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I’ve finished a draft of my novel. I could use your help. Want to read it and comment?

Published: Feb 21, 2022
Category: editor's letter

Almost every product in America is presented to a focus group before it hits the market. Books aren’t. This baffles me. Do writers really not want to know their work is flawed until critics savage their books and Amazon customers pelt them with one-star reviews? Or is it something simpler: Writers consider themselves “artists,” which is to say, at least a few levels above grubby commercial concerns.

“I’m an artist,” Mike Nichols said. “I’m also a commercial artist.” I’m with him. I’d love reviewers to bow to my genius. I’d also love my books to be sold in airports.

As longtime readers know, I focus every book. And I pay attention to what you tell me. Like this: I recently convened a focus group for my adaptation of Michael Tonello’s memoir, Bringing Home the Birkin. Your comments pointed me toward a revision. Then the theater that presented my Matisse play did a table read that yielded more suggestions. I gladly made them, hit SEND, and I await one more reader: Michael Tonello.

And now I’d like your help with my novel.

If I tell you the title, you’ll be able to guess what it’s about. If I send you the cover I’ve had created, you’ll absolutely know. If you join the focus group, you’ll see the cover. For right now, I just want volunteers.

I can say this much: It’s about a kid who lives in a Long Island suburb. At age 3 he learns that he’s destined to be important and well-known and admired. The novel is his life story until he’s 18. It’s short: 45,000 words. It reads fast, like a screenplay.

For reasons of no interest to you, I need to hear from you by late Thursday night — this Thursday, February 24. Assuming I can send the Word file to you on Friday, February 25, I’d like your comments by March 15. I know you have a million other things to do. I completely understand if you’d like to do this and can’t.

What I need from you:
Name
Email address
Approximate age cohort
Where you live
Do you have children? If so, how many? Ages?
The last book you really enjoyed
A book you’ve read twice
If you’ve been in another Butler focus group
Anything you think I should know about you (optional)

Write me at HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com

Am I grateful? Beyond.