Accepting that your Book isn't Perfect with Abigayle Claire

Hello! I have Abigayle Claire here with us today to talk about accepting that your book isn't perfect, a necessary step in the editing process.

I only just met Abigayle Claire through Indie e-Con ... but I've already decided that I'm going to steal her name for a character someday. Stay tuned for that. She just released her debut "Martin Hospitality" last month. I haven't had a chance to read it yet ... but I've heard that it's pretty good.

Follow her on the Interwebs:

Blog~Amazon~Goodreads~Facebook~Twitter~GooglePlus~Pinterest~YouTube

While accepting that your book isn't perfect may seem like a given, trust me when I say that it's so much harder than you can imagine.

I felt pretty good about the first draft of my novel, Martin Hospitality. I knew it had issues, but I was really pleased with myself. I had a batch of alpha readers give me feedback on it. To accept that your novel isn't perfect, have people you tell you it isn't perfect. But I felt okay with that. My novel wasn't perfect, but ... it was going to be perfect, right?

Wrong.

I was under the impression that if I read my book enough times and if I handed it to strangers and asked them questions enough times, I would be given all the solutions to any issue people could find with my book.

Unless you can read minds or see the future, your book will not make everyone happy.

While I did get more confidant and more comfortable with my novel as I continued to work on it, I also began to realize that it wasn't going to be perfect in everyone's eyes. So then I had to step back and think. Who was I really doing this for?

Consider your target audience and make sure they are overall please. For me, that was teenaged girls, and they were enjoying it.

Then think about what inspired you in the first place. A crazy dream that I truly believe came from God is where Martin Hospitality began.

That's when I realized: I'm not the only author. God had been with me the whole way. As long as I had Him working through me and I sought His counsel, the book didn't have to be perfect for everyone. Because it would be perfect for Him.

If you're like me, your book is done when God's done with it. That sounds rather ambiguous, doesn't it? The way to avoid that is to have a deadline. You have to be done when you have to be done.

I'm pretty sure I never would have finished my novel if God hadn't initiated it, my readers hadn't encouraged me throughout, and that deadline hadn't forced me to stop.

I am a perfectionist by nature and I was able to manipulate some minor changes after that deadline because it wasn't perfect yet. Guess what? My novel has been on Amazon for over 6 weeks now and it still isn't perfect. It never will be. But I decided to give it everything, and that came from God.

Since none of us will ever be able to know that our novel is perfect, can't we at least know it's finished? Don't deny yourself that one satisfaction for the hope of the other.

Once you accept that your novel isn't going to be perfect, you get it the closest you can.

~~~~~

Abigayle has been inspired to write since she could spell her own name. Her passion wasn’t completing the stories (she did that twice and decided it wasn’t for her), it was jotting down the ideas. Once she experienced the joy that comes with sharing her stories with others, she began penning her stories with the intention of publication.

Writing is her ministry, freelance editing her job, and reading her pastime—all of which prove that God really does know what He’s doing when He inspires a six-year-old with a pencil in her left hand. Abigayle lives in Central Texas with her parents and six younger siblings.

To find out more about Abigayle's publishing journey, look for her post tomorrow or visit her blog, The Left-Handed Typist. Her first novel, Martin Hospitality, is available on Amazon. Her first novel, Martin Hospitality, is available on Amazon.

~ Abi | theleft-handedtypist.blogspot.com ~