Writer critique groups instead of beta readers? Anyone tried critiquecircle.com?

[Quantum]

This question has two parts.

1) I think that a writer critique is more reliably useful than a non-writer beta reader. What do you think?

2) Have you any experience with critiquecircle.com?

(Sourced from https://www.janefriedman.com/find-the...)

does it all work...give me the basics
Members submit their stories to the story queue, and pay credits to do so. Only a certain number of stories will be displayed each week (more information on this can be found here), so you may have to wait a week or two for yours to come up, depending on how much queue activity there is. When a story comes up for critique, other members can read it and submit their critiques to the author, thus earning credits.

Stories stay in the queue for a week, which runs Wednesday to Wednesday.

To help with queue wait times, we created a custom Newbie Queue. Your first story must be submitted here and, if you wish, you can submit up to three in total before moving to the other queues. When you join the site, you get two free credits, and you can use these towards the cost of posting your first story. While your membership is still new you are also allowed the opportunity to upgrade to a Premium membership (details in the FAQ entry linked here) for an additional credit, which will allow you to submit your first chapter to the queues immediately.

(https://www.critiquecircle.com/faq.as...)

[Ian]

Hi Alex, I can answer these questions (from my perspective of course, others may have had differing experiences)

I don't see this as either/or. Writer critiquers and beta readers (either writer or non-writer) both give difference perspectives.

I've used Critique Circle for years and find the feedback there is highly detailed, often focused on minutiae except where you can strike up longer-lasting critique relationships and find people to stick around for the whole novel, where you might get some bigger picture elements discussed. Typically beta readers are getting the whole novel at once, rather than chapter-by-chapter, and tend to provide overall feedback on the story as a whole.

I use both approaches because I find them complementary.

For CC, you got most of the basics correct. You earn credits by critiquing, and spend credits posting your own work to the queues for others to critique. My experience is there is usually a couple of week's wait before your story comes up for review. However you can also post multiple stories or chapters concurrently and have them come up on consecutive weeks, it just costs extra credits to do so.

The Newbie queue is really just there to ease newcomers into the system. Whatever gets posted there comes up for review next week regardless of number of entries, and the number of critiques is limited to ensure everyone gets some sort of response. The only purpose as far as I know is to make it clear to critters that this is a newcomer so be kind :)

You can upgrade to Premium membership at any time, and it costs $$ to do so. Basic membership is free. Premium gives you some perks, like being able to spend extra credits to bump your story up and avoid wait times. Also the ability to create private queues and invite people to join. I became a Premium member this year specifically so I could create a queue dedicated to my current novel.

I've found it to be a fantastic forum for getting solid and thought-provoking critiques. There is also a very active discussion forum on all sorts of writerly topics. As with all such forums, the key to getting value from it lies in the effort you put into it. Give lots of good quality critiques and develop reciprocal relationships, and you will get good results in return.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to message me or post them to this thread for a more public answer.

[Quantum]

Thanks, Ian! Very informative!