wished had more content, and where they got confused or lost. That sort of feedback tends to be valuable. Just be very careful who you select, and give them very specific instructions. If you pick someone in your primary audience, make sure to tell them what you want to know. For example say, “I’d love you to read my manuscript, and tell me where it loses you, or doesn’t make sense, or is hard to follow.” ALL FEEDBACK IS WRONG Be careful with this feedback. The best piece of advice I’ve ever heard about feedback on a book is this: All feedback is wrong somehow. Your job is to figure out what’s right about it, and only pay attention to that. What this means is that most people are giving you feedback based on how they feel, and they almost certainly don’t know how to fix the issue. This quote from author Neil Gaiman sums it up: When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. His point is that the reader may know that your book isn’t working for them in some way, and you should listen to that critique. However, their ideas for solutions are probably bad, because they have no experience solving writing problems. If someone in your audience says something isn’t working for them, listen to their comments, but use your own ideas and knowledge to fix the problem. No one knows your book and your subject matter better than you do. 178 · ThE SCriBE METhOD