I mentioned my “Think Tank” in a previous post, and I wanted to go a little more in-depth on what that has been for me. I simply emailed and Facebooked some friends and family off of whom I mercilessly bounced my ideas. Some bounced back, some did not, and some bounced back a whole lot. I have the scars to prove it! (Just kidding…) They were invaluable in pointing out problems and asking me questions about all the nonsense I wrote. For The Disenchanted Pet, I emailed the poor wretches every chapter as I finished it. In hindsight, that was super annoying. For How To Win Friends and Influence Magicians, I plan to email the whole chunk once it is done and then ask.
Either way, they helped me hammer out the gross, slimy lumps in my story, and I got the idea to do it from a useful article online, which I can’t now locate. Sorry! The article suggested 4 to 6 trusted people who like writing and reading and who enjoy reading things in the genre you are writing. (This last one is important if you want them to finish it! I chose a few family members who couldn’t finish it or didn’t have anything to say because they didn’t have any experience with those kinds of books.)
I will give you a link or two about book cover design as a consolation. I supplied these to my wonderful cover artists, Heidi and Erik Barnett, and they did an amazing job on my cover art!
The links are for AuthorHouse’s Resources on Book Marketing, specifically Book Covers:
http://www.authorhouse.com/AuthorResources/Design.aspx
Kate Policani 