Beta Reviewers Are Like Cherished Editors- Savor the Experience!

I hope everyone has had a great New Year holiday!

With this blog, I’d like to share three things with you.

First is a recent review posted by Roger Gilmartin a volunteer Beta Reviewer for my new military SciFi MILK RUN. His comments read like a book review with some interesting thoughts on the story and character arc analysis.

Observations like his and the other nineteen MILK RUN Beta Reviewers have been a great help to me as they all challenged my story assumptions, believability of the science used as the story’s backdrop and caused me to chop off passages to keep the story moving quickly and with a sense of excitement and desire to read the next chapter. I’m encouraged by Roger’s constant critical critique and of course his 5 out of 5 scores for Overall Rating and Anticipation. This is something I think all writers want to experience- critique and encouragement!

So, I celebrate and applaud each and every one of my Beta Reviewers! Now that I think about it, they really function as professional story editors and it sometimes feels like they are in the room with me as I write MILK RUN. Click here to see Roger’s critique.

Interested in reading more about MILK RUN or becoming a beta reviewer? Click here then click the big blue “Request Beta Copy” button to join and get a free read of MILK RUN as I create it!

Now, if you like SciFi stories like MILK RUN that dives into the challenges young, first time spaceship captains must overcome to survive, then check out MICAR (The Empire Book 1) by Catty Diva. Micar, a first time captain in a junior fleet, is assigned to carry cargo, passengers and possibly a secret that others want to steal. Can Micar and his teenage counterparts take on so much responsibility and survive? Click here or the book image to download this book.

Second, speaking of editors, I’d like to share with you a recent Terry Gross Fresh Air NPR interview with Robert Gottlieb. At 91, Robert Gottlieb is perhaps the most acclaimed book editor of his time. He started out in 1955 and has been working in publishing ever since — serving as editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker. The list of authors he’s edited include Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré, Katharine Graham, Bill Clinton, Nora Ephron and Michael Crichton.

Click the blue and white play button arrow in the image below to listen to or read a transcript of this podcast and you’ll get some useful insights about great editors such as Robert Gottlieb and understand what goes through their mind as they work with authors. Click here if the play button doesn’t work. By the way, did you know that Robert Gottlieb coined the term Catch-22 when he was editing that book for Joseph Heller?

Third. We are at the end of the holidays and the same is true for the “Sail Into the Holidays” sale of great SciFi and Fantasy Stories promotion that ends January 8.

To celebrate the New Year, I’m dropping the price of my new SciFi book GOD GAMES to $2.99 till January 8. GOD GAMES is an upside down SciFi retelling of the greatest biblical story ever told! But it ain’t what you learned in church! So, click here or the image below to check out GOD GAMES and the 40 other SciFi and Fantasy books!