SENSATIONAL MANUSCRIPT ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS SCORES 7.9 STARS!
So, the cakes have been devoured, the tea has been drained and the projector switched off; the Reader’s Focus Group meeting about the 1st draft of COMING UP FOR AIR took place at Casa Bella last night.
And what a night!
If I told you that the evening wasn’t nerve racking then I’d be lying. It’s not every day that you hand over the 1st draft of a manuscript that has been years in the making to 10 people and ask them to cast judgement on it.
COMING UP FOR AIR is a collection of sensational relationship stories, including my own, weaved together with the occasional narrative of a ‘therapist’ but written in the style of a page turning novel.
And this is what we set out to learn yesterday evening; does the fusion between real life non-fiction stories blend well with the descriptive narrative of a novel?
In total, we spent 5 hours discussing the manuscript as well as questionnaires filled out by members before last night’s meeting.
And the results are in!
There were many questions on the questionnaire but here are two of the most crucial questions.
“How well did the book read overall?”
- 2 out of 10 readers said that the 1st draft of the manuscript was OK
- 5 out of 10 readers said that the 1st draft of the manuscript was GOOD
- 3 out of 10 readers said that the 1st draft of the manuscript was Excellent!
And there’s more.
When asked to rate the book overall, the collective average score for the 1st draft of COMING UP FOR AIR was:
7.9!

Coming Up for Air Reader’s Focus Group gave the 1st draft of the manuscript 7.9 out of 10
I have to say, to get this kind of score for what is effectively the bones of the book’s story is absolutely fantastic! It means that the writing is definitely going in the right direction, and that now, by taking on board much of the focus group’s feedback, with some tweaking, and more honing before it’s publish ready, COMING UP FOR AIR has the real potential to push north of that score!
I learned a lot at last night’s meeting and I’m so grateful for all members of the focus group who gave of their time to read the manuscript and submit the required feedback.
Attendees at last night’s meeting were also the first to receive some exclusive news. News that I have been (with great difficulty) keeping to myself for a few weeks now; COMING UP FOR AIR has already caught the interest of a major publisher who is eagerly awaiting segments of the 2nd draft in January 2015!
It’s early days but the fact that somebody has shown an interest in the unfinished product is humbling to say the least.
Those 04:30 mornings appear to have paid off after all.
Something else I shared at last night’s meeting is my writing schedule for the next three years. If you’re interested in this you can find out more on my website www.tonymarturano.com/books
Which brings me nicely onto my next subject.
The clocks may well have gone one hour backward this morning but that doesn’t mean that time stops marching forward, leaves continue to fall and winter inches closer.
Change is here.
Not least for a Different Angle; the Sunday blog that I have been diligently writing and thousands have been reading for nearly 5 years.
But it’s time for change; a Different Angle (the blog) has come home; it’s moved to tonymarturano.com.
Given my new and very busy writing schedule, I felt it appropriate that I bring my writing home to where it belongs; on tonymarturano.com
This will not make any difference the type of posts that I’ll be featuring on the blog, and I’ll still be posting topical articles that many of you have looked forward to over the years as well as articles about me and the latest on all of my projects.
Today’s post will most likely be the last on www.adifferentangle.co.uk which will eventually be reclaimed as the imprint site for future books.
But, don’t worry, the changeover for you, my readers, should be fairly painless. In fact, it has already happened.
(Told you you wouldn’t feel a thing)
It all depends on how you came to this post.
If you were a subscriber of the a Different Angle.co.uk blog (put your email address into the subscribe box), you will have received this, the last post from that site, direct to your inbox.
However, if you clicked on a link from anywhere else, Facebook or Twitter, you will have noticed that the link leads to www.tonymarturano.com
If you are a subscriber to www.adifferentangle.co.uk and would like to continue to receive posts direct to your inbox, you simply need to re-register here www.tonymarturano.com/blog, simply enter your email address and the rest will be done for you.
With that, there’s nothing else for me to say other than I’m so looking forward to connecting with many of you in my future writing projects and blog posts as always.
I always consider it a privilege and honour that people take time out of their lives to ‘read me’.
Until then, and from my new perch at tonymarturano.com, have a wonderful Sunday.
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