"Nothing can save you"

I'm an amateur writer at best, but what do you do when a beta reader not only rips into your manuscript (which is fine) but also criticizes you as a writer? My last beta reader did just that.

The whole problem stemmed from a question I wasn’t able to answer to her satisfaction. To her, it seemed improbable that there could be humans on other planets. I told her there were theories that I wasn’t willing to go into detail about because 1.) it didn’t have anything to do with the story and 2.) I really hadn’t thought to expand on that particular detail. She persisted in getting an answer so I gave her a few theories.

This is a small portion of what she said in her 2,000-word email reply:

“Now, b/c my reaction was so strong, I decided to wait until I could discuss this with other writers… When I asked the group what they thought about this attitude the nicest ones responded the way I did. Both professors/authors gave me a look that screamed I’d just blasphemed the entire field of writing.”

“You aren’t ready to write. You need to scrap what you’ve written… and take a basic creative writing college course. The one lady suggested hers (and she’s a great teacher), but since you’re in GA I told her that wasn’t possible.”

“You need at least a bachelor’s intro level of understanding, if not a masters.”

“And if this isn’t something you can agree with then I’m afraid there really isn’t anything that can save your story.”

After reading her reply, I felt betrayed. I never gave her permission to share my manuscript or emails. To make things worse, she claimed to only have my best interest at heart.


I gave a polite response and thanked her for her help despite how I felt. I know I shouldn’t let it get to me, but this one stings.

Oh sweet mother of godiva! First, pour yourself a stiff drink. You not only earned it, you deserve it. Second, erase that For Your Own Gooder's name from your email list, your contact list, your "friend" list, your list of people you will ever ask for anything again.

She's quite clearly someone who takes great satisfaction in making people feel small.

There's a word for that...actually there are several words for that but let's just use this simple one: vile.

This Vile Person doesn't know how to critique.
She doesn't know how to help a writer.
And she has swathed herself in righteousness to cover her vile, mean-spirited self.

It's too bad you can't tattoo her in some way so other writers will not suffer at her hand.


Let's unpack this a little more: You said "To her, it seemed improbable that there could be humans on other planets."

Unless you are writing non-fiction, you can have cats on Mars, you can have cats solving crimes, and  cats can have publicists and lawyers. 

It's a novel: YOU CAN MAKE IT ALL UP!

Now, the real question here is could this particular reader, vile as she is, suspend disbelief for the notion of humans on other planets.  If she could not, that might be a weakness in the story, but you'll notice she didn't know to say that. She tried to get you to justify an artistic choice.  That's like asking why Picasso chose blue instead of purple.

Second, she passed along cruel and unhelpful comments to bolster her position. That's Not Only Do I Think This, All My Friends Think So Too. It's the behaviour of a third grade bully. Again, not the conduct of a self-actualized adult or even a person who understands the role of a beta reader.

This is my favorite part of her reply to you: The one lady suggested hers (and she’s a great teacher).
This is a textbook example of someone you don't want reviewing your work: somoene who has an agenda for "fixing" what you've done wrong. I'm sure you've heard of the "agents" who tell you they can help you fix things; here's a little side editorial service they run. (I should also note it's a poorly written sentence.)

All of us who read pages either for a living, or as a service to fellow writers, have come across people who need more help than they realize. You may fall into this category (although I have doubts given that your email is pretty damn cogent.)   If you do, a beta reader might say something like "it's hard to get into the story because there are a lot of mistakes that bring me out of the story." Or, "I was never able to fully believe that humans could be on other planets." If something is truly terrible (and yes, I've seen that) you simply step back from being a beta reader and say "I'm sorry, I'm unable to read this for you."

It's clear to me that Vile enjoys being the arbiter of what Is and Is Not the One True Way. People like that are zealots. Zealotry is the antithesis of artistry.

I have but one question and it is this: how the ever loving hell did you get mixed up with this person? The answer to that is important because the takeaway here is that you chose poorly in selecting a beta reader. You MUST figure out how this happened so as to avoid repeating it. 

There is no way her words won't continue to cut at you. Words do that. It will take a while to stop thinking about what she said. One way to do that (and you do need to stop that) is give yourself a mantra to say every time you think of her, and a specific thing to divert your mind to instead. (I use the rosary for this; when I think of something that unsettles me I recite one Hail Mary and then turn my mind to something else. It takes practice but it works.)

Here's your takeaway: Not only was she wrong, she's a toxic waste of human space, and you deserve better. Your job now is to figure out what got you ensnarled with her so as to avoid doing this again.

I'm sorry this happened to you, and I hope that you'll be able to connect with better readers soon.

I have some other suggestions on dealing with Vile.

Betabaloo

What do you do when all of your beta readers have totally different advice?

I've traded beta reads on the first section (approx. 50 pages) of my manuscript with four other writers. I was expecting the beta read to unearth any overarching issues, but instead the feedback barely overlaps. A scene one person loved another hated. A line that gave someone an ah-ha moment is tagged by another person as unnecessary. There are a couple small overlapping points, but for the most part I'm having trouble finding patterns.

Obviously, to some degree this is how books are. A book I love might not be someone else's cup of tea. A scene that speaks to me might not speak to others.

But in the context of polishing a manuscript till it shines, how should I interpret this?If there's no consistency in feedback, how do I proceed with editing?

Do I just go with my gut, taking each piece of feedback individually?

Do I go solicit a few more betas to see if they add any consistency to the mix (or just continue to complicate it)?

Do I focus on the one or two consistent things (two of three people wanted to see more of one of the scenes - an easy fix) and assume a lack of overlap means there aren't any glaring red flags in those first 50 pages and it's time to get some full manuscript reads?

Or something else entirely?

This reminds me of a very old, but always painful comedy sketch in which a lady trying on her new hat says to her husband "I'm going to wear this to the Ladies auxiliary meeting today; what do you think?" and he replies "Shouldn't you put on a dress?"

Because of course, she was asking about the hat whilst wearing her only her slip.

Her failure to ask a specific question led to the very unsatisfactory answer.

So first: what are you asking your beta readers to do?

"Do you like this?"
"Do you think this works?" might be too general.

"Where did you stop reading?" or "where did you get confused?" are often what I ask my interns to tell me when they're reading something for me.

As to your question: beta readers are useful for pointing out problems, but not fixes. If there's no consistency in what they say, you've probably got a book that doesn't have big problems. Not every reader likes every book.

But only probably.
In  reading only a chunk, rather than the whole, you might not have all the info you need.  A lot of structural problems show up after page 50 and I've got the editorial notes to verify that on a lot of novels.

Time for some whole-novel reads.


I'm sure our coterie of enlightened commenters will also have contributions on this topic.

Query Question: online, public crit groups

 

I've joined an online writing group called Scribophile, where you can share you work with others to be critique. It's open to anyone, and what you share is public until you can join private groups. If i put my work up to be critiqued on this online community, will agents consider it tarnished? Or unpublishable because it's already been shared?

Nope.
As long as you don't attach an ISBN and print it up and sell it, (or the electronic version of print it up) you're fine.

On the other hand.

I'm VERY hesitant about just letting random people critique your work.

Criticism can cut you to the quick, and letting random people flail at you with knives seems like something to avoid.

Second, you don't have any idea of the quality of their work do you? Someone who can't string sentences into paragraphs isn't someone I want telling me how to write.

Third, hives like that tend to reward bland, middle of the road, unexciting writing.There's nothing "wrong" with bland; it's just not very interesting. It's when you break the rules with elegance and style that you get my interest. Breaking the rules on those kinds of sites isn't always viewed with the same enthusiasm.

The commenters today will probably have advice based on actual experience with sites like this. I'd pay attention to what they say particularly if they don't agree with me.

Query Question: beta readers using Kindle

I have a nearly-completed novel that I'd like to distribute to beta readers. They've all asked for a Kindle version, which I can do by generating a .mobi file which they can manually upload onto their Kindles.

I've heard horror stories about publishers declining a work because in their eyes it was published electronically. Can you explain what a publisher's definition of 'electronically published' is?

Though I'd be interested in that fuller explanation, alternatively, I would be happy for you to tell me I'm being way too paranoid and that something innocent like manually distributing Kindle-formatted files isn't going to be treated as a form of publishing.

Either answer would be greatly appreciated.

Generally "published" in book form means it has an ISBN number and was available for sale. Thus, sending a .mobi file to your beta readers is not published.  You'd be smart to mark the file "draft version-not for sale, or distribution" just to be clear to the people getting the file.


My ONLY hesitation here is that Kindle is an Amazon device. You might want to read the terms of service for Kindle to make sure they don't claim you've licensed us of anything uploaded on the device. I'm not saying they do, I haven't read the TOS with this kind of question in mind, but you'd be smart to do so. My limited experience with contracts offered by companies owned by Amazon is you DO want to read the fine print.

And book publishers don't always see "previously published" as a problem. Lots of books have second, even third, lives in book publishing.  Where you run in to the most problems with "previously published" are contests and submissions to anthologies.

Posting your work for online crits?

My queries are rejected by literary agents and I was wondering if it's OK to publish my manuscript on the FictionPress.com instead. I just want people to read it (if they'll want to, of course) and comments could help me to improve, to evolve as a writer. I'm an avid reader of your blog, so I trust you. What do you think: is it a good or bad idea?

I think it's a terrible idea.  Here's why:

You always want to be in the bottom third of a crit group. You want to be getting crits from writers with sharper skills and more tricks of the trade than you currently have.

It's the same with learning any new skill. Right now you're the apprentice: you need to hang out with people who are journeymen.  When you improve, you'll want to hang out with the masters.

The trouble with many of these "post your fiction and we'll comment on it is" is the writing is just awful.  So awful the writers don't even know how awful it is.  You don't want comments or crits from bad writers.

When I zipped over to FictionPress.com it was a slew of swill. There may be good writing hidden away there but I sure didn't see it.

You're probably querying too soon, and without seeing it I'm guessing your query is a mess (I could be wrong)

Get to a crit group. Get to a writing conference. Get to an online class or workshop.  Find someone who will give you some straight answers. {ChumBucket queriers get very straight answers} Publishing your work is not the way to get better. Practicing your craft is the way to get better.

I'm sure some of the comments on this blog post will offer other ideas (probably better ideas too, since the commenters skew toward writers) that will help you.

Word to the wise

Me to writer sending in revised full ms: Hey, you should get that YOUR TITLE (THE FIRST DRAFT) off Amazon.

Writer to me: Thanks for the notice. I printed some reading copies of that draft for close friends; I guess one of them sold me out. :P


Me, looking at Amazon listing again: Wow, you're right. This is offered by someone clearly not you.

Me, looking at Amazon listing an hour later and no copies are available: Aha, you bought the only copy.

It never occurred to me that friends would sell what is essentially a bound manuscript.

Which brings me to the point:  when you print up your book and hand it around to your friends for comments, or feedback, OR you just hand it out for giggles, you're giving someone an edition of your book and they can sell it on Amazon. If I'd been just skimming while researching a query, I would have assumed the book was published already and said no.  Obviously I should do more than skim, but you should also be aware this can happen.


PS I don't think this was done by a critique partner. The manuscript was printed and bound and sent to friends just as a "hey, look what I did" kind of thing.  I'm still quite confident your crit partners won't do this kind of underhanded thing.