The Book is done, well sort of. The second draft is done. It’s currently in the hands a select few to find everything wrong with it. So why only a select few, why not give a copy to everyone I know?

Since your book is written in stages it should also be read in stages. For example, my first draft was only read by my wife. After she gave me her input I did some major editing. Things drastically changed from the first to the second draft. Currently the second draft is being reviewed by my Alpha Readers which consist of my wife and five more people. After receiving their feedback I will write draft three and then give it to any adult in my family that wish to read it. The fourth draft will be given to the adults and the kids.

I personally found it difficult picking my Alpha Readers. I have plenty of family members who want to read the book unfortunately I had to narrow it down to only a small handful. Don’t choose your readers in fear of who will be offended if they are not chosen. I spent months determining who was going to be my readers. It was not an easy task.

When choosing your Alpha Readers you need to make sure that they are aware that they aren’t reading the book just to read it. Their job is to go line by line seeing what works and what doesn’t work in the story. In some cases they will be as familiar with the story as you are.

As the author it is your job to decide what your Alpha Readers are looking for. Since this is the largest writing project I have ever worked on I asked them to look for several things pertaining to the story. How does it flow, does anything not make sense, things like that.

My plan was to give my readers a hard copy of the manuscript. I received some pushback with them asking for it electronically. At first I thought, no I want them to have it in hand and write their notes on the page. Soon after I took a step back and thought about it. They are doing me a favor by reading the book. They are taking time out of their lives to read and take notes about my book. I needed to be courteous of their needs.

Now I wait to see what they have to say. I asked them to give their feedback at the end of the month. This gives them plenty of time to read and take detailed notes.

NaNoWriMo Progress
Book 2 First Draft
227 Words

How’s NaNoWriMo going for everyone? Even with this being Book 2 it’s still a new story. Since I have been spending so much time on the first book I forgot how much fun it is to begin a new project. I can’t wait to see where this story goes. Unfortunately I’m a bit under the weather so I wasn’t able to get much writing done today.