Get More Eyes on Your Work

Although comfortable and free, the feedback from those close to you (e.g., family and close friends) may not provide the objective advice needed to improve your novel.

Instead, consider finding people willing to read your manuscript and give you objective feedback. For example:

• Writer’s Critique Groups: Individuals with a common goal of writing a full-length novel can provide valuable feedback.
• Alpha Readers: These are people willing to give you feedback even though it’s a first draft.
• Beta Readers: After one or more updates from earlier suggested improvements, beta readers give additional feedback.
• Professional Edit: Hire a professional editor to review the updated draft.

You have more options, but this initial feedback from non-professionals followed by a professional edit helps you update and improve content.

The Problems of Getting Feedback

Getting feedback seems straightforward.

You want to know:

1. What did I do right?
2. What did I do wrong?
3. What do I need to fix?

However, it’s not that easy when you ask people to read 50,000 to 100,000 words and then answer those three questions. For example, people may not give objective feedback for fear they’ll offend you. Also, if you demand detailed suggestions on fixing problems, individuals may not feel qualified to give you what you need to hear.

To solve the problem of getting objective feedback, consider your need for a flexible process and the people that make it work.

Guidelines to Recognize Reviewers’ Strengths

To receive the benefits of objective advice, you’ll need to understand and respect the person willing to give up their time and energy to give you feedback.

• Treat as a Two-way Street: Strike a fair and reciprocal relationship, where you figure out how you can assist those people who give you feedback by helping them with their writing projects or other interests.
• Be Open and Transparent: Let the person know the status of your book, acknowledging the difference between the time required to read a first draft that has undergone little editing and a fifth draft that’s benefited from several updates.
• Respect Their Time: Negotiate reasonable turn around schedules.
• Send Them Your Best Copy: Regardless of the format of the manuscript sent for review, make sure it’s a clean copy with the fewest errors.
• Provide a List of Questions: Give readers a list of questions that will help you improve your draft, but don’t overwhelm them.

These guidelines will help you find and benefit from reviewers’ strengths.

A Plan to Get Feedback

You have many options to gain feedback, including cultivating relationships with alpha and beta readers.

Your goal is to gain a sense of how readers perceive the quality of your story. You also want to know what they think you could do to make it better. That’s calls for a plan to get feedback.

For alpha and beta readers, give them the book’s blurb plus a brief list of questions.

For example:

• What did you think of the overall story?
• What was confusing (e.g., characters, plot, setting)?
• If you stopped reading at some point, where did you pause and what brought you to a halt?
• What engaged your interest?
• What did you like?
• What did you dislike?
• What seemed uninteresting (e.g., a character, setting, or plot that did not hold your attention)?
• Overall, did the story satisfy your expectations based on the book’s blurb?

The key to unlock useful feedback from non-professional reviewers is getting enough people willing to read the draft and answer the questions so you can discern the consensus of what is working and what needs improvement.

Distribute a Draft and Get Feedback

Follow a process to get objective feedback.

1. Identify your alpha and beta readers.
2. Prepare and distribute the files with a deadline to receive their feedback.
3. Send reminders as the deadline approaches.
4. Follow up with reminders if feedback not received.
5. Use the feedback to update your novel.
6. Hire a professional editor to evaluate the updated draft.
7. Finalize content, format for publishing, get a proof copy.
8. Proofread the book’s proof copy and repeat step 7 as needed.

Getting feedback can seem more like art than science, and your ability to garner the support of people willing to help will make a significant difference in the advice received.

Follow the Process to Avoid Problems

Identifying the people willing to review your work is the key that unlocks useful suggestions.

Most beta readers excel at telling authors whether they like the book. However, many do not have the skills, time, or inclination to provide the detailed feedback useful to improve content quality. That’s why you’re looking for a consensus from readers on whether your draft satisfies their expectations.

You may prefer to skip several process steps and hire a professional editor, but if you take that route before getting feedback and making your initial edits, you’ll probably pay more because of the extra time required to fix things a beta reader could have suggested.

Way Forward

Because feedback can come in many forms, what works best for others may not work as well for you.

That’s why you have options, but the principle of getting and applying the insights of others still applies.

For example:

• Trellis Method: Use the Trellis Method to develop and arrange your story in a familiar pattern expected by target readers of your chosen genre.
• Self-edits: Clean up as much of the story structure, spelling, grammar, and style as you can before getting feedback from others.
• Computerized Edits: Use a rules-based app that helps you find and fix spelling, grammar, and style issues.
• Alpha Readers: Build relationships with people who will give you feedback on your earliest works even though it probably contains many errors.
• Beta Readers: Cultivate a diverse group of readers who will give you feedback on later drafts, helping you understand what works in the overall story.
• Professional Edits: Hire a professional who will help you evaluate the overall story and fix any issues that would prevent target readers from enjoying your book.
• Proofreading: After you’ve formatted your book for publishing and got a proof copy, you and others methodically proofread to identify and fix any errors that occurred during preparation for publication.

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