Read on to learn more about:

• Creating my 224-page rough draft in 3 weeks while stuck in bed
• Finding beta readers to proofread my graphic novel
• Setting up surveys and forms to gather feedback from beta readers
• Using reader feedback to revise my graphic novel

Hi! My name is Jess Smart Smiley. I’m an author/illustrator living in Utah, making comics and books for young readers. I have created 18 books, including graphic novels, picture books, middle-grade novels, and more.

This series of posts is going to follow my process for creating the rough draft of Street Bikes–a hilarious and ridiculous graphic novel for ages 8-12 (think Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man comics, but with bicycles instead of a dog-cop). This series will also cover how I sought out beta readers for the first time, created surveys and forms to collect feedback from readers, and how I used feedback from readers to revise Street Bikes into a better, funnier, and more polished book. Finally, I will review my processes and address how I might improve them for future projects.

My hope is that readers will learn from my mistakes and successes, and share from their own experiences in writing, drawing, making comics, publishing, and working with (or as) beta readers.

8 Years in the Making

Back in 2011 I started drawing wacky, ridiculous bicycles in my sketchbooks. I’m talking bicycles with a slingshot built into their handlebars, a bicycle covered in spiderwebs that has the ability to shoot spiderwebs, a double-decker bicycle, partly melted bicycles…you get the idea.

These bicycles quickly took on names and mischievous personalities and pretty soon I had an idea for a “hilarious 1,000-page ultra comic about a group of unwanted and forgotten bicycles led by Poppa Wheelie that band together to wreak havoc on the world, one neighborhood at a time!”

While the idea of a sprawling, wandering, meandering story about mischievous bicycles has stuck with me since, I think the crude black-and-white drawings turned people away. I launched the comic on kickstarter and 13 brave individuals helped raise $263. (This dollar amount was less than 1/3 of my funding goal, so the project ended without any money–or comics–changing hands.)

Fast forward to spring 2019.

I had been suffering mysterious health problems for a year and-a-half and had been stuck in bed with debilitating pain for something like 8 months. Because of the difficulty in concentrating through the pain, I couldn’t even draw regularly. The medicines added another level of difficulty in concentrating and staying alert enough to think clearly or focus. It was terrible–especially for someone who gets so much joy from creating every day.

I found a break of sorts between medications and treatments and decided to seize the window as an opportunity to make something. I imagined a new way of drawing the Chain Gang that felt more appropriate for the story and decided I would make up a 224-page version of my “1,000-page ultra comic”.

Creating the Rough Draft

Not knowing how much time and energy I would have, I worked quickly and for as long as my health would allow, cranking out all 224 pages of the rough draft in just under 3 weeks. It was a relief to make something, even at the risk of not finishing, because I was doing something I loved, rather than feeling like a health problem.

In too much pain to sit up or even stand at a desk, I laid in bed and drew pages on my iPad Pro with my Apple Pencil using MediBang Paint (free).

Thinking that the book felt like one of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants or Dogman books, I designed the pages to be the same dimensions as Dogman. (Just in case our books ever ended up in the same place together, they would fit nicely on the same shelves.)

Once I decided that making Chain Gang would be my focus, I divided the book into 12 chapters and outlined each one, being sure to note any characters I wanted to focus on, which plot points were most important for moving the story forward, and which jokes I had to include. I kept the ideas loose and open-ended so I would have plenty of room to make up the story as I stitched together bits of characters, plot points, and jokes.

I made up the dialogue as I went and I drew using an even line so I wouldn’t be distracted by things like texture and line weight.

On some days I was able to draw for half the day and rough out an entire 18-page chapter. Other days I was only able to draw a few pages. But it all came together, bit by bit, and within 3 weeks I had a completed rough draft!

It just so happened that shortly after finishing my rough draft, I was put on a new medication that caused me visual and auditory hallucinations. After that I was put on a nauseating and exhausting mild chemotherapy.

I was relieved to know that I had seized my window of opportunity for making the rough draft of my graphic novel!

Looking for Readers

A strange idea came into my mind after finishing the rough draft for The Chain Gang: what if, instead of revising the book on my own and sending it to my agent and publishers, I invited readers to read the entire rough draft for free before taking the project further? (Authors do this all the time. Many of my friends have been beta readers for years and have helped several well-known authors revise and polish their works into better versions of the stories. I really don’t know why I hadn’t thought to do this with any of my other books.)

I’m embarrassed to admit that I actually looked up the term “beta reader” to make sure it was what I thought. (It was.) Wikipedia informed me that “a beta reader is usually an unpaid test reader of an unreleased work of literature or other writing, who gives feedback from the point of view of an average reader to the author. A beta reader is not a professional and can therefore provide advice and comments in the opinions of an average reader.” Just what I was looking for!

While I was no longer able to draw regularly, I was able to write a little here and there, and decided that sending the book out to beta readers would be a helpful way of making progress on the book, even though I wasn’t able to actively write, draw, and revise the work myself.

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Read Making & Revising My Graphic Novel (Part 2/3) here to learn how I found more than 140 beta readers for my all-ages graphic novel and how I reached out to them for feedback on my book.

Also: don’t forget to join my First Readers Club here (and read my newest book for free!)