You can't handle the truth

I got a little taste this week of what editors and agents have to go through on a daily basis. I have been doing a critiquing service off and on, mostly because I wish that I had been able to get actual critiques of manuscripts in the early days, instead of just the nameless, useless rejection letters. I charge for it because otherwise I can't justify the expenditure of time, but it's mostly a token to prove that the people asking really care and will really listen to my critique.

I have never had anyone tell me thanks for doing a critique. I think I'm just too blunt. My autistic side comes out and I can't remember that I have to make people feel good about my critique so that they will recommend my service to others.

So I try to compliment writers on what they do well, I really do. Then I try to sandwich that with some helpful tips about the children's world (which includes YA--something people apparently do not realize). I explain why YA requires certain things (like, for example, a YA protagonist through the entire novel) and why dying is not a happy ending. This is just one example, but there are many others. Then the critiquee sends an unhappy email asking for "clarification." I spend about twice as much time trying to refocus energies on the appropriate areas of the critique, only to discover that I am being badmouthed to friends.

And this is just one experience in the last six months. Agents and editors go through this multiple times a day. No wonder they do not bother to send critiques. It is just not worth the hassle and it takes up a bunch of time on people who seem to have no interest in actually improving their chances of being published.

This is all to say that I am ending my critiquing business. It is just not worth the aggravation. I am a wimp, but I have my own deadlines looming.

One last note. I get real critiques now from editors who realize that it is worth their time to send them to me. Like the editors who are working on novels with me that will be published. Their critiques are every bit as blunt as anything I send out, and I go through that multiple times in order to get a novel out there. I just slashed 40,000 words from a bloated manuscript. I sent off a short story to an editor who sent it back with a note saying it was "amateur" and "not up to your usual style." I sent him back a note saying thanks for the blunt. I love the blunt. The blunt is what gets us back on track from the navel gazing that we writes sometimes like to indulge in, thinking our work is perfect. It isn't now and it never will be. But good enough? That's what we aim for.