Feedback
As a writer, your work is always up for critique—I call it showing your homework for correction to the world. And it will be critiqued, so much better to have it ripped apart and made better before it’s published, right? There are a number of ways to get valuable feedback before the work goes to an editor, and before it goes out to the world of readers.
A good critique writing group can give various levels of usable feedback. Even if they’re not perfect, they can catch a lot of stupid mistakes. For my first few novels, my local group was invaluable in finding the dumb stuff before the editors did. They bluntly told me when some passage of writing did not work for them. It wasn’t pleasant to hear, but it was necessary. We always told people we’d give honest feedback, not just say nice things about all the work. Some writers came in and expected everyone to tell them how wonderful the piece was. When they heard the slightest criticism, they strenuously objected. They didn’t last long, and most likely never got published.
Many of these groups have a regular meeting schedule. Usually, someone reads a section of their work (sent in advance, or read cold on the spot), and then the members of the group offer feedback on what they heard. Though the quality may vary, it’s good to hear others read your work aloud, because it alerts you to things that might not sound quite right. And offering feedback to others makes you a better writer, as you must think about the words and the story, and how they’re presented.
When offering feedback, be constructive. Let them know when something works particularly well and help them make their writing better. Many times, you’ll get feedback on your writing that tells you something doesn’t work. Usually, they cannot specify exactly how to fix it because that’s up to you. Specifics are for the author, but if the same thing doesn’t ring true for more than one person, they might be on to something. You may sometimes get feedback that’s flat wrong, so always consider the source, and see if you can get confirmation from others. Advice from someone with multiple, successful publications may be more useful than a tip from someone with few or no publications.
Finding a Group
How does one find a feedback group?
• Check local libraries and bookstores to see if any already exist.
• Check online for information about potential groups.
• Check with writing organizations to see if they know of any in your area.
• Go on social media to discover existing groups.
• If you can’t find a group in your area, you may be able to work with an online group.
• You may have to start one if there are none in your area.
The best feedback comes from workshopping—really intense editing by people who are writers and willing to share solid criticism with each other. For this, three to four people are about right. Best is when you’re all at similar ability levels in your writing. Send out good chunks of work, 25 pages from each person, and meet once a month, with the marked-up manuscript edits on all work in hand. Then drill down to the nitty-gritty and discuss what works and what doesn’t in the story, and possible fixes. At that rate, you can go through a book length in a year. You’ll raise each other’s level as well, getting better at spotting bad writing, both in their work and your own.
Beta readers are those who’ve agreed to read your entire work in draft format, and give you feedback, one-on-one. For brutally honest feedback, don’t ask friends—rather, get someone who doesn’t care about telling you like it is. Friends will usually take pains not to hurt your feelings. And this person just has to be a reader, not necessarily a writer, and so much better if they understand the genre. You want them to tell you what didn’t work in the book. Though some will read for nothing, many times the people work out a swap, each critiquing the work of the other. You can find people for this using similar methods to finding a group. Use as many Beta readers as you like and are comfortable with.
Some people post their draft work online for public critique. Andy Weir’s The Martian did this, with excellent results. I prefer to not use this method, but there are sites that provide an opportunity for people who like this. If it works for you, go for it.
Reviews
After a work is published, the public starts in to tell the writer what they thought. Some writers choose not to read reviews for various reasons. If you get 99 good reviews, but one bad one, you might focus on the bad instead of accepting the good. With the entire world as potential critiquers, there will always be someone who doesn’t like what you’ve written. Don’t wind up second-guessing yourself because of one opinion by one reader. However, if several reviews point out similar things that didn’t work for them, consider if their feedback has merit.
Reviews are harder to get for everyone these days, but especially for Indie writers. Many established venues will not review Indie-written books, although some of those are changing. You can now purchase a pricey review from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly if you think it’s worth it. There is no guarantee if you’ll get a good one or not, but if you’ve got money and want to gamble, hey, it’s your funds. I have one data point from an Indie writer who got lucky and received a positive review after going this route, and he says it helps when approaching libraries and bookstores, about the last people who read those industry publications.
While traditionally published writers get almost automatic glowing reviews from their publishing-house mates, in a logrolling way, Amazon tends to remove posted reviews written by people with any provable (mostly via social media) connection to the Indie writer—who are the very people the Indies start getting reviews from!
Your best bet (again, more work) is to research the many places that still review Indie books, and request one. Usually, you’ll send them a copy (electronic is best—no cost), and they have to acknowledge this fact when they review. I’ve had success doing this and received many great reviews I can use for promotion. Keep a list of where and when you send requests with the results.
Sending print copies out for review is expensive (especially overseas), so make sure it’s worth it. Many places accept e-book versions, and there are a growing number of places that review audiobooks—these are terrific because most book reviewers are busy many months ahead, but an audiobook might get reviewed much quicker.
Bad Reviews and Rejection
Always remember that no matter how good your work is, there are people in the world that will not like or appreciate what you have created. Ignore them, they do not matter. Many writers feel personally rejected when their work is rejected in some fashion, and their self-esteem suffers as a result. Dean Wesley Smith has a great post on this. Imagine getting five thousand rejections, as he did. That would sink many writers. He just kept going and selling. For the win! Any number of yesses is worth more than all the nos.
With traditional publishing, writers get rejections more often than they’re accepted. I still get stories turned down by some venues. When that happens, it quickly goes out to the next market, and so on, until it gets sold or put into a collection. By doing this, you tend not to focus on the rejection, but on getting it to the next person and making the sale. Back when rejections were sent by mail, I would save the printed form in a binder, and note when the magazine went out of business before I did. I finally stopped, because many of my stories were selling more often, and I preferred not to print out rejection emails. But it’s a great reminder when you’re down to look back at what someone didn’t want, which sold somewhere else.
Dale T. Phillips has published novels, story collections, non-fiction, and over 80 short stories. Stephen King was Dale's college writing teacher, and since then, Dale has found time to appear on stage, television, radio, in an independent feature film, and compete on Jeopardy (losing in a spectacular fashion). He's a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the Sisters in Crime. He's traveled to all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and through Europe.
