Is My Book Any Good?
Is my book any good?
Quite honestly it’ll depend on who you ask.
Ask your mother and she’ll love it regardless.
Ask an experienced author and the opinion might be quite different.
Let’s Start With a True story
The 25 Page Masterpiece
I received an email from a new author. She is a new writer. This is actually her third book. I haven’t seen the other two.
“Alan, can you look at my book please and give me some feedback?”
“Of course, can you tell me a little about it before you send it over?”
“Yes, it’s biographical about a certain period in my life. I wanted to share the stories. I think it is a masterpiece. I love it“
She then gave me more details, but I can’t post them here.
Eventually, the book arrived in the post.
The total page count was a staggering 25 pages. That was with an entry page, TOC page and all the other pages that eat space.
Each chapter had a heading yet lacked visual language. As I read I like to see everything. I couldn’t see anything here apart from the very basic story. Compelling it wasn’t. I want a book that demands I turn the page rather than trying to force me to turn the page.
Eventually, I replied to her.
“You asked me if your book is any good. Here it is. I love the idea of your book but in my expert opinion for the following reasons - this and that - it needs to be rewritten.”
She was upset with me at first.
I asked her how long she had been practising her job. She replied 42 years. I asked her do you think I could do what you do? She laughed and told me absolutely not. I asked her why.
She replied you’ve never been trained and you have no experience.
I then said to her
Have you been trained as a writer and do you have experience?
She went quiet before saying no.
I then told her not to be hard on herself over the book. The idea of it was great but the writing and construction of the book were terrible.
We both laughed and she finally agreed on what I was telling her.
Is Your Book Any Good?
Some writers have never been trained and lack experience and yet deliver amazing books. They are truly the few.
Did you realise MOST books never sell or never even get read? That’s sad considering the amount of work that goes into them.
Finding out if your book is any good is really like most skills - you have to ask an expert.
You will find experts cheaper than us to offer their opinion on that subject that’s for sure. But as someone working next to authors, publishers and marketers of over 24 books - some best-sellers - we can only offer expertise that is never based on a fee but rather on the skills.
But the reality is if you want to know if your book or your novel is any good don’t ask your mother ask a real author to read it through and offer you feedback.
The client above finally recovered and rewrote her 25-page book. It finally came out as a 200-page-ish book (just under) after we critiqued each chapter and helped her to build on each idea.
If you need to know if your book is any good we are happy to help you find out the answer.
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Contact me on this website, I look forward to hearing from you.
The original article has been re-written by
Tamara Forrest-Smith
Write a Book Project - Publishers and book marketers since 1999!
