This week I used some of my connections (this ladies and gentlemen is called networking, and it gets more people jobs than anything else) and managed to get a couple of people, 7 to be exact, to tell me what they thought of the title, summary, and first three chapters of my book.
This survey-ish thing has not been completed as of yet. But I have gained some valuable information from it, actually.
When each of them sent me a message volunteering, I sent them back this:
The summary I came up with in like 15 minutes for the purposes of this. The last time I wrote up my summary was for the first draft before I made some serious changes.
I actually got a lot of good feedback.
By the time I finished responding to the people who wanted to help (someone just contacted me this morning about it actually) the summary looked more like this:
Erin was willing to give her life for her cause. Aviel was willing to do just about anything to prove to his father that he was worthy to take his late brother's position as heir to the throne. Unfortunately when the two first meet, she's in a prison cell for trying to give her life for her cause and he has to learn why to be worthy.
The normal punishment for spying, the punishment all her predecessors faced, is death. Aviel saves her though, on the chance that she'll be the Rebel that will explain the reasoning behind the past five years of destruction. The explanation is nothing like what he expected — and the truth even worse.
But the deeper the two delve into that truth and the secrets behind true loyalty and revenge, the more they learn that nothing is like it seems and the only people they can trust are the ones least likely: each other.
If they responded that they would be interested enough to look at the first few pages there in the bookstore/library (which most everyone has said they would - one person said that she wouldn't if it was the first summary, but she would with the second) I sent them the first chapter with a new set of questions, the last of which was "Are you still interested". If they responded yes to that one, I sent the them the second with its questions, and then the third.
So far only one person has made it all the way through Chapter 3, but the majority of my test subjects have responded on the first.
The results have been very helpful. I feel a lot more confident about some of the choices that I made recently. I told you last week how I decided to add a second character's POV instead of keeping it limited to the main character the whole book. So far the responses to that have been that it fits and it's helpful. Because of the situation I can do a lot more explaining about the world and situation through his perspective than hers.
But at the same time, at least one person opened my eyes with the comment "I kinda really want to know more background information, but ... I must have patience. " to the fact... that there isn't really much world building to be spoken of. So I realized that I really had to knuckle down and do some of that. (And I actually used one of our own articles, actually written by Margaret: World Building 101 - Margaret is a crazy insane world builder. Think Lord of the Rings world building status)
A lot of people told me that there were a couple of cliches, but for first impressions that's not what I'm totally trying to avoid.
I've also learned that friends have a lot of influence on the type of books we read. Almost every person said that they really take their friends suggestions for books into consideration. Which is probably really good for me.
We've talked on this blog before about the extreme Importance of Writing Buddies (if you don't have one, I beg of you to please find one. They are probably more useful to you in writing than anything else), but we also have to remember that for must of us our audience isn't our writing buddy that's also trying to write and is trained to notice any and all flaws so you and themselves have as few as possible... your audience is (for most us at least that are under 20) your friends. The regular people who are looking for something good to read. Sometimes they're not even looking for something good (though they should be).
Even if your book is a literary masterpiece, it's got to appeal to the audience. Maybe you're looking at the wrong audience and you need to adjust thusly. But they're the ones that will or will not be buying your book. And it your goal for them TO buy the book. So it's important to know what they're actually thinking.
We have an advantage in this over the rest of the writers appealing to our audience, because most of us actually are a part of the audience. We go to school with our audience. We know what they're actually reading, know what their actual opinions are.
Of course that's not always true. Margaret's home schooled, she doesn't spend 6 hours at a High School with 2,000 teenagers. But for most of us, that's a big advantage. We're reading the books aimed at our audience and we know what there's too much of and too little of.
I now know from experience that it's actually a really valuable experience.
You might have a different experience than I do with this obviously. I contacted most of these people online. You might be able to do the same, if you are home schooled or don't interact with a lot of people the same age as your audience. I just posted a little ad in the other story that I write that I needed people to help me with a project I was working on, all you needed to give me was your time and your opinion.
If you do go to school, you could also very easily just print out copies of your first chapter and a summary and hand them out to people at school, asking them for their opinions (come school time, at least).
If you don't know anyone in your audience (I do realize that throughout this post I just kind of assumed that everyone here is writing for a teenager/young adult audience, but hey, maybe I'm wrong) I would definitely suggest working on that, because knowing those people and getting those people to like your writing is called a platform, and it's very important.
This survey-ish thing has not been completed as of yet. But I have gained some valuable information from it, actually.
When each of them sent me a message volunteering, I sent them back this:
Please give me complete honesty, don’t try to spare my
feelings. If you think something doesn’t fit, or it could be done better, or
you just think it stinks, please tell me. That’s exactly what I need to know.
1.
You’re looking at a shelf of books and you see
the title “Beguiled”
Does it catch your interest?
Yes
No
Depend on what the cover arts is (In the words of my friend
“Of course I’m going to judge a book by its cover, that’s what covers are
for!”)
I’m just looking for anything to read, so I’ll check out the
summary
2.
Let’s say that you do pick up the book. You turn
to the back/inside flap and read the summary
Erin was willing to give her life for her cause. Aviel was
willing to do just about anything to prove to his father that he was worthy of
his position. Unfortunately when the two first meet, she’s in a cell for trying
to give her life for her cause and he has to learn why to be worthy.
The deeper the two delve into the truth behind true loyalty
and honest revenge, though, the more they learn that nothing is like it seems
and the only people they can trust are the ones least likely — each other.
And your honest reaction is…? If you could tell me pretty
much exactly what you thought when you read it, or what you automatically
assume about the book.
3.
Do you read the first chapter/couple of pages?
Yes
No
Still
bored and looking for a book, so sure
4. What if a
friend had told you that they liked the book?
Still
Yes
I'm bored, s/he said it was a good book, sure I'll read a few pages.
I'm hesitant, but I trust my friend enough to read a few pages
Even with their recommendation, eh.
Still no.
I'm bored, s/he said it was a good book, sure I'll read a few pages.
I'm hesitant, but I trust my friend enough to read a few pages
Even with their recommendation, eh.
Still no.
If
yes, email me at [vinshire.sisters@gmail.com]
The summary I came up with in like 15 minutes for the purposes of this. The last time I wrote up my summary was for the first draft before I made some serious changes.
I actually got a lot of good feedback.
By the time I finished responding to the people who wanted to help (someone just contacted me this morning about it actually) the summary looked more like this:
Erin was willing to give her life for her cause. Aviel was willing to do just about anything to prove to his father that he was worthy to take his late brother's position as heir to the throne. Unfortunately when the two first meet, she's in a prison cell for trying to give her life for her cause and he has to learn why to be worthy.
The normal punishment for spying, the punishment all her predecessors faced, is death. Aviel saves her though, on the chance that she'll be the Rebel that will explain the reasoning behind the past five years of destruction. The explanation is nothing like what he expected — and the truth even worse.
But the deeper the two delve into that truth and the secrets behind true loyalty and revenge, the more they learn that nothing is like it seems and the only people they can trust are the ones least likely: each other.
If they responded that they would be interested enough to look at the first few pages there in the bookstore/library (which most everyone has said they would - one person said that she wouldn't if it was the first summary, but she would with the second) I sent them the first chapter with a new set of questions, the last of which was "Are you still interested". If they responded yes to that one, I sent the them the second with its questions, and then the third.
So far only one person has made it all the way through Chapter 3, but the majority of my test subjects have responded on the first.
The results have been very helpful. I feel a lot more confident about some of the choices that I made recently. I told you last week how I decided to add a second character's POV instead of keeping it limited to the main character the whole book. So far the responses to that have been that it fits and it's helpful. Because of the situation I can do a lot more explaining about the world and situation through his perspective than hers.
But at the same time, at least one person opened my eyes with the comment "I kinda really want to know more background information, but ... I must have patience. " to the fact... that there isn't really much world building to be spoken of. So I realized that I really had to knuckle down and do some of that. (And I actually used one of our own articles, actually written by Margaret: World Building 101 - Margaret is a crazy insane world builder. Think Lord of the Rings world building status)
A lot of people told me that there were a couple of cliches, but for first impressions that's not what I'm totally trying to avoid.
I've also learned that friends have a lot of influence on the type of books we read. Almost every person said that they really take their friends suggestions for books into consideration. Which is probably really good for me.
We've talked on this blog before about the extreme Importance of Writing Buddies (if you don't have one, I beg of you to please find one. They are probably more useful to you in writing than anything else), but we also have to remember that for must of us our audience isn't our writing buddy that's also trying to write and is trained to notice any and all flaws so you and themselves have as few as possible... your audience is (for most us at least that are under 20) your friends. The regular people who are looking for something good to read. Sometimes they're not even looking for something good (though they should be).
Even if your book is a literary masterpiece, it's got to appeal to the audience. Maybe you're looking at the wrong audience and you need to adjust thusly. But they're the ones that will or will not be buying your book. And it your goal for them TO buy the book. So it's important to know what they're actually thinking.
We have an advantage in this over the rest of the writers appealing to our audience, because most of us actually are a part of the audience. We go to school with our audience. We know what they're actually reading, know what their actual opinions are.
Of course that's not always true. Margaret's home schooled, she doesn't spend 6 hours at a High School with 2,000 teenagers. But for most of us, that's a big advantage. We're reading the books aimed at our audience and we know what there's too much of and too little of.
I now know from experience that it's actually a really valuable experience.
You might have a different experience than I do with this obviously. I contacted most of these people online. You might be able to do the same, if you are home schooled or don't interact with a lot of people the same age as your audience. I just posted a little ad in the other story that I write that I needed people to help me with a project I was working on, all you needed to give me was your time and your opinion.
If you do go to school, you could also very easily just print out copies of your first chapter and a summary and hand them out to people at school, asking them for their opinions (come school time, at least).
If you don't know anyone in your audience (I do realize that throughout this post I just kind of assumed that everyone here is writing for a teenager/young adult audience, but hey, maybe I'm wrong) I would definitely suggest working on that, because knowing those people and getting those people to like your writing is called a platform, and it's very important.
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