A Post For Writers: If Someone Wants You to Change Something About Your Books, Should You Do It?

I have included this information in this video if you would rather listen to it:

For those who prefer reading, let’s get to it.

Regardless of what you write, there’s probably going to come a day when someone lets you know that they want you to change something about your book. Once upon a time, I did do some write-to-market books, and I think if you are writing to market, then you need to be more willing to accept this feedback IF this person represent the audience you are writing for. If you are writing for passion, then you have a lot more flexibility because you are your primary audience.

Let’s consider the factors that go into making the decision on whether to change things or not:1. Is the person a fan of the genre you’re writing in?

If the person isn’t a fan of the genre, they might think they know what to best do for that genre when the truth is, they really don’t. Only someone who is a fan of the genre understands why people love that genre. Understanding why people love the genre is key. They will be reading your book through the lens of what makes the genre great.

For example, I was recently taking to a Historical Fiction author. She’s got talent. She’s also pretty impressive to listen to. She takes journals written in other languages and translates them to do her research on royal families who have lived in the past. (You know what? I’m going to give her a shout out in this post in case anyone reading this enjoys Historical Fiction that features royal families. So it’s fiction based on real events. She’s taken some liberties to craft her stories. Her name is Luv Lubker. This is her website.) The problem here is that I am not a Historical Fiction reader. I am primarily a romance reader (though my second love is horror). So my advice for her was wrong because I wasn’t looking at her story through the lens of a Historical Fiction reader. I wanted the main characters to go in a certain direction that would have been great for a romance novel, but it would not have fit into the real life events she needs to build around. It took me a while to figure out I wasn’t helping her. I was only going to get in her way. So I backed off.

Now, if you come across someone who understands your genre and what makes it work for its readers, then that advice would be worth taking into consideration. I’m not saying you have to take it. Just consider it. Just because the advice might be a good rule of thumb, it doesn’t mean it works for your specific book.

2. Is the person nice or a jerk?

In my opinion, rude people don’t deserve your attention. I automatically delete and block these types of people. I don’t bother answering them. If you want to reply to them, you can. I just have never found a situation where things ended up better because I answered a rude person. For me, silence has been the better option.

I will, however, listen to the nice ones. Maybe the advice is something you don’t want to put into your book, but I would acknowledge the advice, thank the person, and politely decline if you want to keep your book as is. If you end up changing something, then I would still thank the person and then let them know what you decided to change based on their suggestions.

3. Is the person right?

If the person is nice and if the person is right, then I would seriously consider their advice.

If the person is nice but the advice is not right, then I would say no.

I go into two examples in the video, and I don’t think I was that clear on what I was getting out with the comma thing because I was just going off my notes. But essentially, the example with the comma is as follows:

Two independent clauses need to be separated by a period, a semicolon, or a word like “and”, “but”, “so”. This person thought the independent clauses should be joined together with a comma instead.

So I was writing this: “I went to the store. I bought bread.”

She thought it should be this: ” I went to the store, I bought bread.”

I do not know what they are teaching people in school today because my oldest kid thought the same thing she did. I took a look at his writing and saw the teacher was okay with all of these commas instead of putting in the period, the semicolon, or adding a word like “and” with the comma. My kid knows better now, but I don’t think I can blame this person completely on believing what she did with the commas because she probably had a teacher like the one my kid did.

I made a brief mention of an independent clause and a dependent clause but got sidetracked. Essentially, this is what I was getting at in this case:

So let’s say I write this: “I went to the store and bought bread.”

This is correct because you don’t need a comma. The subject goes for the “went to the store” and the “bought bread”.

This person thought I should write the sentence like this: “I went to the store, and bought bread.”

Again, my son would have agreed with her.

But they were wrong. So it would be wrong for me to take this advice.

(As a disclaimer, I am not an expert on grammar. I will still consult a grammar guide from time to time.)

I didn’t think of it in the video, but let’s say someone is telling you that your character should not be a certain way. Well, this is your character. Who better knows this character than you do? Maybe the character IS supposed to be that way. You will have to disregard that advice because it doesn’t fit what you intend for this character.

I’ll give an example. When I wrote Eye of the Beholder, Chapter 1 ended with the heroine’s parents shaking her hand when they were saying goodbye to her. Someone told me the parents should not be so cold. That person wanted the parents to hug my heroine and tell her how much they would miss her. But that was NOT who these parents were. These parents were cold. That was my point in writing them the way I did. So if you run into a situation like that, then you will need to go with your instincts and let the character be the way that character is.

This could go for anything in the book, of course.

Let’s say they are right, though. If they are correct, then their advice is worth considering.

For example, years ago, I remember writing the phrase “for now on…” I thought that was the right way of doing it until someone pointed out (nicely) that it supposed to be “from now on…” I have since changed to writing the phrase the correct way.

Here is another example I didn’t think about while making the video:

I’ll give an example on one of my characters where I did decide to make the change. I have some help with my first draft. I trust two people to go over it while I’m writing it to give me their thoughts. One person did not like the way the hero was acting. Since this was early on in the book, I had enough time to look at him, examine the plot, and what my goal was for him. It turned out to be very helpful. I adjusted the plot, tweaked his personality, and the story is stronger for it.

As an aside, I also decided to let a character who was never actually IN the story live so that he will get a story later in a series I’m working on. That is because one of those two readers told me they would like to see a reunion between father and son.

I do think it’s helpful to get feedback, and there are times when the changes are for the better.

4. How much work is this person asking you to do?

Unfortunately, time is a finite resource. You can’t do two things at once. In this case, you may hire someone to do that second thing for you. If you hire someone, you will need to pay them. Do you have the money for that? And if so, can they correctly do the task? Or will you need to hold their hand through it?

If you need to do this change yourself, is the change something quick? It’s easier to fix a typo or a small inconsistency issue than it is to do rewrites of your book. The more time and effort you need to spend on making someone happy, the less inclined I would be to do it. I mean, if someone doesn’t like my plot or my character (and I have already finished the first draft), I am not going to take the time to rewrite the book. When I finish the first draft, I am done. I’ll do small changes, but I won’t do big ones. Rewriting a book means I can’t write a new one, and since I write for passion, I prefer to focus on new “shiny” projects.

Now, some authors will rewrite the book. You certainly can. There is nothing wrong with that. If you want to rewrite the book because you will be happier with it, then I think that’s a good reason to invest this much time and effort into changing the book. But I’m not a big proponent of rewriting an entire book because someone out there doesn’t like it. Chances are, you can find someone who likes your book just the way it is. Taste is subjective. You will always find some people who love something that others hate. Take a look at the reviews on your favorite books and movies. You’ll find a wide range of opinions on them. It doesn’t make those books or those movies bad. It just means that those books and movies did not please everyone.

5. What do YOU think of the book?

Are you happy with it? If so, there’s no reason to change it…as long as this is a passion project. The rules of writing for passion are different from writing to market. When you are looking at passion, you have the luxury of doing things your way.

Now, if you are doing this for the market (which means you are writing books in order to make money, rather than to write stuff you love), then I would ask, “Are your sales number making you happy? Is your income where you want it to be? If you change the book to fit what the market wants, is there a chance you can make more money?” When you are writing to market, I don’t think your opinion on the book itself is the driving factor. I think the driving factor is how happy the target audience is with the book because that is who you wrote it for. I didn’t think to specify this last point in the video, so I am doing so now.