I've written most of an opening chapter introducing several characters, about 3000 words, and I have a backstory and general idea of the galaxy they inhabit, along with a couple of book springboards.
What I want is, a few readers to read the opening and comment upon it, without knowing any of that stuff, only what is on the page.
Here the caveats:
1) You have to read space opera and like the stuff. Wouldn't hurt if you were one of my fans, but that's not a requirement. If you think rockets and ray guns are silly? Won't help, save us both the time.
2) You can't talk about it until after a book deal gets made. Oh, sure, you can tell your spouse, but I don't want the specifics on the net yet. Replies will be to the email address I use to send it out, not here on the blog.
3) I'm limiting it to six, maybe eight people, maximum. If you are one of 'em, I'll ship you a PDF and when you are done, you can shoot me an email and tell me what you think.
The questions I am interested in seeing answered are simple:
Does it work for you?
Would you want to read the rest of it enough to buy it when it is available?
If it doesn't play, reasons why not would be good.
Beyond that, yea or nay, the details don't matter. If I have typos or I flub a line here or there, it's not important–I'll be rewriting as I go and cleaning up, and what you see might not look all that much like the final version. (When I need readers for that, I'll let you know.)
So, there you have it. I'll stick up a note here soon as I get enough volunteers. Thanks.
Addendum:
Um, I'll need email addresses. I'll delete them from the blog soon as I harvest them.
Add two:
Thanks, folks, my dance card is full. I appreciate it.