{"id":250,"date":"2015-04-04T19:29:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T19:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/?p=250"},"modified":"2015-05-12T00:28:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T00:28:00","slug":"post-5-bookkus-or-book-country-or-wattpad-or-whats-a-writer-to-do-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"Post 5. Bookkus or Book Country or Wattpad or\u2026 \u2013 What\u2019s a Writer to do? Part 2."},"content":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019ve thumbed through (or scrolled through) your manuscript and you still think it\u2019s great \u2013 fine.\u00a0 But what draft is it?\u00a0 If it\u2019s your first, second, or even third draft, try to get as much feedback as possible.\u00a0 This is where a site like Book Country is really important.\u00a0 BookCounty.com<\/a> got started back in 2011 as a really good idea \u2013 let writers help writers (see NYTimes, April 26, 2011, \u201cAspiring Authors Get Help Online\u201d).\u00a0 You can post a complete novel, or a fragment of one, on Book Country and get feedback from other aspiring authors.\u00a0 This is great, especially in those early stages, and you get to meet some really super people.\u00a0 Other writers are unsparing when it comes to criticism about basics and this is exactly what you need (there\u2019s nothing that turns off a reader like misspellings, poor grammar, etc.), but most do it in the spirit of constructive, helpful criticism.<\/p>\n

But like most things in life, it\u2019s not totally free.\u00a0 Unless they\u2019ve totally changed the format you will have to review a book (originally it was three) before you are eligible to post your book for review.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t as onerous as it seems.\u00a0 When I joined I found three book fragments to review that were fewer than 2,000 words each (most people post a few chapters at a time).\u00a0 I read, I reviewed, and then I posted parts of \u201cAgony of the Gods.\u201d\u00a0 I received feedback on writing style, content, etc., much of which was quite helpful.\u00a0 This can be really important in helping you (seeing your book as others see it can be quite a learning experience).\u00a0 At least two other writers who have been published by Bookkus got feedback on BookCountry (Mike Hagan and Michelle Hiscox \u2013 see my Bookkus Authors Page<\/a>).\u00a0 I think I can truthfully say that I taught Mike Hagan everything he knows about geology while reviewing his book drafts on BookCountry.\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So you can have a great time on Book Country (don\u2019t forget to get involved in discussions), but don\u2019t forget \u2013 it is a lot of work.\u00a0 One thing about writers, they love to have their books read, but they\u2019re so busy writing that they often don\u2019t want to devote a lot of time to reading other people\u2019s stuff.\u00a0 Don\u2019t expect everyone whose book you\u2019ve reviewed to review yours.\u00a0 Some might just not like your story and won\u2019t read it.\u00a0 There are others who will put in their three reviews and stop.\u00a0 If you want to get the most out of Book Country you need to be active.\u00a0 Take part in the on-line discussions. Develop a network of other writers to chat with.\u00a0 Make sure you keep up with their new revisions, and hopefully, they\u2019ll keep up with yours.<\/p>\n

Okay, that\u2019s the up side.\u00a0 The downside is that Book Country has kind of increased their emphasis on helping you self-publish.\u00a0 They offer a number of packages, but note \u2013 this is not a matter of being published by their parent company Penguin Books (they clearly state that \u2013 read their introductory notes).\u00a0 This is similar to packages offered by Book Baby, Smashwords and others.\u00a0 They do not edit your book.\u00a0 If you want editing, that will cost you extra, and it really just comes down to line editing (grammar, spelling, etc.).\u00a0 They also do not market your book \u2013 that\u2019s all up to you.\u00a0 So just be very careful when you hear the siren song of \u201cwe help you publish your novel.\u201d<\/p>\n

One last thought \u2013 editing services.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read a couple of manuscripts that were professionally line-edited (paid for by the author, of course).\u00a0 Remember, a perfectly written novel (in a mechanistic sense) can still be a lousy story, just like a badly composed photograph can be a lousy photo despite having perfect exposure, contrast, etc.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read a few manuscripts that were perfectly written (mechanistically) but had character inconsistencies, plot non-sequiturs, and contrived stupidities that just made you groan. These books are DOA. There are folks out there who will content edit, but remember, since you are paying them they will make suggestions for improvement, but they\u2019re not going to be hypercritical, and sometimes that\u2019s exactly what you need.<\/p>\n

So, bottom line, if you are in early stages of your work (and remember, a complete first draft of a novel is still very early stage) try Book Country.\u00a0 It can be a great resource for you as a writer, it can be a lot of fun, and you can make a lot of friends.<\/p>\n

Next time \u2013 well, what about Bookkus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So you\u2019ve thumbed through (or scrolled through) your manuscript and you still think it\u2019s great \u2013 fine.\u00a0 But what draft is it?\u00a0 If it\u2019s your first, second, or even third draft, try to get as much feedback as possible.\u00a0 This is where a site like Book Country is really important.\u00a0 BookCounty.com got started back in…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":259,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[7,8,22,9,6,26,12],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-photophoosk100","4":"post-250","6":"format-standard","7":"category-jotting-and-stray-thoughts","8":"category-musings","9":"post_tag-getting-published","10":"post_tag-novel","11":"post_tag-readers-comments","12":"post_tag-writers","13":"post_tag-writing","14":"post_tag-writing-a-novel","15":"post_tag-writing-inspiration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/259"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions\/251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}