Choosing Readers for Your Work

It's an exciting moment when you sit at the computer, drawing things to a close and finally type in those words "The End." Maybe you want to e-mail all your friends with the news or maybe you just sigh and smile and head off to the kitchen for a bottle of beer or a pint of ice cream.  Your choice.

"Well done," you say to yourself, and settle in to relish the labors of your hours, weeks, months or maybe years of hard work. You deserve a break.

But now comes the tricky part.  No agent or publisher wants to receive a 'raw' manuscript - raw as in unread or unworkshopped.  If you're a compulsive workshopper, your manuscript has been read, pieces of it, by several fellow writers who have given admiring encouragement or grudging nitpicks, both of which were likely out of proportion to your writing.  I've been there and done that and I know how those workshops work - so to speak.  Much of what happens in a workshop is as much to impress fellow writers as to give valuable feedback to a writer.

So here you are with perhaps a 'raw' manuscript or perhaps one workshopped to near death.  Now, you're ready for real feedback from real readers: Readers who are as objective as possible.  Readers who do not believe themselves to be editors who will nitpick over commas and spelling (unless that's what you want - and honestly, it's way too soon for that - see #8 below).
Readers who will let you know what they felt as they read.
Did they stay awake?  Did they enjoy the read?  Did they have questions or feel confused by jumps in the story they didn't understand?

Most of all you want readers who will be compassionately and intelligently honest. It's rather like asking a very good friend if those pants you're wearing make you look fat. You'd better know whether or not you want an honest answer.

Oops. 

If you're serious about your work and seriously want to pursue publication, you'll want those honest readers.  If you do not want that kind of feedback from your readers, don't waste their time. If you think your work is flawless or at least so good that not a word should be changed, you're not a writer in my book.  And you're not really asking for feedback.  You don't want to know if the story makes you look fat. You want approval.  And that's a very different thing.

My suggestions for good readers and usable feedback?

1.  Look outside your usual writing circle for candidates - people who enjoy reading and have the time to give your work some thoughtful attention.  My most recent reader took my manuscript on vacation to Hawaii, and the pages are filled with small notes which let me know he read the whole thing, enjoyed it, had some questions - all valuable for me.  Also, I like the image of my characters enjoying the Hawaiian sunshine while we were getting rain back home.

2.  Have some specific questions about the manuscript that your reader can chew on and answer for you.   Ask questions you really want answered so when you get the feedback, you'll use it.  If there's only one 'correct' answer in your head, forget it. Don't put your readers in straight jackets.  How can they be useful to you that way? If you're afraid the story or those pants make you look fat, don't ask unless you really want to know.

3.  In general, steer clear of relatives no matter how much they like to read. (There are some notable exceptions in literary history, but not likely in your own life.)  If someone is pushing you to let them read the manuscript, just promise an opportunity later.  Those who will gush over your writing are as useless to you as those premature editors who will nitpick the life out of it before its time.
This is a delicate balance.

4. Accommodate your readers. They're doing you a favor.  And thank them, no matter what the feedback turns out to be. 

5. Ask before you send a manuscript to anybody.

6. Get feedback from at least two readers, three or four are better.  But don't overdo it. Some writers use many, especially with work that has a lot of historical facts or data that could be challenged.  And then there are writers who don't want to stop asking for feedback, which is just another form of writers' procrastination.

7. Look for readers who can identify with particular aspects of your work. My most recent novel has a Vietnam twist to it and I wanted at least one reader who had served there and could tell me whether I had captured that aspect of it realistically and believably. 

8. At least for now, steer clear of self-appointed editors.  And don't ask for an editorial read until you have the other kind of 'reader response' feedback.  As I've reminded writers often, the first step of writing is to get the words down. The second step is to fix them.  That will come later, but first get the words down as well as you can, with the feedback of your honest readers.

9. Ask your readers to make their comments in pencil in the margins of the manuscript. We're not in the 8th grade anymore, but there's still nothing so discouraging to a writer as seeing a page of his or her work ink-stained with the scrawls of readers. 

Last words:  As always, you are the captain of your own writing ship.  Once you get the feedback, give it some thought before you start making big changes.  You would be wise to consider it all carefully not as criticism (in the bad way) but as criticism (in the good way) (and there's a difference).  In the end, you'll decide what to change and what to leave alone. 

And if by a modern miracle, you are published, be sure to spell everybody's name correctly and send a copy of the book!