You got to get other people to look at your writing and give you honest feedback before you publish, you just have to. They can tell you what stuff they liked and what stuff they thought was boring. They can tell you what works well and what doesn’t make sense. You might think your characters are amazing and full of life but to a reader your hero might be a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, placed inside a wicker puzzle underneath a dense thicket of sphinxes atop a mountain of cryptoglyphs. They can also point out where you’re overwriting.

I started writing the third book in the Gunpowder & Alchemy series before publishing book 2 (Dark Water Breaking, out now in all good… Kindle). In fact, I had finished a rough draft of book 3 two days before book 2 was published. That was on 14th June and I sent off the finished draft to my beta readers on the 6th July.

It took a while to get all the feedback in and I was happy to wait for it. I have now had all the notes and comments and am ready to get a final draft done and then send it for proofreading. My beta readers really came through for me. I even have chapter by chapter notes, which is really fantastic. Not every beta reader will do that and you are more likely to get an email with a bullet point list for the whole book – which is also wonderful.

It’s great if your beta readers are also writers. This support is “free” in terms of cash exchange but you can return the favour with your own time and expertise to review and critique their books; not only a fair exchange, this is an exciting and enriching experience for both parties. If you’re a beta reader you get to add value to and shape someone’s creation and if you’re an author you get invaluable input and someone who is bought into your success. Both of you build a reciprocal relationship that should make both of your lives better. The harder they work for you, the harder you work for them.

If you’re looking for someone to beta read your books or if you would like to read mine (hey, you get an almost-finished book to read for fee!) then let me know at dandaviswrites@outlook.com . No obligations, we’ll just start the conversation.

Another typical beta reader reading a book in typical fashion using the Distant-Raise Style of book-grasping combined with the Fractional Head Tilt Method which demonstrates keen interest tempered by the healthy scepticism of a Level 1 Beta Reader (an Alpha).

So anyway, while I was waiting for the beta reader feedback I was not twiddling my thumbs. I spent the time writing another story. This will be the first part of my Immortal Knight Chronicles dark fantasy vampire series and I really, really can’t wait to release this one. In fact, I was so excited I sent off an early draft to one beta reader already and he was so into it he reviewed it and sent me notes within a couple of days. They’re sitting in my inbox right now and I can’t wait to go through them. I had a couple of emails over the last week that were along the lines of “this is awesome!”.

I also wrote the first two chapters of my planned sci-fi series and outlined the first few books of it. It’s going to be very epic and also fun. And I have roughly outlined my pure historical fiction series (ancient history) which I have been thinking about and researching for years. My productivity has soared the last few months and I am focusing on getting the content completed. I have outlined a production schedule for the next twelve months which is pretty ambitious but doable as long as I knuckle down.

But right now I have two books currently waiting for their final drafts and polishing. I find writing first draft stuff to be incredibly easy and quick. I do love rewriting but it is a very slow process that demands a lot of time and focus if you want to produce quality work (and I do).

Okay, I’m going to go look at my feedback now and get back to writing.

Thank you, beta readers, you are the best.