Your Writing Sucks

Every author who sends out their work available for critique or reviews will get this feedback, or something of the like, even if it is worded a little better.  Think Stephen King, Amanda Hocking or JK Rowling didn't get this kind of feedback?  Well here it is – I don't like Stephen King books.  Stephen King – your writing sucks. 

I do like Harry Potter books.  And Ms. Hocking – you are exempt from my feedback because I've never read your books.  Lucky you.

There is one thing we can do to decrease our chances of eliciting this kind of feedback, short of hiring professional editors or withholding our work altogether.  We can join a writer's group.  If you don’t have one – GET ONE!  Search Meetup.com for local writer's groups.  If you live BFE Kansas, or – I guess that would be BFK (I just coined another phrase), look for online collaboration groups.  I recently found  www.bookcountry.com.  You can upload all or just parts of your book for feedback from the community.  You need to provide three reviews yourself before your book is open for review.  This is no different from any group; you have to give help to get help.

The online community is a great place to collaborate (thank you Al Gore – supposed inventor of the internet), because you can pin down a group specific to your interests, no matter how weird they may be (like you weird fiction genre types – yes this is a real genre).  A quick google search for online writing critique group gave me; www.critiquecircle.com, www.the-writers-craft.com, and www.critique.org. 

So happy google-ing and happy critique-ing, but don't stop write-ing!  On that gay note...