Like most authors, I get my fair share of emails (or Facebook messages) from readers.
Most of the emails are positive and encouraging. I love hearing how God is at work in my stories to touch lives. The affirmation is truly a blessing (and I know my fellow authors here on this blog would agree!).
Occasionally I get emails regarding typos. Thankfully my editors are pretty good and there aren’t many mistakes. But I always pass along to my publisher any errors those keen-eyed readers spot. I’ve even added a few of those really sharp editorial-type readers to my “First Readers” list for my independently published books. After the indie book has gone through a couple of professional edits, I pass the book along to my First Readers who use their gift to spot any overlooked mistakes.
Sometimes I get emails from readers regarding suggestions for future stories. It’s fun to hear ideas and to know that readers loved characters so much that they’re not ready to say good-bye.
As a matter of fact, such reader emails were helpful last summer as I was attempting to figure out what direction to go next with my Young Adult (YA) books. I’d recently published the third book in a medieval YA series, For Love & Honor, and had begun working on a new medieval YA series.
When things didn’t come together for the new series quite the way I’d planned, I floundered, uncertain how to proceed. During that time of wondering, I received a couple of emails from young readers who’d just finished For Love & Honor and wanted to know if I was working on another book in the series.
One of the emails said: I just finished reading For Love and Honor and enjoyed it a great deal. I was wondering though if you’ll be writing a book about Aldric. I was hoping that while working off his debt to Lord Pitt he too could find love again and get his happy ending.
The feedback from those readers was just the nudge I needed. I got right to work writing A Loyal Heart, giving Aldric a happily-ever-after. While it’s the fourth book in my Uncertain Choice series, the story stands alone. Even though Aldric shows up in the previous book as a minor character, his story in A Loyal Heart is separate and complete in itself.
I’m happy to report that the book releases on March 6, 2018 (a month away!) and will be available in print and ebook. To pre-order or find out more visit Amazon or B&N.
So, dear readers, your feedback DOES make a difference! While authors obviously can’t take every suggestion to heart, you just never know how God might use your ideas, affirmation, and feedback to encourage an author!
What about YOU? Have you ever considered how your feedback and suggestions could bless an author?
P.S. I’m currently adding a few new influencers to my YA Launch Team. Influencers are readers who are excited about helping authors promote their books. If you like YA, sweet romances, and/or medieval stories, and enjoy helping spread the word about Christian fiction, then send me an email about the possibility of joining my team: jodyhedlundbooks@gmail.com
Jody Hedlund
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I’m super excited to read Aldrick’s story! I’ve been enjoying your books for several years, and I know that it’s going to be another fantastic one!
Thank you, Trisha! Hope you’ll enjoy it just as much as all the others! 🙂
Love your new cover, Jody! The heroine is so striking and strong, and the castle in the background is wonderful!
Over the last year or so, I’ve started leaning on my readers more and more for ideas. In fact, they were instrumental in helping me plot my latest novella that will come out later this fall. Like you said, we can’t use every suggestion, but you never know when one comment will strike a chord and get those creative juices flowing.
What a great idea to “brainstorm” with readers! Love that, Karen! I bet they’ll be even more excited to read the novella knowing they had a hand in it!
Awesome, thanks for the update! 🙂 I enjoyed the “Uncertain Choice” novels so I look forward to reading a new installment.
Thanks, Elisa! Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
The book looks good! Congrats on the upcoming release! 😀
Honestly as a writer, I think it’s silly *NOT* to take your readers feedback into consideration. Yes, you get a lot of useless stuff that can (and should) be discarded, but being OPEN to taking the ‘right’ suggestions is crucial, I think. We may be writing the stories for ourselves, but at the same time, putting them out there and letting others read them effects those readers too. But having many brains on something can sometimes spot, and open up avenues that a single person won’t have thought of.
I haven’t put my stories out there very far yet, but I find I appreciate the useful feedback I get. It can help make a story richer, more expanded and catch booboos I may not have seen myself.(Like the time I had a character told he could have as a reward if he did something. . .so he did the something and I forgot to have him go get the reward. lol Oops!A reader was quick to point that out for me so I could go back and correct it. hahah!)
I think, too, for authors who are actually publishing, it makes for good PR. 🙂 Thats never a bad thing.
You’re right, we often have to weigh through the feedback to know what to discard and what to use. I have to do that even with the edits I get back from my publisher. I don’t always agree with everything, but usually I make myself have a very good reason for discarding the advice, which means most of the time, I take every little bit of feedback very seriously. We all need help if we want to continue to improve!
I’m so excited to read this! Will the book be available in paperback at some point? It only seems to be in e-book format at the moment.
I looked to see if there was a way to contact the authors here as a group by email, but I didn’t see anything, so, since this post has to do with feedback, I’ll address my question here. 🙂 I was just talking with an author friend about a book by a favorite author who used to write excellent Christian fiction, but the content of her last book had really nothing Christian in it at all. I know sometimes Christian authors do write crossover books meant for the general audience, and I mused that perhaps this was the case with this book. My friend told me that even Christian publishers are encouraging authors to write general clean moral stories that are not overtly Christian because there’s not a market for the latter.
I talk to so many friends who DO want distinctly Christian literature that I can’t believe there’s NO market for it, though admittedly it will probably never be as large as the secular market. There doesn’t have to be a full-blown conversion in it, it shouldn’t be didactic, and some things can me implied rather than stated outright, but we love seeing Christian characters applying Biblical principles to their lives and dilemmas or seeking God’s help along the way.
I’d love to see the Inspired by Life and Fiction authors address this. Are you getting this same kind of pressure? Do you agree/disagree with it? I’d love for authors to tell their publishers that their readers do want this kind of content.
My author friend clarified this for me a little more: he said established Christian writers aren’t being asked to tone down the Christian content, but new authors are. He has written two books and his new agent, a fellow Christian, is encouraging him to take the Christian content out of his new manuscript.
That is rather awful. We should be seeing MORE Christian content, not less. And books with bolder statements. Not watering down the message that even Christians need to be getting.
On the good side, there are other options for authors nowadays. Maybe not as ‘good’ as getting into a publisher that’ll take care of marketing, et al, but self-publishing isn’t too shabby either at this point in the game. It’s not *wonderful* and from what I understand is a WHOLE lot more work for the author, who basically has to do *everything* themselves. But it would give you more control and more say about what goes into the novel as well, even if publishers don’t want to take the’risk’. (This does not mean the author should be lazy on edits and rewrites. Just means you have to find your own editor and do all your own rewrites, etc. ;P)
I suspect, when I finish my novel, I’m going to have to take this route as well, for the same reason. I realized early in the planning process that I may well have to publish it myself…because it’s such an ‘in between’ book, no one is going to want to publish it for me. And yeah, as a writer who wants to get closer to God, I have NO intention of taking that OUT of my writing.