“Secrets of Creating Outstanding Writing! --An Expert's How to Write a Book Step-by-Step Guide”
Time for a little help from our friends when you write your book. Get their opinions and make your book absolutely outstanding!
by Steve Manning
Want someone to give you their opinion of your book writing? Here are two methods. The first is human, the second is mechanical. And both of them work incredibly well, as long as you take the advice. Ready…
When someone gives you their opinion about your book writing, they're doing you a favour. It isn't a career move for them. So understand that from the beginning. They're doing something nice for you, so you get ready to do something nice for them. It's the process of reciprocity. If you've already done something nice for them, it's payback time.
Let's start there. "You know that project I helped you with a couple of days ago, well, I was wondering if you could return the favour real quick by reading these 10 pages of my book for me. I just want to get your general impression, that's all. And I was hoping you could tell me by Wednesday morning"
If you've already done something nice for someone, they really do want to pay you back by reading the book you're writing. In fact, they've been looking for a way to make things even for the last few days. You're making it easy for them. Note that you're asking them to read just 10 pages of your manuscript, not the whole thing. As I said before, it's a favour, not a career move. If you plop a 300+ page manuscript on someone's desk and ask them to read it for you, all you're doing is testing the limits of friendship. But 10 pages, that's hardly a mental challenge and all you're asking for is a general impression, not intense editing or a critique.
Don't forget to give them enough time to actually read the pages of your book. "I'll just wait here while you read it," isn't going to endear you to them at all.
When you come back to them, you have only one question: "can you think of one or two things I could do to make this better." Then just shut up and listen. Don't argue, don't defend, don't feel offended. When you get the feedback, smile a real sincere smile and really, really, really thank them. Do not ask them "what do you think?" They'll just be nice. They'll tell you what they think you want to hear, or they'll just dismiss it out of hand, "hey, it's great." Or worst of all, they'll take things too seriously and give you far more detail than you want. You don't want a five-page report. You just want a first impression. That's what you'll be working with among agents, editors and publishers.
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD,
“How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! The CD is free, just pay postage,
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Now, back
to the article…
If they're doing this for you simply as a favour, send them a thank-you card, a small gift, a note, a ride home, something.
It's also important that you get the opinion of someone who actually likes and reads the kind of book you're writing. Get kids to read your children's book, romantics who buy romances to read your romance. There's no point in getting a person who hates science fiction to read your science fiction book. The feedback will be useless.
Try to get this opinion from as many people as possible, with different 10-page segments of your book. Think of it as product testing if you'd like. If you start to see trends, then this can be a real factor in the success of our book. If 10 or 12 people say the story is too slow, then make those scenes faster. If the reader didn't understand what you were saying, time to simplify your language and make concepts easier and more straightforward.
Surprisingly, this is a very simple strategy and I'm amazed that more authors don't use it as frequently as possible. It will always give you insights into your writing that you've missed because you are too close to the trees. If it doesn't, you're just doing it wrong. You're making the biggest mistake you can make. You're asking the wrong people. You're asking people who simply don't read this genre of book and so they don't have a template in their head of what works for them.
Okay, I've run out of space. I'll deal with the mechanical strategy in my next article.
While we're on the topic of strategies, and if you haven't already done so, feel free to
subscribe to my FREE on-line course, "How To Write A Book On
Anything in 14 Days... or Less" it's packed with tips, techniques
and tactics for writing your book faster than you ever thought possible! But
ONLY if you're SERIOUS about writing a book NOW!
Wait a minute! You mean you still don't have your writing program, "How to Write A Book On Anything in 14 Days Or Less... Guaranteed!"? Well click How to Write A Book!
Time for a little unabashed, self promotion: If you haven’t asked for my Free CD,
“How to Write a Book On Anything in 14 Days Guaranteed!” then you’re just plain nuts! The CD is free, just pay postage,
but you can bet this $100 CD will be carrying that price tag very shortly. How do you get it? Just order it
here.
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