Alpha Readers saved Luck of the Irish
When I was writing Luck of Irish, I got my first serious case of author’s block. For weeks, I’d sit down in front of my computer with my head full of ideas and none would come out and into the Word file. I was on the verge of giving up when I came across an article on Alpha Readers. I had never heard of them so I devoured the article.
As it turns out, Alpha Readers are people who read your draft, while you’re still writing your book, and give you feedback on it. There many different ways to go about it, I was pretty satisfied with my first experience so I’ll tell you briefly what I did:
I had already established a sizable mailing list, thanks to my short-stories and my first novel, so I first reached out to these people for help. I sent out an invitation to the whole list and got some replies. I also posted on Facebook, Twitter and my blog saying I was looking for Alpha Readers and got a few others. I sent the candidates a few guidelines explaining what I needed from them. Basically, I sent them individual chapters of the book. They read it and sent me an email back with their general reactions and opinion about the chapter. They knew the text was still a draft when they received it so they weren’t expected to proofread it. Also, they were aware it was an ongoing project. Now, it may seem easy but it’s not and that’s why these Alpha Readers have my eternal gratitude.
They not only allowed me to see my characters and the story through totally different eyes, but they suggested some things I wouldn’t have thought of otherwise as well as pointed out weak spots in the plot that I hadn’t noticed they were there.
At some point, I had a group of fifteen people who volunteered for this task. Twelve stuck with me until the end. I considered myself blessed to have had a dozen people following my story all the way through because I know we all lead busy lives. Nevertheless, these awesome ladies found the time, through pregnancies, sickness in their families, college classes, work schedules and many other ‘little’ things to sit down, read a chapter of my story, and write me an email with their thoughts and reactions to it. And their commitment and hard work has made all the difference.
