Before even considering looking for a publisher I needed to know if my book was any good. So, I did what a lot of hopeful writers do, I shared my masterpiece with my close friends. I hate to tell you, but best friends aren’t always the most objective – though they are definitely good for the ego.
After being told my novel was simply the best thing out there, I wrote another, then another, garnering the same praises. Still, I was missing something. I needed people who knew something about writing to give my work a read, but I had no idea how to go about that.
Then it happened! I read a book by L.K. Malone (her first book) and I loved it so much I did something I’d never done before. I wrote to the author. I also checked her out on Google and discovered that she was part of a small online critiquing group – exactly what I needed. So, completely out of character, I asked if I could join her group. To my great surprise, she took me in. You can understand my trepidation when I found out the other key members included a college professor and an editor. Yikes!
I stuck it out, and they stuck with me. I now belong to a much larger critiquing site and receive incredible feedback. But I owe a lot to that first group who guided me through the process of turning my novel into something people other than my friends might actually read.