I’ve had a couple of Beta Readers that were willing to read my first draft, and I truly appreciate the feedback they gave.  It’s made my book much tighter, cleaner.  But some of the most valuable feedback is the kind I never really received. 

One of my readers is my brother, Frank.  He’s perfect.  He’s a commercial graphic artist who has owned an indy comic book publication company, published several of his own indy comics.  He regularly gets his artwork out there in contests.  He’s not ashamed to admit he loves role playing games.  When he’s not reading comics or graphic novels, he’s reading science fiction or fantasy.  He told me it would take him a while to finish my book because of his schedule, and proceeded to work his way steadily though it, telling me what he liked and areas where he thought I needed to take a second look.  And then he stopped.

“Have you finished it yet?