What drive people to write books? It’s not because they have a story to share or they’re pursuing a dream (or fame). It’s due to the encouragement they receive from people who have read their unpublished works. One writer decided to publish a revised version of a book she wrote and gave to her family and relatives after a niece who loved it so much encouraged her to pursue writing.

Fantasy fiction writers publish books not only to entertain people and earn royalties from selling them, but also to know what people think about their work and their writing and storytelling skills. Because we write for people, it is best and proper to get feedback from them. Why? So we could decide whether to keep writing books? To know if we have a future in writing? To know when to stop pursuing a dream and start applying for a real job? It’s up to an author to deal with the feedback he or she receives from readers and critics. Circumstances may vary.

What I want to emphasize is you need to get a second opinion about your book and perhaps a third, fourth and so on would greatly help. Feedback – all the praises, criticisms or suggestion – is what makes the literary world go round and pushes writers to give their very best. Feedback separates the best from the rest and help readers recognize what books to read and what’s not.

Writing fantasy fiction can get tricky sometimes. You can take your story in just about any direction you want but you need to be careful not to get too carried away. You want your story to be free of gibberish, gaping holes and anything else that do not make sense. You want your characters and scenes to matter in the whole narrative. But how would you know you’re doing a great job?

That’s when you will need to submit your manuscript to editors or literary agents. That’s when you will want your publisher to send you your galley proofs or pre-first edition of your book so you could submit them to book critics, other writers and even your family and friends – anyone who loves to read the kind of stuff you write and whose insights you believe would help improve your craft.

Consider yourself fortunate to be able to make changes to your book even in the production stages. Publishers allow authors enough time to add changes to their book, edit a paragraph or two, delete a dialogue or scene, or supplement the plot – things you would never do if not for the feedback you received from people who have read the pre-first edition of your book.

Got an author website, blog or social media? Why not share excerpts of your manuscript or give the first chapter for free? If you sell on Amazon, always provide a preview of your book. Do this not to promote your book but to provide readers a teaser of your work and more importantly, get their reaction to your book. A few people might be amused to know you’re writing something but knock them off their feet with a free chapter or pre-first edition of your book. If they love it, tell them they’ll have to wait till your book hit the bookstores. And remind them to buy it, hahaha!

Feedback is important in regards as to how well your fantasy fiction book will be received by your readers. You get an idea of what you need to change or whether you need to do little more research. Maybe you need to change a character, add more to a scene or dialogue or else cross out one.

Keep in mind about the changes you want to make as they may impact the sales potential and reviews of your book. Should you change something or not? Would you be happy with the manuscript as it is or be happier with the revisions?

A lot of times, writers will look at what the trends are and follow whatever is hot and trending, thus not staying true to their craft and not believing in their own creativity. The field is open to all that works, but stay true to yourself and create the best work to share to your readers. Accept constructive criticism gracefully.

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