I made a lot of small changes and a few significant changes, based on all the feedback. I’m very satisfied with my work, but we’ll see if it catches on like I hope it will. The critiques were not at all dispiriting, and many were encouraging. Just about everyone had something helpful to provide. Thanks for asking, and thanks again for your input!
Please let me insist, as I am curious about your approach and would like to know if it works: were the suggestions coherent? Or did we contradict each other? E.g.: someone writes: dialogue good, but descriptions not vs. another who states: plot great but dialogue shallow, both examples as hypotheticals.
And very glad to read you are satisfied with your work! That is surely a beautiful feeling! Enjoy!
There were just a couple of contradictory recommendations in the feedback, but most of it worked well together. And thanks for asking!
Feedback is always contradictory when you get comments from multiple people. I can state with confidence that Andy got conflicting suggestions, because I commented that I liked how it jumped right into the story on page 1 and filled in the gaps as it went along.
Andy has written much more than I, so I look forward to his take. But I’ve found when soliciting feedback, it’s best to keep in mind the story I want to tell and see if people are understanding it, versus getting sucked into chasing the story other people think I should tell.
All feedback is very useful, it’s mostly a matter of how I frame it in my own mind.
Yes, this is absolutely true. I think I’m a good writer and hope I may be (or may become) a great writer, but most of all I write for myself - books that I would enjoy reading. I definitely disregarded some input that didn’t mesh with the story I wanted to tell, but even that feedback was helpful to me in understanding how readers might interpret the book.
Ha, this sounds like a fun read! I put in an order for the paperback; I’ll probably pass it around to some of my Rumpke people.
I will get a review into Amazon as soon as possible.
I can’t wait to read it!
I’ve experienced that with anonymous reviews for law journal articles. One in particular was upset because I didn’t include legal issue Y in my article about legal issue X. Legal issue Y was certainly important, but that’s not what my article was about.
Terrific, thank you! I hope you enjoy it.
Anyone finish reading it yet?
…anyone?
Epic Indie Books interviewed me about the book!