[Note: For purposes of full disclosure, remember, my novel \u201cAgony of the Gods\u201d has been published by Bookkus.]<\/p>\n
For the new writer, Bookkus is another option to consider.\u00a0 Basically, Bookkus is a hybrid.\u00a0 It\u2019s a publishing house, not a workshop like Book Country, but instead of the legendary \u201cbored intern\u201d reading your submission, it\u2019s posted to the website and open to be read, and reviewed, by the general public, kind of like Wattpad, or maybe the reviews on Goodreads.\u00a0 So, while there\u2019s still a pretty good chance your book will get declined for publication, at least you get the benefit of finding out what people didn\u2019t like about it \u2013 which, of course, gives you things to think about as you revise the ms.<\/p>\n
What this all means is that you should approach Bookkus the way you would (hopefully) approach any other publisher – by submitting a well-polished work.\u00a0 Anything that smacks of being close to a first draft will get the same reviews from a general reader as it would from the \u201cbored intern.\u201d\u00a0 Be practical! Think of it this way: if you were trying to sell your car, you\u2019d want to make sure the body gleams, it\u2019s clean inside, and it starts right up when you turn the key \u2013 right?\u00a0 If you went to look at a used car and it was filthy with stains and tears on the seats and interior walls, and you had to crank the engine a while to get it to turn over \u2013 would you buy it?\u00a0 Would you give it a second thought?\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s what your ms. is like if it\u2019s got numerous typos, grammatical errors, etc.\u00a0 Most readers won\u2019t bother continuing beyond about five pages.<\/p>\n
If the ms. is clean as far as the things I just mentioned, then you get people reading it a lot further.\u00a0 What happens now?\u00a0 Well this is where your novel starts to get reviews based on content.\u00a0 Does the plot make sense?\u00a0 Did it carry me along, or was I sleeping by page 6?\u00a0 Are the characters interesting and likeable (assuming they\u2019re supposed to be).\u00a0 Again, this is the kind of feedback you hope for.<\/p>\n
Bookkus usually hopes for a few more than 10 reviews in order to make a decision.\u00a0 You might think that 10 reviews is easy, but it\u2019s not.\u00a0 If a novel is really poorly written many people just stop reading and move on (that\u2019s another thing to consider \u2013 if you\u2019re not serious enough to edit your work and polish it, why would anyone bother to take the time to review it?).\u00a0 The average rating out of 5 stars has to be at least 3.5 (making it better than average).\u00a0 If you get that (10 reviews with a 3.5\/5 average rating), then it goes into the discussion phase.<\/p>\n
The discussion phase is where Bookkus asks the reviewers to discuss whether or not the work is actually publishable. You might wonder why this is necessary since they\u2019ve already reviewed the book.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to remember that these folks are not professional reviewers.\u00a0 Sometimes you kind of like the story, but the writing is awful. Other times the writing is good, but the story sucks, or you\u2019re really not all that interested in the genre.\u00a0 In cases like this non-professional reviewers tend to be kind and give the book 3.5 or 4 stars.\u00a0 However, when asked if the novel is ready for publishing they hedge.\u00a0 \u201cWell, if the writing were improved\u2026,\u201d or \u201cIf the story were tightened up\u2026\u201d, etc.\u00a0 And of course the real tough questions is: \u201cWould you pay to read this book?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ve been involved in a few of these discussions (not including for my own book, the author is locked out on that), and this is where those with strong feelings pro- or con- really get involved, while those that are kind of on the fence just hang back.\u00a0 The fact that the novels Bookkus has published so far had close to unanimous support says a lot.<\/p>\n
Let me finish by emphasizing one thing.\u00a0 A well polished ms. does not mean a perfect ms.\u00a0 Bookkus allows for the fact that it is getting submissions from first time writers.\u00a0 You will get the support of both a content editor and a line editor if your book is chosen for publication.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll pick that up later under \u201cWhat\u2019s it Like to Write a book?\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Note: For purposes of full disclosure, remember, my novel \u201cAgony of the Gods\u201d has been published by Bookkus.] For the new writer, Bookkus is another option to consider.\u00a0 Basically, Bookkus is a hybrid.\u00a0 It\u2019s a publishing house, not a workshop like Book Country, but instead of the legendary \u201cbored intern\u201d reading your submission, it\u2019s posted…<\/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":[10,7,26],"class_list":["entry","post","publish","author-photophoosk100","post-267","format-standard","category-jotting-and-stray-thoughts","category-musings","post_tag-fun-writing","post_tag-getting-published","post_tag-writing-a-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","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=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomwolosz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}