How to self publish, part two

Part Two:

Continuing my series documenting my experiences self publishing my first novel, we now reach the fun part. 

And by "fun," I obviously mean terrifying.

Now that you've looked at your own work enough times to drive yourself crazy, it's time to get other people to look at it. Getting some friends or family members to look at your manuscript at this point is a good idea if you can convince them to do so. It's a matter of opinion, but I find it less intimidating to hand your work off to someone you know and trust before handing it off to a stranger. They can find any glaring issues with your work and tell you about them at a stage before you have to hear it from a professional.

The next major step you need to take is to find what are known as "beta readers." Beta readers will read your work either as a completed manuscript or chapter by chapter depending on preference and provide you with feedback. Some of these people are writing professionals, others are just people who enjoy reading and like being able to talk about it afterward. There's no one correct way to interact with betas, but the most common method is to send them a sort of survey for them to look at following the end of each chapter. Some of the most helpful questions I found were:

Could you clearly follow the plot? Why or why not?

Did you like the way XXXXX was introduced? Did you get a clear picture of who they are as a character?

What was your favorite part of the chapter?

What was your least favorite part of the chapter?

Also, don't be afraid to ask them specifics. Are you unsure if a character is coming across as likable? Does a particular scene feel unnecessary? Does a joke you added in a scene come across as tension breaking or as too strong a tonal shift? It's okay to ask beta readers such questions.

The other main thing betas provide are alternative perspectives. Everyone has blind spots. These blind spots can be as innocuous as misunderstanding the meaning of a word to something that could cause a reader to throw the book down such as unintentionally including a racial stereotype you weren't aware of. Don't freak out about these things, everyone has them, and this is the stage in creating your book when you want to catch them and fix them.

So how do you find beta readers? Among the easiest methods you can use is go onto social media and put out a call for them. This is actually how I found most of mine. Write a post stating you are looking for betas to read a book of a certain genre and hashtag it, so betas looking for work can find it. This isn't always reliable so I would suggest trying the bookblogger.com and fiverr.com, which hosts services for hire for authors. It can take some time, but search for beta readers looking for work on the sites and ask them if they want to review your work.

You want as much beta feedback as you can get, but keep in mind these are professionals performing a service for you, so you will have to pay them. It's usually about $1.00 per every thousand words. This may not sound like a lot, but if your manuscript is 80,000 words (which is fairly short for a novel), that's $80.00 to each reader. You want no fewer than five beta readers as well. Like I said in part one, writing a book requires an investment.

It's also at this stage you want to look for an editor. You want to take your time and find a good one. No matter how good you may be at self editing, an editor is necessary for many of the same reasons beta readers are necessary: they will see your book from an entirely different perspective. They will catch mistakes you miss, they will ask questions you don't think to ask, and they will notice aspects of your story you may be missing.

And when I say a "professional editor," I mean a professional one. A friend or coworker who is good at catching mistakes in writing is not enough. Professional editors are educated and trained to make sure your book adheres to a single type of grammar and style. Editing is one of those things where you get what you pay for, so don't scrimp. 

The best place to look for potential editors is the Editorial Freelancers Association (https://www.the-efa.org/). When self publishing, an editor from a professional firm or publisher is probably going to be difficult to hire and very expensive. A freelance editor is a professional who will be more available and more likely to fall within your price range. Expect to pay them at least $1,000 for a full novel length manuscript, though.

There are three kinds of editing for a novel. Developmental editing is a review of things like characters, story, themes, and so forth. Line editing is a review of things like consistency, tense, tone, and clarity. Copy editing is a review of things like grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Some editors charge separately for each of these services and some bundle them. You may enlist the services of two or three editors to cover each, but this can be dangerous since part of the editing process is consistency and you could potentially get opposing input from each editor.

I was lucky to have found someone I had known previously in college to work on my first book. She had become a professional editor and I hired her first as a beta reader and then when that worked out well, we discussed having her take on the project as editor. While most people won't have the luxury of having previously known their editor, it is important that they be someone you have a good working relationship with. Someone local is preferable so you can meet them face to face. Don't be afraid to ask them the hard questions and don't be afraid to disagree with them. They are professionals, so you always want to listen what they have to say, but talking something out that you disagree with them on is a fantastic way to sort through your vision for the book and how other people may interpret that vision. 

My helpful link for the day is the Youtube channel of Jenna Moreci, an author and blogger. There are several Youtube channels that are helpful to first time writers, but Moreci's was the most helpful one I found and her videos are short, punchy, and she releases new ones all the time. Check her out: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS_fcv9kBpDN4WWrfcbCrgw.

That's it for today. Next time we will handle how to hire artists for your book.

Eamon