Mawgan Dipple
Mawgan Dipple asked Lia Peele:

I recently read flawed/stripped as part of my arc group, we are due to read your new bks at the end of the month, loved stripped, cant wait for more. as a fellow brit I love how you use our way of speaking in your books, we don't see enough of it. I would like to know how you get started once you finished writing your first book, im a budding author and nearly finished my first book but im lost as how to proceed?

Lia Peele Hi Mawgan

Apologies for the delay in responding ... I don't come on Goodreads nearly enough. I'm on it now to add Craving to it and saw your question.

I love that you're a Brit, too! I once trialled a US editor who said that I should change to US spellings and I polled it on Facebook. The overwhelming response (including US citizens) concluded that I should remain true to my roots. So I do!

Regarding your question, what I did was join Goodreads and look for beta readers. I got a couple for free, and a few were paid. It was a mixed bag really but then as I got more experienced I ended up with a couple of critique partners - it's a reciprocal process, I do theirs, they do mine.

Before you go to beta stage though, I'd suggest you edit it yourself. I don't just mean cleaning up typos etc. I mean check for redundancies, lose the passive voice as far as possible, check your tense is the same throughout. Check out most of Rayne Hall's editing books. They really helped me in the beginning. I'm still learning now, and don't think I'll ever stop but at least I know the basics now!

Hope this helps,
Lia x

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