Avoid the Traps

How you select your audience and approach them is entirely up to you. Just be aware of the far-reaching impact of the descriptive words and phrases you chose. Words that resonate with a Sunday evening prayer group may completely turn off a large segment of your less spiritually-oriented potential market. 

If you treat all of your female characters as props or bit players to a strong masculine protagonist, you risk alienating three quarters of your potential readers.

Don’t preach. While you may strongly believe in what you’re saying, it is your job to make the case for your viewpoint to a skeptical reader. I would highly recommend including an outspoken non-believer as a major player in your cast of characters. It is much better to allow your readers to watch two characters debate than to have it appear pre-determined that only one viewpoint will do.  

If you are self-publishing, have your manuscript proofread by multiple people. You can never have enough people proof your manuscript. I put a request out on The Fourth Awakening’s FaceBook page for people to proof the print galleys. These are the actual pages the printer will use for the offset run. They had been proofread by a dozen people – most with advanced college degrees. We thought the galley was perfect. The new proofreaders, with fresh eyes, found over 2 dozen typos! The best proofreader is a complete stranger.  They will not have a personal relationship with you and will be more likely to give you solid advice.  Also, be aware a reader will be more forgiving of the occasional typo in a 99 cent book than they will be in $14.95 book.