Jan 28 2009
Sending it Out for All to See
I finished revising my second novel this morning and, with just a slight twist in my stomach, I sent it off to five readers. Yes, it was hard, even though I really like the novel. And, yes, it’s likely they won’t find it quite as perfect as I do. But it’s time, for the novel has reached a special place inside me: the place where I can see none of its faults, or if I can, I have no idea how to fix them.
But it’s important to keep some facts in mind when sending stuff out to readers, so here are my personal rules (and, yes, feel free to share rules of your own, or disagree with some of them–or all of them):
1. Don’t send it off to readers who don’t like reading what you like reading. If their favorite novel is one you detest, or, in my case, if they think Harry Potter is overrated (I personally adore the books, and while my writing style and plots are far different, I still have to assume some affinity exists between what I read and what I write), they will likely not enjoy your novel nearly as much as someone with your tastes would.
2. Don’t send it to friends who are afraid to tell you what they truly think. If someone loves to read, but they can’t even criticize someone else’s bad novel in front of you, they aren’t the right kind of reader. You don’t need mean people to read your stuff (after all, you likely don’t want to quit writing entirely), but you want people to be honest about their reactions, about how they respond to certain characters, events, chapters, plot developments, etc. If they fear too much that they will hurt your feelings, they won’t do the necessary job.
3. Don’t send it to people whom you know are far too busy to read it. Make sure it’s okay if they say they don’t have time. Remember that reading an entire novel is often a hard task, especially for someone who is busy.
4. Don’t send it to people you don’t know, at least not all together. Remember, in the age of electronic transmission, it’s extremely easy for someone to pretend an electronic file is theirs. I keep older versions of all my stuff, and I send it periodically to myself through e-mail or snail mail so that if I ever have to prove it’s mine, I can. The last thing you want after spending months–or years–on a book is to have someone swipe it out from right under your nose.
I will probably blog on what to do once readers get back to you… but I will do that tomorrow. I have someone else’s novel to read right now.
Happy writing!
What are you talking about? Are you insane? Do you actually think I developed this blog so that I could badmouth you and what you do without you realizing?
Dude, I just haven’t gotten to your novel yet. And it’s not just because of time. It’s because I’m lame.
But the last thing I’d do as a lame reader is trash you for sending me something to read. I sent my novel to somebody yesterday who is swamped with work, but she told me to send it (as I told you to send yours to me), and she wrote me back saying she couldn’t wait to read it.
I still can’t wait to read it, but today I have a bunch of papers to grade–a huge bunch–and tomorrow I am swamped with church work. And we have company over the weekend.
It’s not about you. If it were, I would write it in an e-mail. I promise.
I don’t take it as badmouthing me or a specific dig at me. Me THINKING ABOUT your advice and realizing I hadn’t been as thoughtful about it as I should have been isn’t a reflection on you in any way, and, to be honest, I didn’t think about anything you said as criticism but just good general advice.
That I hadn’t been taking.
As you were a recipient of some of that thoughtlessness, I apologized.
Truth to be told, I think you’re a bit swamped to spend all your time criticizing me (that takes dedication) and it’s not your nature anyway. Being self-critical, however, is in mine.
*shaking my head* silly, silly Stephanie