Do you need a critical reader? Try me!

What is a critical reader? You’ve crafted a killer first chapter and finessed your final draft. The question remains: is my novel any good?

And who can you ask for an unbiased opinion? Friends? Family? Other writers?

I’ll give you a fourth option: ask The Good Reader. I’m here to provide the unbiased, independent opinion of an experienced writer — but I’ll do it wearing my critical reader’s hat.

The ABCDs of a good read

If you’re writing sci-fi-fantasy or horror, I’ll look for the four factors that keep people reading or make them put a book down before they get to the end.

They’re called the ABCDs, and they were created by Mary Robinette Kowal, author of the multi-award-winning Lady Astronaut series. Instead of long questionnaires, she asks her beta readers to think about these four simple questions while they look at her latest novel. She gets back reports that are easy to compare, so that she can if the same things come up and she can get to work on fixing them.

What’s a Beta Reader? That’s someone who reads the very final draft of a novel before it’s submitted for publishing. Successful authors employ four to six beta readers, often in two rounds, so they can make changes and see if they work.

A: What was Awesome?

This is the good stuff that makes your novel hard to put down.

A killer hook that delivers on its promise. A mind-bending premise. Characters that readers can’t wait to see more of. A main character that readers root for, or a villain they almost want to succeed. A world that’s simply fascinating. Snappy dialogue that feels like you’re in the room (or on the spaceship). A romantic subplot tugging at their heartstrings. Stunning action set-pieces. Page-turning cliffhangers and irresistible tension. A climax that lingers after the final word.

Hopefully, you’ve got all of these, and your novel is ready to publish. Maybe you’ve also got a must-read front cover and brilliant back cover blurb. I’ll rate those, too.

B: What was Boring?

Sometimes, readers just give up on a book.

They’ve got another book that looks like it might be better. They can’t get into your world. Your characters are dull. The dialogue is hokey. They just stopped caring what happened. It’s full of typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

I will finish your book. If I didn’t want to finish it, I’ll tell you why, in a way that I hope will help you to revise it into something that I want to finish. It might hurt, and you will probably disagree with some points — I often struggle with feedback when I can see it means changing things I like. It won’t be as nasty as a bad review on Amazon or Goodreads.

I’ll offer two pieces of free advice: read How Not To Write A Novel; and use a writing checker like Grammarly or ProWritingAid. The first one will open your eyes to simple writing errors — and it’s an easy read — the second will save you a lot of embarrassment over the kind of mistakes it’s really difficult to see without the expense of professional proofreading.

C: What Confused me?

They did what? But why? Who’s this person? And how come the entire world is now pink?

Writers know our worlds, and we know why our characters are doing the things we want them to do. Sometimes we know it so well that we fail to make it clear to our readers. If there’s too much of this, they will put your book down, unfinished. An agent will not respond to your query and a reader will give you a one-star review.

I will find the places where your story’s logic breaks down and suggest ways to make your reality consistent, no matter how fantastical.

D: What Didn’t I believe?

We’ve all had an “oh, come on!” moment, when you throw a book across the room because you can’t believe in the world, or the characters. None of us want to write that book, but it’s all too easy.

Sometimes characters behave in blatantly unbelievable ways to keep the plot on track. Maybe you save your characters with a godlike intervention that renders all of their struggles pointless (the classic deus ex machina), or you pretend that it’s vaguely realistic science fiction until you really need your heroine to breathe in a vacuum.

Sometimes these are matters of taste. I’ll highlight the places where I fell out of your story and suggest how it might work better. As ever, it’s up to you.

What do you do with the ABCDs?

I’ll write up my notes in a report that gives you a overview of your work, then I’ll drill down into the ABCDs. I’ll also recommend whether I think you need the detailed attentions of a structural editor, a copy editor, a line editor or a proofreader. If there’s a cover, I’ll provide notes on that, and for Opening Chapters I can provide an ABCD on your story outline.

For an additional feee, I can tidy up my notes and provide an annotated version of your manuscript or book. We can also schedule a Zoom consultation to chat through my feedback.

How do I commission The Good Reader?

You can find out more on The Good Reader home page, or you can jump straight to the query pages for Opening Chapters, an Alpha Reader report, or a Beta Reader report.

I look forward to your enquiry. If you have questions about this service, drop them in the comments or use my contact form.