To be quiet honest, I wasn’t sure what I was doing or what I was supposed to be doing. I just know a good book when I read it. As an author, one of my biggest insights came when my editorial review came back on my first book, “The 13th Demon” (Now re-edited and to be released by Strang in the fall of 2011). The red marks were endless it seemed. The nameless, faceless editors had filled five pages with mostly trivial changes but the real shocker was the final recommendation. This book was SO bad, I needed a book doctor to make it work!

I had flashbacks to an online writer’s workshop I participated in when Compuserve was one of the only internet entry points. I had written a science fiction story I still consider one of my best. It was about a time in the future when the space program had been abandoned and the homeless had taken over the structures at Cape Canaveral. A doctor who had been ostracized from the medical community because of his criticism of the government run health plan secretly took care of the needs of these people. In the midst of this story, a repressive government stepped in to oust the homeless and to stop the doctor from wasting precious medical resources on a portion of the populace that should be “culled”. In the process a pregnant woman on the run with the doctor delivers a child. This child is special and will one day save the human race.

It was a secular story because this was required by the guidelines. The device of a government run health program that might use its power to “fine tune” the evolutionary development of the human race was a tiny little device at the beginning of the story just to set up the conflict between the doctor and the soldiers that were pursuing him and his patients.

I was so excited to learn that the professional moderator of the writer’s workshop was going to be one of the top best selling science fiction authors at that time. I downloaded ten stories from the other amateur participants and critiqued them. My story was similarly critiqued by the other participants. And then, I received the critique of my story by the published author. He started out attacking me personally for daring to criticize the Canadian health care system (He was from Canada, I soon learned and criticizing their health care plan was NEVER my intent) and went on to write three pages of hostile, angry, vicious put downs aimed at me personally as a “rich, spoiled, abusive medical doctor in the United States”. I was so upset, I gave up writing for a few months until my wife begged to start writing again so I could recover my sanity.

The workshop devastated me and so did this editorial review. I came so close to tossing the manuscript for "The 13th Demon" into the trash. Who was I to assume I could write a book? But, I had two revelations.

First, I asked myself what did the editorial committee have to gain by so harshly criticizing my book? Were the criticisms justified? The manuscript in question was seven years in the making at the time. I had allowed a half dozen of my writing friends to critique it. It wasn’t THAT bad. Then, I realized that this company I was using would make far more money if I paid them to hire a book doctor. In fact, it would take $6500 to “doctor” my book! Suddenly, I saw a motive for the harsh criticism. Just like in the workshop, there were other reasons. The science fiction author who trashed my story had used my workshop as a soapbox for his political views. He had no interest in encouraging me to write. He had a huge audience that would see his critique of the abusive health care system in the United States. No matter what your political views, this was a form of censorship. Hey, Bruce, if you change your story and agree with my point of view, I’ll make you a successful science fiction author. But, you have to rewrite the story to please ME.

Similarly, by trashing my book, this company stood to make thousands of dollars. So, and here is my point, I took a harsh look at the book proposal and the editorial review and I realized something.

My second revelation was more personal. Book proposals include sample chapters. I was so focused on selling this book to a publisher, I tried to squeeze as much of the story in the first six chapters as possible to hook the editor. In fact, I realized I had NOT WRITTEN A BOOK THAT I WOULD WANT TO READ! This was  huge paradigm shift for me. If I were to pick up my own book, how would I want the story to unfold as a reader, not the author.

I went back and completely rewrote the first third of the book and added sixteen chapters. I ignored the advise to hire a book doctor and published the book my way. It went on to sell well and win some awards and, most importantly, attract the attention of a good agent (I’ve had two really, really bad agents) who subsequently helped me obtain a five book deal with Strang.

I say all of this because in my book review of “Venom and Song” I approached the book and my review not as “How would I write this book?” but “How would I READ this book?” That has made all the difference. I truly enjoyed reading both books and now, I will go out and find those other books by these authors and add them to my Kindle list.

A note of encouragement. Be wary of unsolicited suggestions and take criticisms from those people who are good readers as well as good writers. Now, it’s time to go kill some spiders!!!!!