book because of going through this process!

It's a good feeling to try something new and to have it work out so well, so satisfyingly.  That's probably because I was smart enough to choose good Beta Readers.

Guest Speaker & Grammar & Writing

So, last night I was a guest speaker at a Creative Writing class at a local college. It was pretty cool to talk with the students about writing and my experience with being published for the first time and all of that cool stuff.

It was interesting to see their reactions when I talked about GRAMMAR!!! Ugh, of course, not an overwhelmingly fascinating topic, but a necessary one. One student asked if it was okay to skip/overlook/ignore grammatical errors (and/or punctuation and spelling), because the editors/proofreaders and others at the publishing house could/would catch them and fix them.

No. No. Nonono! And no!

First of all, you have to know the rules before you break them. Second of all, you want to send them the best product you can. Thirdly, you don't want to create extra or unnecessary work for them. Think of it this way: if you were a publisher would you want to take on a manuscript that needed little work or lots of work before it were ready to go to the printer?

As for the remark above re: rules and breaking them: Well, no, your book doesn't have to be 100% to-the-letter, grammatically perfect. Write a sentence fragment, if it is effective. End a sentence with a preposition, if it works. Let characters say things like "I ain't going nowheres" if it suits them. But... know what the rules are before you take creative liberties with them. It will result in a much better final product!

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is a very helpful grammar resource.