Why Good Friends Make Bad Reviewers

"I had some friends read my book, and they thought it was good."

We've heard this refrain at Wheatmark many times, usually when the subject of copyediting comes up. Whether the author hasn't budgeted for an edit or simply believes it's unnecessary, his first line of defense is often the opinions of the friends and family members who have seen his manuscript.

When an editorial analysis comes back with suggestions for improvement, the reaction may include a dash of defensiveness. "I had some friends read my book, and THEY thought it was GOOD!"

Despite said praise, these unedited works generally aren't ready for prime time. Some contain a lot of spelling errors, some aren't organized clearly, some are difficult to follow, etc.

Whenever an author's friends have given a manuscript high marks despite what I would consider obvious problems, I've wondered why.

Maybe they didn't want to hurt the author's feelings.

But a recent experience gave me new insight into the friends-and-family bias. While visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, a close friend asked me to read the novel he'd started and tell him what I thought. My friend is a good writer, so I was happy to do it.

Sure enough, it was brilliant. The unique premise! The well-worded descriptions! The clever turns of phrase!

Then came the aha moment.

I wasn't evaluating his work in the same way I would if I picked it up in a bookstore.

Instead, my thought processes went something like, I couldn't write fiction in a million years. How does he come up with these ideas for his plot and his characters? It's like magic.

So I took a step back and forced myself to read the pages again. I pretended I was in a bookstore, scanning the content to see if it was worth my time and money, expecting a certain level of quality.

I still found the story highly entertaining. But I also realized it wasn't ready for print yet. After a great, hooky first sentence, many paragraphs of description and backstory followed. They were very well-written paragraphs—which is why I didn't notice a problem at first—but if I were skimming the first chapter in a bookstore, I'm not sure I'd have enough patience to wade through all the telling to get to the action.

The lesson? Even your most brutally honest friends and family members aren't the best people to screen your work. They may be too dazzled by the fact that you could write a book at all to notice its flaws.

Where, then, should you go for unbiased feedback? Here are a few ideas.

• Get a Wheatmark Editorial Analysis
  We always recommend the Wheatmark Editorial Analysis, which evaluates your manuscript in terms of mechanical issues (spelling, grammar, punctuation), organization, clarity, and style. However, you should be looking for critiques elsewhere as well.
  
  
• Take a writing class
  Are you new to the publishing biz? Try a writing class at your local community college. Your teacher will be willing to provide real constructive criticism. Even better, she will be able to articulate it more clearly than the average reader.
  
  
• Join a writing group
  The quality of feedback in writing groups may vary, but the potential rewards are great. In the right group, you'll get reactions from writers who want to help you improve. Just as importantly, you can learn a great deal by critiquing other people's work. When you discover what bores you, confuses you, or compels you to read further, you can apply this knowledge to your own writing.
  

Eventually you will get your book into print. At that point, your target audience will decide whether it's worth a read. If you've done your homework, sought out criticism from people outside your immediate circle, and eliminated the flaws based on that criticism, the rest of the world will be much more likely to judge it favorably.

What is an Editorial Analysis and Why Do You Need One?

One of the first steps many of our author manuscripts go through is an Editorial Analysis (for those who want to geek out Wheatmark-style, we call it an EA around the office).

What is an Editorial Analysis and why do you need one?

An Editorial Analysis helps determine what the likely usability of an author's book, in its current form, will be by identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

The EA is designed to determine if the book is written in a way that will speak to its intended readership, if the book is written with excellent English usage, proper grammar, punctuation, and if it is written in an organized manner. It also looks at how well the book follows Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) formatting. Successful, correctly done books are formatted to a particular style that dictates how parts of the book are formatted, including even how commas are used and where the preface goes.

By having an Editorial Analysis done on your manuscript, it is easy to determine how much more work should be done on the book before it goes to layout. The EA will tell the author what level of copyediting they should have: if they need a light copy edit or maybe a more intensive developmental edit. All which should be done before your book designer begins styling your pages for print.

The Reason You Need An EA and Why You Should Listen
Successful authors have several things going for them. The first step to being a successful author is having an excellent book. This is an area to not let hubris get in the way (and quite often it does). Here are the most frequent excuses we hear for not having a completed EA done and for not listening and acting on the results:

• I've already edited my book, it's fine.
• I had my friend, who is an English teacher, proofread it already.
• No one cares if the commas are CMS formatted.
• Readers will know what I mean. They aren't stupid.
• I don't want to spend the money.

First of all, an EA comes with nearly every package that Wheatmark offers, and, if you have one done before committing to a package, that cost will be deducted from your final sign-up fee. The cost of copyediting is more, but the final product will be worth it. It would be a shame to spend money on publishing a book, only to have it not perform because of some elements that could easily have been fixed for a few dollars more.

Two, you and your friend the English teacher are not professional book editors. It isn't a reflection on your skills, it's a reflection on how well-trained professional book editors are. They read tons of pages a year and are trained to know what to look for, how to look for it, and how to expertly make the correction.

And thirdly, your readers do actually care about the commas. They may not be fully aware of it, but it will bother them as they scan lines if they have been done incorrectly. Book readers have been trained for decades to expect certain guidelines to be followed and when you ignore that expectation, you frustrate them. It slows them down. Which is also why, just because you think your readers will understand a muddled concept in your book, it will be a hindrance. It will slow your readers down. Slow them down too much and they'll stop reading the book entirely.

You've taken the time and energy to write a book you would like to be a success. Don't sell it short by not using the resources available to help it be the most excellent book possible!

Shameless Plug: Want to know more about the steps to success? Sign up for our free 7 Steps to Self-Publishing Success minicourse!