Tuesday 1 January 2013

BETA: Slow but steady



As I mentioned in my last post, some of my close friends are BETA reading my book.
I was worried about it because only my mum and editor had read it. I felt my friends would judge it harsher. One reason is because I told them not to be nice and to tell me the truth.

In the end I received some amazing feedback. My younger sisters boyfriend told me he had put down a different book he was reading because he couldn’t wait to finish mine. To me that is probably one of the biggest complements I could receive as a writer. It came as a surprise because I didn’t know he was reading the book in the first place. I have to say I would have been quite annoyed at my sister for giving it to him if it weren't for that. I forgive her though, because she is my sister. 

In the end I’m happy that I had the opportunity to get some more feedback before I publish.

In my previous post I talked about sending my book to agents for queries. I sent it to about ten agents, but none were really interested. I figured as much. Agents get so much material and they have to say no to the majority. That’s the reality of publishing. I know that so I didn’t expect anything, and in the end I think I’m happy. Now I know that I will self publish and I won’t have to think about the ‘what if’ question. Getting rejected sucks majorly, but I think I queried in the right head space. It didn’t hurt as much as I expected because I know of many great authors who had been rejected multiple times before landing a deal or taking the self publishing route.

In the end it all boils down to what I want to do with my material. I could continue to try for a deal, but deep down I know that's not what I really want. All I really want is to share my book with people. If publishers won’t do it I’ll do it myself. I don’t care if only a handful of people read it I will be content knowing that I could share it with whoever comes across it.

I can't tell you how close I am everyone! The Keepers is coming in January 2013. I'll certainly be posting about it when it does!