Writers, connect with your readers already!

Please pardon me for shouting, but I will shout it here once more. WRITERS, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS ALREADY!!! It's easier than ever, with the million gazillion social media networks out there. Still not convinced to get on Twitter, and Pinterest, and Google+? (I'm assuming you're on Facebook already). Why not? The benefits are huge. Let's use me as a sorry lab rabbit here. A year ago, I started out by quitting my career to write full time. Who am I? A nobody. What do I do? I write fantasy books, but sorta twisted sick dark fantasy, a little over the top with descriptions fantasy, and fantasy that is very green, meaning, I'm a young writer, a newbie, and I don't yet know how to properly write novels or fantasy, still learning. So who in the world would read my stuff? Why? Who cares about it, when there are big names out there like J.K. Rowling, and George R. R. Martin, and Neil Gaiman, and, oh my God, a million others? But people do, which still makes me look like this: O__O I had a little over 300 beta readers plunge into Siren Suicides, and people are actually buying it now that it's published (have yet to make a report on sales numbers) and reading it, and liking it. I was honestly astounded at first, wondering, why on earth would they do that? Then it hit me, sometime this spring. They do it because of me. I have yet to get to the level of my stories speaking for themselves (not there yet), but people are reading my books because of the interactions we had on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google+, or on whatever other place on the Internetz, or in person. You can do it too, and you should do it. In fact, I insist, it's very important for you to connect with your readers any way you can. Why? Because...

...listen to readers' feedback, it's golden. I hear a lot of negativity around the feedback the readers give you, especially if it's bad, or bad reviews. It goes like this... oh God, how could they? They have no idea what I was trying to say, and they just want to bite me, they are just these people that like writing bad reviews just for the fun of it, just because they can, etc, etc. I find this strange. Nowadays, with the book market flooded with indie books the way it is, any review, bad or good, is golden. I mean, somebody actually spent time reading your shit? You know this is amazing, right? You've been competing for someone's time and you won a whole 8 hours or however long it took that person to read your book. They took their time away from their significant other (if there is one), or kids, or dogs, or kittens, or knitting an orange sweater for their cousin Bob, or whatever, for YOUR BOOK? That alone is huge. Wow. And then they took out the time to give you feedback, too? That's beyond amazing. I always thank everyone personally (well, I try, because so far I don't have that many reviews, so I can do it), for their time and effort, and I read everything. There is always something that rings true for me, and while I can't change things in the published books, I can pick up things that can help me write better books in the future. By now I know that my weaknesses are excessive descriptions and my dialogue is a bit stiff, and I don't yet know how to engage secondary characters fully, and a bunch of other stuff. If not for my readers, I would've never known that.

Talk to your readers about anything and everything. People will read your books, when you just start out, not because you have a reputation or a name (cause you haven't yet), but because they know who you are, know your personal story. For example, many people bought Siren Suicides not because they wanted to read the actual story, but because they were curious what I came up with, how I battled my depression and suicidal tendencies through writing a novel, well, a trilogy (yeah, it expanded into 3 books over 5 drafts), and for a slew of other reasons. I know because those people told me so, writing me letters and private messages and emails and whatnot. This, again, is awesome. If they did happen to like my first book, there is a chance they might come back for more of my work. How cool is that? I think it's beyond cool. I'm still pinching myself every time someone orders signed copies of my books or I get Amazon emails telling me I got paid. I mean, I give out all my books for FREE on my site, and still people buy them. Because, again, as they told me, they want to help, to support a writer. But why would anyone want to support me? For the same reason I listed above. Because they know my history, my daily moods, my failures, my successes, I don't hide anything at all, and this is a true connection between me and my readers, it's like we have a blood vessel between us, sharing everything. It's a very scary thing to do, but I can tell you that I've connected with people on a deeper level than I ever imagined, on a deeper level than even in some of my past real-life friendships.

Share what your readers say about you with others. The good and the bad and everything. In the end, it's not what you tell people about yourself, it's what people say about you. You can say you are smart and sassy and whatever, but people will form their own opinion about you, whether you want to or not, and it's a good thing. It will actually show you sides of yourself you didn't know. Well then, be humble, and share it. You're a writer, your life is no longer private by definition. As much as you will try to camouflage it with stories, every single book you write is rooted in your life experiences, and there will be repeating events from your life, repeating themes. Essentially, by writing a book, you not only invite people into your life, you invite them into your very brain. How much more un-private can that be? Imagine now that you're trying to come off as standoffish. Too late. People already know your secrets. Well, let them have fun! Let them muse, let them talk, let them bitch and moan, or adore and praise. Whatever they do, it's about them, not about you, but it will help others discover you. It will make your readers happy and open up a dialogue, be it on a social media network or in person. You can even jokingly introduce yourself with some word or phrase people call you or your work, like: Hi, I'm Jill Nill, and my readers call me Yellow Jello because all of my book covers have a canary tone to them, and I mention canaries in my books a lot. Or whatever. You get the point. By letting your readers do with you what they want to do, you essentially letting them own you, letting them call you their own, and truly own your books, so that they become theirs. That is the most brilliant thing any writer can ask for, for each reader to feel like the book was written for them and them alone. That's how you get readers for life.

What else? Let's see here, beyond those big philosophical points, interacting with your readers is simply fun. These people know so much about you, and yet nothing about you, and yet they do, on some other level. I'm an addict, personally. I love talking to my readers to death (gosh, I hope I don't bore them to death and they love talking to me too!). Anyway, there is nothing else to say, except, CONNECT WITH YOUR READERS. GET ON WITH IT ALREADY! 

Adapt your novel drafts to Beta Readers' feedback. IT RULES.

Photo by Joel Robison

How do you adapt your novel drafts to beta readers' feedback? I get asked this question a lot, because I send out my drafts to Beta Readers to read and give me feedback. A lot. Namely - and I just calculated this - as of today I sent out my drafts to a total of 141 Beta Readers. That's about 40 for Drafts 1, 2, and 3, about 70 for Draft 4, and about 30 so far for Draft 5. Draft 5 is not done yet, so I only sent out a preview of the first 18 Chapters. Now, some people call me crazy, some are outright angry with me and tell me it's a very very bad idea to show your work to strangers when it's not done yet. I disagree. My readers rule. Anything they say rules, because I'm writing my story for them. Without them, my story doesn't exist. It has to be read, to become a story, otherwise it's a sad monologue in my own head, nothing more. This may go against everything you ever heard or read about, so let me illustrate for you how it helped me to write better and you decide for yourself.

The confusion on your Beta Reader's face is priceless. Let's face it, at the very beginning, before anyone else in the wide scary world knows you're writing a book, there is only a handful of people who do. Your family (unless you write at night by flashlight under a blankie) and your closest friends, at least the ones whom you were brave enough to tell and who didn't roll their eyes at the idea. Those are the first people who are willing to suffer through your first crappy drafts, not necessarily because they love your story, but because they love you. And, after having read your story, they might fall in love with it too. Here comes the beautiful part. When you meet them, after they've read your stuff, the questions they ask make no sense to you, and that look of confusion on their face? Yeah, you got it. Now, write down every single thing they say, then don't change it the way they asked you to, but rather go back to those spots where they were confused. All of them. Every single thing they mentioned, and then in your next Draft simply explain what you meant. We writers are so terrified of over explaining things, that we forget our readers can't read our minds. It took me 10 dear faces to see like that to get it.

No feedback is ever bad, all feedback is awesome. Here comes the bomb, and I'm already ducking because I know you will throw something heavy at me right now, but here is the thing. Every single piece of feedback you get is brilliant. You know why? Because every single piece of feedback comes from someone who spent their time on your story, and they want to help. If they didn't care, they wouldn't have wasted their time. So, even if they hated it, it's great. Don't drill them on why they hated, you'll never see eye to eye on this, instead, ask for one simple question - what page did you stop on? THAT is the page you have to fix. It might be a little thing, it might be a big thing, but there was something there that stopped them, so go back and see what it is. I especialy love negative feedback because the person who is angry is very passionate, so they usually send you this huge e-mail, or, instead, just two quick lines. That is gold. Try to pretend that your story is not your story and see what angered that person so much. I can guarantee you that after a few of these you will start seeing a pattern, people repeating certain things. Once you have that jolt of recognition in your gut, that's it, you need to fix it. Your gut will tell you what and your gut is always right.

The more feedback, the better. This is now truly irritating you, isn't it? I mean, it's hard to deal with 10 people, how the hell are you supposed to deal with 100 people? And write at the same time? It's madness! Well, here is the deal, the more people read your story, the more feedback you will be able to see to sift through the 80-20 rule, you know, the one where if 8 people out of 10 tell you the same thing, it means you really need to do it? Yeah, that's the one. If you only send your draft to 6 people, it's hard to judge by their individual responses, plus, you will waste a lot of your personal time going over their feedback in detail. Don't. Quickly read it, absord it, don't take any notes, read the next piece of feedback, and so on. Soon the important things, the theme, so to say, will emerge. For example, for me, especially for Draft 4, it was the immaturity of the main character that was attributed to her being 16 yet calling her mother Mommy and her father Daddy. I changed it in Draft 5. And another thing was me going into these poetic side notes that had nothing to do with the story and slowed it down. I cut most of them out from Draft 5 (well, still in the process of cutting). See, only 2 major things! You can compare Draft 4 and Draft 5 excerpts as an example. You should've seen how many different ways people told me the same information, over and over and over. 

Beta Reader's feedback is just that, Beta Reader's feedback. Never forget that it's all there is to it, it's simply people who have their own opinions. Don't take it seriously, don't get all wounded and upset, simply try feeling it, try noting commonality in people's opinions. They are not attacking you, they want to help. Sometimes they don't know how to do it right, so it might come across as trashing. It's not. It's simply an opinion. At the end of the day, if someone's feedback made absolutely no sense to you, don't get stuck on it, let it go and move on to the next. Because if you don't, you will never be able to use these opinions effectively. It's like with writing, you have to keep writing every day, keep moving forward every day, without looking back, without rewriting what you wrote yesterday, because otherwise you might never finish your Draft at all. 

There you have it. Have fun. Post an excerpt to your novel on your blog, not more than 1,000 words so people have enough time to read it while they sip their cup of coffee, and then ask anyone who would be interested if they'd beta read the whole thing. Forget about copyright, send it out to anyone who will read it. Not only will you get great feedback, you will potentially meet your future readers who will shell out their hard-earned cash for your book when it's done. BECAUSE YOU LISTENED TO THEM. Because they feel like they've taken a part in creating your story. Because, even though you're the one writing your novel, in the end, it takes a village. So go ahead, share, and make your story better!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, you may kill me in comments. Go on. Don't be shy.

If I die tomorrow, I'LL DIE HAPPY...

Photo by Kyle Thompson

Crying like a baby. My life is accomplished. If I die tomorrow, I'll die happy. Got this e-mail from one of the Beta Readers this morning (I didn't correct the spelling so you guys could see it as I saw it):

"So, i did something, hope you dont mind,

but read your draft to my youth group (15 troubled people, age btween 14 - 17)

they absolutely loved your book. 

Why i did it: 

the subject of the day was honesty, i told them my story, and wanted them to feel safe to share,

i thought, maybe through your book, taking it as a fictional example...they will be more open to share.

We ended up having a conversation about teenage suicied, we took Ailen as example,

i told them about India, there teenage suicied is a big problem, 

we talked about their parents, pain, dreams, hopes, alternative universes,

and they conitnously wanted me to re-read parts of your novel.

I started crying of the beauty of the situation....

You inspired 15 young people with your words, your courage...

(i told them your story, it just felt right to do so, although i did not mention your name)

it was an amazing experiance, one of the best discussions we ever had,

i gave them an assignment: write, paint, sing about/to Ailen, pretend she is your firend...

I am so eager to find out what they came up with.

And one other thing, there is this boy in my group, he is not doing really well,

but he is a quite boy, never talks much. He always sits next to me, or holds my hand, but

never really said anything. After our meeting, and after reading your boo, he came up to me

and talked to me about his feelings, that he himself thought about ending his life too,

he always thought that he is alone with his feelings, but after hearing Ailens story he got

the courage to talk.

You have no idea how much i heart you right now."

Lure your beta readers WITH COOKIES!

Photo by Amanda Hoffman

All of last week, since I posted a call for Beta Readers on Twitter and Facebook and then posted that I got 50+ responses, a ton of people kept asking me: "How did you get so many beta readers?" and "Can you help me get beta readers too?" and "Isn't it too many people to deal with?" and "How do you sift through so many critiques?" Here is a blog post for you on this topic.  It's really easy.

All you have to do is, LURE THEM WITH COOKIES! Here is how:

Berner Honiglebkuchen. Berner what??? Nobody is interested in your story alone. First and foremost people are interested in why you wrote your story, and how come you spend your time writing and not doing nails or shopping for the latest bag or chatting hours away over a drink or fishing for a new car with your buddies or <insert another popular time waster here>. It's because when you start as a writer, you're a nobody. You are not Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or Haruki Murakami. You don't have 20 novels under your belt with fans catching your every breath. But, you are a human being with your own pains and worries and likes and joys and interests. And no matter how you turn it, we're all human beings and we love being connected. We're social animals, we can't be alone, we go crazy. So if you like Berner Honiglebkuchen, I'm so happy to find out that you know what it is, I shout: "Me too, me too! Do you like them slightly melted or chilled over night or..." And so the conversation continues. When you bake your Berner Honiglebkuchen, of course I want to try it! Moral: talk about WHY you write. People will want to read your stuff.

Macaron. Be polite and smooth, like a macaron. Really, don't shove your tray of cookies right under people's noses, yelling in their faces the recipe and how you made them and how they will taste. Nobody wants you to tell them how it will taste, they want to discover it on their own. Worse, what if they grew up in France and know about macarons more than you? You risk being publicly humiliated. Instead, tell everyone you're baking macarons for the first time, share your fears on how they might come out burned or too sweet or not crunchy enough, and people will try to help. I mean, you know how hard it is to make a macaron at home?!? You try it! It's in our nature, to help, we want to see each other succeed. We're not evil, really. We're awesome. If you only open up and will receive our help, we'll run at you with our own recipes, we'll wash your baking trays, we'll even offer to buy the ingredients for you and mix them up and set the timer. In other words, ask with humility. Share your fears, be humble, expect the answer to be NO and be ok with it, thank people for considering. And people will help.

Russian tea cake. Keep some kind of a system to remember people you asked and keep your word. As in, if you said you will send them your draft on a particular day, actually do it. If you said you need them to finish reading your draft on a particular day, actually go out of your way and personally remind them. You can't expect people to do things for you in a timely manner, if you yourself are a flake. It doesn't matter if they did it or not, still thank them for their time profusely, because they even considered chewing on your russian tea cakes. Alas, their grandma just send them a box of home-made snickerdoodles and they will pass on your offer. Because they don't know what a russian tea cake tastes like. Instead of getting pissed, ask them if they'd be interested in tasting the next batch, err, your next draft. If they would, put a reminder for yourself, and then let them be!!! I keep getting messages on Goodreads with people asking me over and over again to Beta Read. Guess what, I would've considered if they didn't overdo it. Let me be, I'm busy! But tell me more cookies are coming soon, and I might be interested. By the way, I use Batchbook to keep track of all my Beta Readers. Check it out, it's awesome.

Chocolate chip cookie. Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie. But many people forget that it's an art to make one that tastes good. If you ask for feedback from Beta Readers, do take it. No matter what kind of feedback you get, don't throw it away because it's something you don't like or because it sounds like they have no idea how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. The rule of thumb I use, if 8 out of 10 people tell you the same thing, you probably need to change it. I also found that people whose writing I love tend to love my writing in return. And, the closer Beta Readers are to my audience, the better they receive it. Teenagers, in my case. When you get your beta reader feedback, sort it according to your audience. There will always be people who hate your writing, and that's not because it's bad, it's because there are people who need to hate something to feel better. Let them. There are people who hate classics. How is that possible? It is. So what. Keep writing. Again, thank them for spending time on reading your draft and move on. Write. That's your homework.

In summary, ASK. All you have to do is, ask people for help. They will. Be willing to take their help. It's all heartfelt, even if it sounds stern. Because a stale cookie is better than no cookie at all, right?

P.S.: Oh, and if you promised your Beta Readers a signed cookie, err, a signed copy of your book, don't forget about it and really do it when it's published. You'll win readers for life.