Getting Feedback and Being Part of a Community
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Self-published writers frequently hear that they need to pass their books by beta readers or critique groups first before sending the stories on to freelance editors (fewer corrections in a book means a less expensive editing process).
Some writers never even get as far as needing a beta reader because they didn’t seek out encouragement and support from the writing community.
But sometimes it can be tough to know exactly where to find these beta readers and online support. Here are a few ideas.
First Readers/Beta Readers
Online critique groups and beta readers. Sometimes I think we can run into the same problem that we can with in-person crit groups…we might be much better or much worse than our crit partner. But we also have more of a selection to choose from in terms of writer experience.
There are resources to help you connect:
Jane Friedman’s guest poster Brooke McIntyre has a nice list of places to connect with beta readers or critique groups.
Cathy Yardley from The Write Life has 40 places to find a critique partner.
In-person critique/writer groups. I found that critique groups could be tricky, at least the in-person kind. It’s sort of like playing tennis…if you play with someone much better than you, or much worse than you, you don’t get a lot out of it. What I did like was being around other writers and receiving support and encouragement. But eventually, I did drop out of all my in-person groups. Apparently, I’m just too introverted.
I do know of writers who have found some success using MeetUp as a way to mix with local writers.
Wattpad. Wattpad is a good way to test your story on an audience. But to get the most out of the experience, we should plan on uploading the full story. This can mean either serial writing or serial publishing. We can take our story down at any time, so having the completed book free on Wattpad won’t sabotage our efforts to publish it later on.
I enjoy the feedback that I’ve gotten on my stories on the site. But I do think it would be especially helpful if we’d written a YA book since that’s the primary audience (teens) on Wattpad. If you want to find out if you’re nailing the voice of that age group, this would be a good place to try it out.
Help from fans. This would be for the more established writer. Yes, we need help with our drafts, too. I really dislike the term fan when it’s used to describe readers. I think of my readers as readers, not fans. But! There are some readers that definitely qualify as fans and even I can’t ignore that. One of mine in particular follows one of my series so closely that I feel she knows my characters better than I do. She’s my biggest supporter and my biggest critic when I haven’t hit the mark. Instead of reading her (very insightful) criticism when I hadn’t done as well in a book, I enlisted her support as a beta reader before publishing. Now I email her a copy of my book before publishing and use her comments to make adjustments before the launch.
Support from the Community:
#NaNoWriMo. No matter what people say about NaNoWriMo (it’s usually that it produces a very rushed product), I do feel that it can help some writers to develop a writing habit and force them to finally move forward with writing a novel.
If you can write 50,000 words in November, I think that’s fantastic. No one is saying that you have to immediately publish that book. I’ve certainly written that much before (on my own, not as part of NaNoWriMo…under deadline pressure), and I was able to fix the manuscript fairly quickly (I’m practiced at self-editing) and then send it out to my editor. It sold well, too. This doesn’t work for everyone and I don’t think that feeling of pressure works for everyone. There are writers out there who are slow writers, thoughtful writers, and NaNo is the wrong thing for them to do. But if you’ve wanted to write a novel for years and have procrastinated writing it, the encouragement from that community and the marking-down of the daily count can jumpstart your book.
For the first time ever I’ve signed up. But because I’m guilty of horrendous cheating, I haven’t put my name to it. I’m starting out with a novel that’s halfway finished. I decided, though, that I wanted to track my progress using NaNo’s cool charts and word count trackers. November looks to be busy for me (college kid coming home, horseback shows, daughter’s extracurriculars, public speaking for me), so I think this may help me not just keep on track but actually get ahead.
#IWSG. The Insecure Writers Support Group formed by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Being a writer can be an isolating experience. This free community offers writing tips and resources for everything from freelance writing to novel writing. Resources include information on writing contests, conferences, and courses for writers. And there is a monthly blog hop devoted to outlining struggles and successes that members have faced.
How do you find feedback on your books and support for writing them?
Tips for getting feedback and finding an online community:
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