The Early Reader Experience
Everyone has their own process for writing a novel. This is mine, based on research, on advice from authors, agents, editors, and designers, and on experimentation and experience. Much of it applies (sometimes on a smaller scale) to producing and publishing short stories, poetry, magazine articles, and non-fiction books.
This blog builds on the previous three, and covers what to do while waiting on feedback from early readers, and after you get it.
Part 1: The first draft Part 2: Early edits and rewrites Part 3: Finding and engaging early readers
What do I do while the early readers are reading and hopefully making reams of notes? There are several things.
I can always read through one more time. There are never enough passes, even though at some point you have to draw the line.
If I haven't sent a manuscript to my illustrator yet, now is the time to do it. I include any ideas I have for illustrations. (My books include chapter head illustrations, inspired by books such as the Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series.)
It's time to start working on a cover. In my case, I work with a professional, so I start the dialogue with her about what I want.
If I haven't started marketing, that needs to happen. (This has been my weakest area, which is why I'm concentrating on it now rather rather than writing more books at the moment.)
Start catching up on my "to read" pile.
Some authors are very stringent on how they want feedback. That's fine if all your readers are professionals, or you have an infinite pool of readers. Most of us don't. I ask my readers to email me their comments. If they don't send them all at once, I like the subjects to be identical, or for all responses to be replies to my email. This keeps things organized. Some readers do that. But one reader returns marked up paper copy. Others send email and FB messages. They might send many comments at once, or one comment per message. If it gets too messy, I just copy and paste feedback into file for each reader in my current WIP's feedback directory.
I try to read feedback as it comes in. One of several things happens.
I reply to some feedback right away. I might agree or I might ask questions. In some cases I explain why things are as they are. I'm very careful with these, especially at this stage. Being defensive or overly enamored with one's work is hazardous to its health. I may accept the feedback and edit the document right then and there.
I put other feedback aside to think about and reply to later. The same set of replies are possible, but there might be a few more explanations.
I forget about the rest until all feedback is in or the cutoff date arrives. I then review it all (including any back and forth), making notes of what I want to do. If this review generates fresh questions, I start those dialogues (some questions go to the whole group, or at least some subset). I may bounce a few things off my collaborators. Otherwise, I start rewriting with change bars turned on. It doesn't matter if I attack these in a linear fashion or jump around. I do what works at the moment. I will send some rewritten passages to the readers who inspired them, to see if they like the changes better. (This may happen at any of the feedback stages mentioned.)
I don't dismiss anything my readers say out of hand, but in the end, it's my book and I have to make the choices.
Once I think I'm happy with the rewrites, they go to my wife. She may just look for change bars (there are usually a lot), or she may read the entire book again. I'll reread the book at the same time. She'll suggest changes, and we'll discuss, edit, and rewrite. We may have two or three cycles of this, with some passages again going to the readers for feedback. In rare cases, the entire manuscript may go back to a specific reader or two.
At some point, possibly driven by schedule, possibly by comfort level, possibly by sheer will power, I'll declare the manuscript ready to send off to the professional editor.
Next week: The editor is your manuscript's BFF, second only to you. No, really.
Pro tip: Sometimes one reader will highlight a passage as superb while another will deem it the worst part of the book. This may tempt you to burn the whole thing and start over, but don't. Regardless of which (if either) you end up agreeing with, you're on to something! Anything that excites passion in your readers is a good thing!
Image: Rube Goldberg device, public domain. Copyright 2019 Miles O'Neal, Round Rock, TX.