- Joined
- Mar 27, 2020
- Messages
- 918
Scope
When posting availability to beta read for others please post
Critique requirements
There are no hard and fast rules, but the guidelines found on the "critiques" forum are a good start. Please be constructive and respectful (on both sides - reader and writer) and as far as possible, actionable: please give feedback the writer can use to change something concrete.
Guidelines to request a reading
Afterwards
If you have a chron's member beta read your manuscript and it was useful for you, please mention this on the thread. It is helpful for all of us to get some kind of signal if this informal marketplace is working. You probably shouldn't call out the actual betareader, especially without their permission. It's just nice to get a count of notes saying "Hey I asked for beta readers here and I got X responses and Y complete reads. Thanks chrons!"
- This is for pieces longer than what is normally posted on the critiques forum: short stories > 1500 words, novellettes, novels.
- It is for a reader to primarily give a gestalt impression of the work: character development, plotting and pacing, though they are free to give more mechanistic feedback too.
- The intention of the marketplace is to exchange kind-for-kind labor: critique for critique, but there is no enforcement of this.
When posting availability to beta read for others please post
- The genres you are willing to read.
- The maximum length you are willing to read.
- Your availability.
Critique requirements
There are no hard and fast rules, but the guidelines found on the "critiques" forum are a good start. Please be constructive and respectful (on both sides - reader and writer) and as far as possible, actionable: please give feedback the writer can use to change something concrete.
Guidelines to request a reading
- Your work should be as complete and perfect as you can think of making it before you request someone else's valuable time in going over it. At the very least, you should have spell checked it, grammar checked it and read it yourself at least twice. Ideally, this will be a finished second or higher draft.
- State the genre (target audience) and word count and whether you are requesting a full read or a read of specific chapters of a larger work.
- If possible state what draft of the work this is.
- State the time frame in which you want the critique to be done.
Afterwards
If you have a chron's member beta read your manuscript and it was useful for you, please mention this on the thread. It is helpful for all of us to get some kind of signal if this informal marketplace is working. You probably shouldn't call out the actual betareader, especially without their permission. It's just nice to get a count of notes saying "Hey I asked for beta readers here and I got X responses and Y complete reads. Thanks chrons!"
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