On to the Readers!

Done!

As of yesterday, I finished this edit. It felt weird to step away from the novel with that idea.

This is, officially, my last draft. Next is lining up my readers and sending it off to them to get their feedback. I didn't want to slacken off - I'd been so good at getting in and working on it every day - that right away today I made it my task to send out the messages verifying readers.

I had a growing list of possible beta-readers, collected from people I'd met in person and on line, names of readers from the first time around, and a couple old friends who were interested. They say not to use people who know you well because they are likely to be less critical, but these two are significant for different reasons and I didn't want to leave them out.

This morning, I sat down and sent out 5 messages to 5 people who had expressed at some point an interest in doing this. As of tonight I've heard back from three of them. Two definite yesses and one with questions before she decides.

It's exciting to get the answers back from people. Makes it feel more - real, more legitimate. And that gives me hope for the query process.

Querying is daunting, but maybe if I ride this wave of adrenaline and start writing query letters tomorrow... not to send out yet of course. I'll wait for the readers' feedback first, but just to get my head around the concept.

Woo-hoo! Exciting times. 

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