Who reads the draft?

by Julie Harris
29th July 2015

Who reads the final draft of your book before you decide it's ready to submit to Agents? I have almost finished my novel about a Far East Prisoner of War and feel it's time to let some of my friends who are fiction readers to give feedback on how it flows and what they feel could be left out? Does anyone else do this?

Replies

Hi Julie,

I absolutely get friends to read my books before I publish. Go for it and good luck :)

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Renee
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Renee Paule
30/07/2015

Sorry! (4 hours later). I could have sworn that I wrote "you have friends who are [enthusiastic?] fiction READers", which is what you, Julie, wrote.

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Jimmy
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Jimmy Hollis i Dickson
30/07/2015

It depends a bit on how well you know your readers.

I get the wife to read mine. She reads a lot so is pretty cutting if there's anything she doesn't think is quite right, because she knows I can take the criticism. And I always listen to what she says. Well, unless it involves washing up ;)

My other beta reader is a period cavalry geek so he criticises anything that doesn't ring true in that department.

Works for me :)

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Jonathan Hopkins
29/07/2015