: Re: How do you know if a book is ready? My mom says that my books are really good and that people will enjoy them. I know parents say things to their kids to keep their hopes and dreams alive,

@Debbie451

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You need to run your book past readers who are capable of assessing it objectively. That may or may not include your mother, but it should certainly include more people than just your mother. Look among your friends and friends-of-friends for people who read a lot of books in the same genre/style as yours. Ask them to give a critique. You are not obliged to follow what they say, but be open minded.

Do not let this process delay too long the real test. Submit it to a publisher. When it is rejected, as most books by unknown authors are, submit it to another publisher. And again, and again. Or, if you can afford to, self-publish. It is much easier and cheaper to do this using electronic publishing than it used to be. To self publish is to submit your work to the ultimate test: the reading public. I am afraid that there is no real way of being sure that your book is ready for the world except actually showing it to the world.

Criticism is inevitable. As The Thom says above, you can be certain that your book won't be enjoyable for everyone. To be honest most writers struggle to find much of an audience and would even welcome a bad review on the grounds that at least someone is paying attention.

This advice isn't intended to crush your dreams but to give you a better chance of making them reality. Rejection always hurts. But if you really want to be a writer you will take the risk. I've read that hardly anyone who has written a book regrets doing so.

Speaking personally, despite having a publications list as long as your arm in a non-fiction field, I really struggle with a tendency to delay and delay until I am sure my fiction is "ready" by which I mean "perfect", a thing that will never happen. So I'm talking to me as well as to you!

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