How Do
You Revise or Edit Your Book?
One
thing I have come to realize is that not all indie authors have sought
traditional publishing or gone the route of the traditional author in joining
critique groups. Perhaps they didn't realize that organized critique groups
existed. Some have relied on friends, family members or on occasion they came
across an editor who helped them revise their story. If you are an author,
self-published or not, this article should be of interest to you.
While
I loved my critique groups and partners over the years, I came to realize that
most critique groups lasted maybe one to three years. That’s around the same
amount of time a youth pastor serves in one church on average. There’s nothing
you can do. Things change and shift. If you experience this, then don’t take it
personally. Find another group or individual to work with.
To
help you get started, I have compiled a list of some Christian critique groups.
You will need to have a Yahoo profile in order to join any of the groups. Hopefully
one of them will be right for you. Each critique group will have their own set
of guidelines. When I moderated critique groups, I generally set a limit of
submitting no more than three chapters a week and each member had to critique
two chapters of other people’s stories for every chapter they submitted. Which
meant, if you submitted three chapters of your work, you had to critique six
chapters in total of other people’s work. Why twice as many? Because I found
that it was beneficial to have more than one set of eyes reading a story. Every
critique partner sees different things. We all have different strengths and
weaknesses. One may notice descriptions of settings and people, or lack
thereof, better. Another may be great with grammar. It also allowed you to see
if more than one person didn’t like something in particular within the story,
or how it made them feel.
One
thing to keep in mind, in critique groups, you are sharing your work and others
are sharing theirs for the purpose of critiquing. Never, ever share someone’s
story with anyone else! While you may be privileged to get to read other
authors work, it is their copyrighted work, and should not be shared outside of
the group. I say this because I have seen people do that before, that didn’t
realize it was unprofessional to do so. It is rare for this to happen, but in
case you have not been in a group before, it is good to know proper etiquette.
Also, when giving critiques, try to say something positive, not just point out
the negatives. It is important to encourage each other.
Christian Critique
Groups on Yahoo Groups (Make sure to read group guidelines.):
Burkburnett
Critique (Must be a member of American Christian Fiction Writers.)
Christian
Children’s Writers List
Christian
Corner of Writers
Christian
Fantasy Writer and Reader
Christian
Secular Fiction Writers
Christian
Freewriters (Christian poets)
Christian
Writers
Christian
Writers Club
Dallas
Christian Writers Guild
Fellowship
of Christian Writers (FCW)
Kingdom
Writers
SDCWG_Critique
(San Diego Christian Writers Guild Online Critique Group)
If
one of these groups does not help you, then here are a couple of other ways to
find critique groups. One way is to look for local groups in your area. You may
check at your local library to see if they know of any groups in the area.
Also,
if you belong to any writing related groups on Facebook, Yahoo Groups, etc. you
can ask if anyone has openings in their critique group. There are also some
paid writing organizations such as ACFW, RWA, SCWBI, etc. that may connect
members with critique groups. You can also do searches on Facebook (not as easy
to find) and Yahoo Groups to find critique groups.
Whether
or not you use a critique group, you may still wish to use editing software to
help tweak your manuscript so that it is as polished as possible before you
submit it to a critique group, publish it online or submit it to a publisher.
Personally, while I have tried a couple, I do not thoroughly trust
recommendations for all the changes some of the editing software may suggest.
For example, the free version I tried of Ginger, while it is nice, it seems to
want me to put ‘the’ in front of a character's name sometimes. Use your own
judgement or ask others for advice if you are not sure that a recommended
change is correct or not.
AutoCrit Editing Wizard (free online critique
available - can submit 400 or 500 words 3x a day)
http://www.autocrit.com/cs-cart/pricing.php (Paid membership levels for yearly
membership.)
Ginger Software (free version
available)
Ginger
FAQ's http://www.gingersoftware.com/faq/
http://www.gingersoftware.com/store/consumers.php?type=9 (Paid version that reads your work in a male
or female voice, with US or UK accent.)
Kindle Writer
PerfectIt (free trial)
Scrivener (Write,
Structure, Revise)
SmartEdit
Whether
you self-publish or seek publishing through a traditional publisher, it is
always important to make sure that you submit a well-polished manuscript. While
you can always upload a revised manuscript, you can’t rewrite the bad reviews
you’ve already received.
My
new book, Self-Publishing Tips & Marketing Resources, is a wonderful tool
to help both the traditionally published author and indie authors. It is filled
with more than 200 links and resources to help you find free places to market
your books, twitter resources to improve your tweeting experience, writing
resources and much more, including my own personal story of how I made $5,500
the first month after I released one of my books.
Self-Publishing
Tips & Marketing Resources http://www.amazon.com/Self-Publishing-Tips-Marketing-Resources-ebook/dp/B00DC9WBJE/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
Author
Website: www.susettewilliams.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/SusetteWilliams
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