#6

Hey everyone! I hope you all had lovely weekends, and I hope even more that you found someone out there to critique your work. But now, let's assume that you've taken the steps already put forth in these resolutions, and let's assume that you have something published, or something that's preparing to be published. Now it's time to take another step forward, into the sometimes scary world of reviews.

Resolution #6: Get Professionally Reviewed

This is, again, something that not a lot of us want to do. I mean, it's someone's professional opinion about either a work that is already published or a work that is about to be published. It can be very intimidating. Trust me, I know. I'm just starting to delve into this myself.

1. I don't mean your friend

Now, when I say it's time to get reviewed, I don't mean that it's time to send your novel off to your friend and have them write up a paragraph of what they thought. I mean that it's time to find someone professional to look at your work, and to write an honest review of their thoughts and opinions.

If you have a friend who you think is capable of that, then more power to them. Personally, I've found that friends tend to be too focused on maintaining the friendship and not focused enough on the fact that I need an actual review.

Beware the friend who flatters. 

2. Editors, agents, professional reviewers

These people are frequently a little harder to get in touch with, but if you can manage it, it's well worth it. I keep telling myself that, because I'm wait listed with a few.

These are the people that other people listen to, the people whose opinion for some reason matters more than others. So if you can get in touch with one of them, if you run into one of them at a conference and the two of you hit it off, don't be afraid to ask for this favor. I've found that people are generally nice enough to at least wait list you.

3. Other published authors

This is right between the first two levels. It's a step up from having your friend review it, and a step down from an actual editor. If you know anyone who is a published author (hi!), send them a message and see if they'd be willing to read your book. They usually also have a stack of books they're supposed to be reading and reviewing, but if you play your cards right, they'll at least put you in the pile.


See, reviews are how we get more people to read our work. We use professional reviews to promote ourselves, to promote our work, and to show people that bigger named people enjoyed what we did. It's a little weird if you think too much about it, but it works!

So if you're already published, or you're about to publish, go out there and get some reviews. I promise, it'll be worth it.

[love]

{Rani Divine}