The Early Reviews Are In!

One of the scariest things for any author is actually sharing your work with the world. It’s the moment of truth when everything you had in your head and wrestled onto the page is judged by someone besides yourself. This thing that has been so intimately personal is exposed.

Apart from my wife, nobody had read my book, Bit Flip, prior to two months ago. Very graciously, an expanding group of friends have agreed to read the manuscript and provide me with some feedback. I think of this as editing Silicon Valley style — crowdsourcing.

Starting in late October, I sent the manuscript out to about 20 people. With bated breath, I waited to hear what these earlier reviewers thought about my work. As a first-time novelist, my biggest question was simple: is this any good?

I’ve now heard back from most of the initial readers. In addition to many insightful comments which I will be incorporating into my next revision, I was incredibly flattered that the feedback was overwhelmingly positive!

Here’s a sample, in their own words:

As gratifying as this positive feedback is, I know I have a lot of improvements to make in the next revision. But this first round of feedback served to validate that there’s a strong story here that’s engaging and captures the ethos of the Silicon Valley bubble — which is exactly what I was trying to achieve!

So I am enthusiastically working on my next revision and continuing my hunt for a literary agent and publisher. Huge thanks again to those who have read it already! If you are interested in reading my next revision, please let me know by replying to this email, and I will add you to my growing list.

Finally, as always, I need your help spreading the word. So please share this with three people you know who might be interested, and post it to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or your other social media of choice. Thanks for your help!