I went to the post office this morning and mailed my completed manuscript to one of my two first "Beta-Readers." The term is lifted from Roz Morris' book Nail Your Novel: Draft, Finish & Fix with Confidence. Here's what my cover letter said (also lifting freely from Roz):
Thanks for reading the enclosed. If you find it’s too dull or awful to read, please stop and simply mark your place so I know how far you got.
I’d like you to make some annotations as you read, but not to edit for grammar or spelling – – unless it’s just so obvious and easy that you can’t resist. You don’t need to solve any problems for me – just point out where you were enjoying the book and where you weren’t.
You may want to use these marks:
zzz = boring
??? = hard to understand
Checkmark = you like this part
No! = stretches credibility
What I’m looking for is a gut check on whether this pile of paper is any fun to read.
Thank you for your time and willingness to suffer through this. I will also thank you for your very honest and frank opinion.
So, now I sit and wait. Or, perhaps catch up on some exercise that I've missed in the last few days as I wrote final scenes and ran Grammarly and AutoCrit. I blogged about that process elsewhere.
While I'm waiting, I've also got a pile of stuff to read about publishing. One option, of course, is to submit to She Writes Press. Another is to go totally indy. Your thoughts?