Beta reading: Saving Gabriel

Right, I have at last got out a first draft of my fallen angel WIP, Saving Gabriel, and I’m opening this up for a beta reading in the most ways I can. If you follow me on Twitter (@Zoe_E_W, by the way) you can send me an email address to get a copy of the doc file. Already, I have quite a few more readers than I have on previous projects but hey a few more couldn’t hurt either.

If you’re one Wattpad, I’m also posting the story here, and I’ll upload new chapters up every 2 days. As this is a beta reading of the first draft, after one month each chapter will be taken down. The book will not be put back up on Wattpad again, so this is your brief chance to look over my story before it goes into a cocoon for a hibernation into a second draft book. (Then I’ll have to hunt down all the typos I introduced through the revision process in drafts three, four, and possibly five.)

Or if you’re not a tweeter, you can just email me your address at zoe_whitten (at) yahoo (dot) com. I will hook you up!

For those that don’t recall what Saving Gabriel is about, it’s a kind of YA dark fantasy with a mystery as the main focus and a romance as the subplot. This story is different from most of my other stories because there’s very little to be squicked out by here. The couple involved is straight (although engaging in interspecies romance, I admit.) The main characters are very different from the stereotypical YA couple, in that Rosalinda Fernandez is neither skinny nor a dainty flower. Gabriel isn’t the ubiquitous domineering boyfriend either, and the conflict between these two is more a matter of angelic law than Gabriel’s habit of “stalking” Rosalinda.

There MAY be some slight risk of causing offense to some religious folks, but I don’t think it will be too serious since I’m not suggesting that this is “the real story of heaven, hell, and Earth.” But yeah, some people might get upset because I manage to write God completely out of the story and turn this into a morally grey story about angels and the fallen. The story suggests that not everyone in hell is evil, nor is everyone in heaven good. And the people on Earth are a mixture of both qualities.

In short, this is about as close as I can get to mainstream. I think it’s a pretty good story with a mix of action, violence, a teensy bit of gore, and some romance thrown in for good measure. I’d like for this story to catch on before release day, so I’m hoping to get enough beta readers to iron out all of the little flaws and make this a purdy ebook for opening day.

And yes, I still would like to get the ebook into the hands of at least 10% of my Twitter followers on opening day, as that would mean rough 130 sales, enough to put me on the social radar briefly.

One more thought on this: If you do beta read this for me and send in a critique, you’re under no obligation to do anything else. BUT, perhaps when the book comes out you could distill your thoughts down to a review and rating? One of the hardest parts of convincing new readers to try my stuff is, I need more reviews. Not five star reviews, if you don’t think I earned it. My last review was a 3.5, and that’s still above average. So it works for me. Just think it over and maybe help me out opening day?

Okay, that’s enough begging for now. I’m not saying I’m completely done on begging for readers on this book. Just done for now. Yeah.

I’ll shut up now.