BookTesters
Posted by P. B. Dillon on Sep 4, 2012 in P. B. Dillon's blog
There’s a new website in town.
Ok, so there are no-doubt millions of new websites in town, but this one is different. It’s called BookTesters.com, and I may have had something to do with it.
It came about in response to two distinct yet overlapping problems:
- as an avid reader, I was constantly on the lookout for new books and new authors to devour
- as an author, I constantly had to hunt for beta readers – people I didn’t know who would offer me unbiased feedback on my stories.
These problems converged, and Booktesters is the result. It’s a place where readers and writers come together at just the right moment. Readers will get an endless supply of new, free books to read, and authors will get that valuable unbiased feedback.
It’s in Beta right now, which means it’s open for new testers to join but not yet open to authors.
There’s just one problem remaining: How do I let everyone know about it?
BookTesters
Posted by P. B. Dillon on Sep 4, 2012 in P. B. Dillon's blog
There’s a new website in town.
Ok, so there are no-doubt millions of new websites in town, but this one is different. It’s called BookTesters.com, and I may have had something to do with it.
It came about in response to two distinct yet overlapping problems:
- as an avid reader, I was constantly on the lookout for new books and new authors to devour
- as an author, I constantly had to hunt for beta readers – people I didn’t know who would offer me unbiased feedback on my stories.
These problems converged, and Booktesters is the result. It’s a place where readers and writers come together at just the right moment. Readers will get an endless supply of new, free books to read, and authors will get that valuable unbiased feedback.
It’s in Beta right now, which means it’s open for new testers to join but not yet open to authors.
There’s just one problem remaining: How do I let everyone know about it?
The second most important writing lesson I ever learned
Posted by P. B. Dillon on May 21, 2012 in P. B. Dillon's blog
What’s the most important writing lesson I ever learned? Just this: Nobody wants to read your shit (read Stephen Pressfield’s 2009 article for more). I don’t care who you are or what genre you write in, if you keep this harsh reality in mind and write with the intention of countering that lack of interest, then you’ll go far.
So, what’s the second most important lesson I ever learned? Simply this: Finish it!
Again, it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to write. Get it done. Don’t stop until you finish. Don’t edit until you’ve got something worth editing.
If it isn’t finished, you can’t do anything with it, and you won’t get paid.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet a surprising number of people – beginners, mostly – seem stumble over this basic concept.
An example
I encountered one of these non-finishers quite by chance a couple of weeks ago. I was at a restaurant with Nina, my wife, and there was a large group seated at a table nearby and talking fairly loudly.
I didn’t much care about what they were saying until about half-way through the meal, when a woman asked a guy who must have been close to my age (forty-ish) how his writing was going.
Naturally, that got my attention. I stopped talking, stopped eating, and stopped pretty much everything except listening.
It turned out that like me, the guy’s genre of choice was fantasy. Like me, he preferred his stories novel-length. Like me, his stated ambition was to be a full-time novelist.
I was amazed. What were the odds of two guys with such similar ambitions and inclinations sitting at adjacent tables at the same restaurant, at the same time on the same day?
But then the woman said, “So this is your first novel?”
“Yes,” said the guy. Ok, so we may have had a few similarities, but at that point I figured I had a bit more experience. I’ve written several novels, not all of which are published. But I still kept listening, because it was still interesting.
Then she asked the question which killed that interest dead.
“And how long have you been working on it?”
“About seven years. Off and on, you know. I’m getting there – I’ve probably done about 60 percent of the first draft.”
Seven years
Seven years! To my mind, that’s at least six and a half years too long for any first draft. Not one of my novels has taken longer than three months to get the initial draft done. I completed the draft of my most recent novel (Fracture – not yet published) in just 47 days, and I’m hoping to finish the first draft of my next one in even less time (mostly because I’ve got just a small window of time to work with).
Now, I’m very much aware that different people will work in different ways. For example, I know writers who write with the radio blasting out hard rock at 200 decibels, whereas I crave total silence and find it difficult to concentrate in the presence of a loudly ticking clock.
But let’s get serious here. In the time that this random guy has taken to complete 60 percent of the first draft of his first novel, I’ve finished four novels, stopped writing a half-dozen others that weren’t showing any sign of working, and written six other non-fiction books (under a different name).
More importantly, I’m a much better writer – and storyteller – than I was at the start of that seven year time-frame. And, given that I also see the world in a totally different way, the stories that I want to tell are completely different as well.
If I had tried to write just one book over that seven years, that book would very likely be disjointed, uneven, and ultimately unsatisfying – even to me.
As well as all that, if it takes ten years to complete a single book, then you’ve got to be incredibly lucky to be able to make a living from it. That ten years worth of effort has to produce something that the publishing industry believes in, and that the public will buy – in other words, it has to be a hit.
I’m not that lucky (I’ve proved this over and over again). Few people are. A better strategy is to write as much as you can, finish it, and learn from the publishing industry/buying public’s response.
Advice
Again, everyone is different, but if I’d wanted to be rude enough to interrupt that wannabe writer’s dinner and offer my unasked-for advice, that advice would have been this: ditch your seven-year project. Start something that you know you can finish. And finish it!
I’d offer the same advice to anyone else in the same position.
The second most important writing lesson I ever learned
Posted by P. B. Dillon on May 21, 2012 in P. B. Dillon's blog
What’s the most important writing lesson I ever learned? Just this: Nobody wants to read your shit (read Stephen Pressfield’s 2009 article for more). I don’t care who you are or what genre you write in, if you keep this harsh reality in mind and write with the intention of countering that lack of interest, then you’ll go far.
So, what’s the second most important lesson I ever learned? Simply this: Finish it!
Again, it doesn’t matter what you’re trying to write. Get it done. Don’t stop until you finish. Don’t edit until you’ve got something worth editing.
If it isn’t finished, you can’t do anything with it, and you won’t get paid.
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Yet a surprising number of people – beginners, mostly – seem stumble over this basic concept.
An example
I encountered one of these non-finishers quite by chance a couple of weeks ago. I was at a restaurant with Nina, my wife, and there was a large group seated at a table nearby and talking fairly loudly.
I didn’t much care about what they were saying until about half-way through the meal, when a woman asked a guy who must have been close to my age (forty-ish) how his writing was going.
Naturally, that got my attention. I stopped talking, stopped eating, and stopped pretty much everything except listening.
It turned out that like me, the guy’s genre of choice was fantasy. Like me, he preferred his stories novel-length. Like me, his stated ambition was to be a full-time novelist.
I was amazed. What were the odds of two guys with such similar ambitions and inclinations sitting at adjacent tables at the same restaurant, at the same time on the same day?
But then the woman said, “So this is your first novel?”
“Yes,” said the guy. Ok, so we may have had a few similarities, but at that point I figured I had a bit more experience. I’ve written several novels, not all of which are published. But I still kept listening, because it was still interesting.
Then she asked the question which killed that interest dead.
“And how long have you been working on it?”
“About seven years. Off and on, you know. I’m getting there – I’ve probably done about 60 percent of the first draft.”
Seven years
Seven years! To my mind, that’s at least six and a half years too long for any first draft. Not one of my novels has taken longer than three months to get the initial draft done. I completed the draft of my most recent novel (Fracture – not yet published) in just 47 days, and I’m hoping to finish the first draft of my next one in even less time (mostly because I’ve got just a small window of time to work with).
Now, I’m very much aware that different people will work in different ways. For example, I know writers who write with the radio blasting out hard rock at 200 decibels, whereas I crave total silence and find it difficult to concentrate in the presence of a loudly ticking clock.
But let’s get serious here. In the time that this random guy has taken to complete 60 percent of the first draft of his first novel, I’ve finished four novels, stopped writing a half-dozen others that weren’t showing any sign of working, and written six other non-fiction books (under a different name).
More importantly, I’m a much better writer – and storyteller – than I was at the start of that seven year time-frame. And, given that I also see the world in a totally different way, the stories that I want to tell are completely different as well.
If I had tried to write just one book over that seven years, that book would very likely be disjointed, uneven, and ultimately unsatisfying – even to me.
As well as all that, if it takes ten years to complete a single book, then you’ve got to be incredibly lucky to be able to make a living from it. That ten years worth of effort has to produce something that the publishing industry believes in, and that the public will buy – in other words, it has to be a hit.
I’m not that lucky (I’ve proved this over and over again). Few people are. A better strategy is to write as much as you can, finish it, and learn from the publishing industry/buying public’s response.
Advice
Again, everyone is different, but if I’d wanted to be rude enough to interrupt that wannabe writer’s dinner and offer my unasked-for advice, that advice would have been this: ditch your seven-year project. Start something that you know you can finish. And finish it!
I’d offer the same advice to anyone else in the same position.
A call for Beta Readers
Posted by P. B. Dillon on Apr 26, 2012 in P. B. Dillon's blog
There’s a problem with the traditional process of writing a novel, in that it happens largely in isolation. The novelist sits down, writes the novel, polishes it as much as possible, then sends it away to get published—without anyone other than a few hand-picked readers to give their input.
The problem with this is that the author must make judgments about what works and what doesn’t, all by him/herself, about a piece of writing that they wrote and are unable to be objective about.
I’ve tried that approach before, with both The Mage’s Servant and The Mage-Wrought Warrior. It works too, but it isn’t the only way—and might not be the best option.
A new way – Beta Readers
So now I’m trying something new. I’m actively looking for feedback for my new novel “Fracture – A Fantastic Tale”, and I’m doing it now—before my new novel is published.
The draft is done. The characters are in place. It’s in pretty good shape, but the final edit is some time away. There’s still room to move; if something needs to be changed, I can change it.
So this is your chance. Download it by signing up here. Read it. Get your friends to read it too. And tell me what you think!
Let me know:
- Does it work?
- Are there parts you skipped over?
- How do you like the cover?
- What could be improved?
- Did you find a mistake?
Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated. And if you’ve got any ideas for the sequel, let me know what they are! (I have my own ideas, but yours might be even better!)
