Today’s Round of Words in 80 Days check-in is going to be a little bit different from my usual ones. First of all, there will be no breaking down of goals (although, really, I only have two main goals this round, so that basically means I won’t be talking about one of them). Because today is a day of celebration and a day to focus on the accomplishment of one main goal. Are you ready for this? Brace yourselves. It’s gonna be big…
FIRST ROUND EDITING ON SOULLESS IS COMPLETE!!!
I have before me a document that is primed and ready to go through a few more revisions, and then it’s off to the formatting and those last final steps to have it published and ready to sell. I am stoked! But I need some fresh new eyes on it before I can pick through it a second time, to get some thoughts and ideas on it as a whole, as well as some nitpicking on grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, word use, etc, etc, etc. In other words, I need me some beta readers! Please let me know, either here in the comments or via email (ellis.engler@gmail.com) if you’re interested. Here’s what I’d need from you:
-The ability to get through as much as the manuscript in about a month. I’d like to publish in July, meaning I’ll need to have my final edits and formatting done by the end of June. If you think you can have the whole thing read and critiqued (or, heck, even just a big portion of it) by JUNE 27th (if not earlier), please let me know! The manuscript is about 93 WordDoc pages, approximately 57000 words.
-A keen eye for grammar and punctuation errors, as well as clunky phrasing, awkward dialogue and phrasing, and just any rough spots in the text. I want honest readers who will point out the parts of the book they think should be changed/improved upon before it hits print.
-The ability to mark suggested changes without changing the document itself. I have the manuscript on Google docs, where others with the same program might be able to make comments in the margins or highlight trouble spots. If you have a program that allows you to do the same with your own document, we can do that too. Actually, even just a write up detailing suggestions would also work, though being able to comment on a document might be a little easier.
-The potential to contribute a blurb about the book for the cover. This, naturally, isn’t a requirement, but if you’d like to offer something to help me promote the book and have your comments appear on the cover, I’d greatly appreciate it.
For the most part, that covers it. Please let me know if there are any questions. And a big giant whopping thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to spare some time helping me improve my book. I’ll more than likely try to throw in a free copy for you once it’s published, and plenty of gratitude and recognition in the book itself.
And, if you’re in the mood to read something, but don’t want to make it through a whole rough draft of a novel, head on over to here and check out some of my fellow RoWers. Happy writing, everyone!
YAY FINISHED DRAFTS!
L.S. Engler 
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