Well, our little tester finished the book; and, the other night, I had a little telephone interview with her.
She’s a very articulate and bright little girl and was very eager to tell me what she thought about the book.
She won me over in her first sentence… when she said that she thought the book must have been written by some famous author; it was THAT good!
She mentioned how her mother always has to nag her to read 40 minutes each night for school; but when she started this book, she became inspired to read. She didn’t need her mother to remind her, and she read longer than she had to read. The reading level was just perfect for her.
She thought Billy was a normal kid — which translated, to me, that she easily related with the protagonist and identified with him, his feelings, and what he was going through.
She really liked the way the adults talked to Billy and liked the various lessons throughout the story. She liked all the characters, except for creepy Mr. T — the bad guy — but she recognized that she wasn’t supposed to like him.
She did give me some advice for my next book. She said that I must always have a bad guy in the story. The bad guy keeps the story interesting and moving along. [Got it!]
I asked if there was a section she would change, if she could. She mentioned an intense scene that — although she was fine with it — she thought younger kids would become upset with it. I told her that we were aiming for the age group of 9 to 12 and asked if she thought that was a good age range for the book. She totally agreed and thought that would be perfect. [Got it!]
My little tester did a fabulous job for me. Her comments about the intense scene were very telling. Although this first book is fine, I’ll have to revamp the second book in this series, because that book is even more intense than this one. It’s good to know how far I can go with this age group.
I can’t get over what great feedback my little tester gave me! Most kids — and adults, for that matter — would just say they liked the book and that would be the end it. Feedback like that is really nice for the ego, but it doesn’t really help the person asking for the feedback.
Most people are afraid to give their honest opinion about things when asked, because they are afraid of hurting the other person’s feelings.
I don’t want my feelings hurt either, but there is a way of sharing our opinions and feelings without hurting someone else’s feelings in the process. We just have to put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and phrase the comments in a way that wouldn’t hurt our feelings if we were on the other end of the criticism.
Anyway… I can go on and on about giving and receiving criticism, but I’ll stop here…
I just can’t get over how this little girl, who hates to read, kept thanking me for letting her read my book…
I’m on Cloud Nine!!!
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