At last, a 4-star review

Great to get a good review of An Illusion of Peace at last, and even better it is from someone who has written several excellent science fiction books (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peter-Vialls/e/B009UQFSR0).

Was it perfect review? No, he makes the very valid points that it might have benefited from a professional editor and better cover design.

It is always difficult to effectively proofread and edit your own work and almost inevitable that, despite having proofread it three times, I missed some small errors. I suppose that I saw what I wanted to see.

As regards the cover, I must admit that I took the easy route of using one of the Amazon KDP standard cover images, adding and styling the text.

So, lessons for next time:

First, get a professional editor to look for typo’s, inconsistencies, spelling errors and general mistakes.

Second, get a professional to design the cover.

Why didn’t I do that this time, I hear you ask? And thank you for asking. The answer is possibly a lack of confidence in my book. Maybe I don’t consider myself as a real author, just someone playing at writing and didn’t want to spend money on an amateur work.

I suspect I am not alone. How many writers have the confidence to regard themselves as a ‘proper’ author? Is insecurity a key part of the writing process?

Well, the next book will be done properly, with an editor and a cover designer. But, in the meantime, I remain happy with this book. My reviewer found the story good and it kept him reading. What more can an aspiring writer and insecure author ask for?