Writers in the Storm

A blog about writing

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November 18, 2020

What Did You Think of My Book?

by Barbara Linn Probst

At some point in the process of writing a book—or, more likely, at several points—we ask others to let us know what they think of our story. Seeking (and using) peer and professional feedback is a critical part of the writing process. Developmental editors, critique partners, beta readers, workshop leaders, sensitivity readers, friends—we ask different people, for different reasons, and at different times. When they respond, there can be disappointment, painful surprise, and resentment, as well as welcome validation and useful advice.

We all like praise and encouragement, yet we know that tough love is needed too. What’s the right balance? A recent article in Lit Hub makes the point that “too much directive feedback can be dangerous if you lose confidence in your own vision.”

Insufficient feedback can be dangerous too, of course, leading to a complacency that can keep you from growing as a writer. The key word in both cases is can—sometimes it’s dangerous, and sometimes it isn’t.

We need to ask ourselves:

  • How can I decide which kind of feedback is helpful, when, and from whom? Is all feedback equally valuable?
  • Is there such a thing as too much feedback?
  • Should I act on all the feedback I get? If I don’t, does it mean I’m closed and defensive? If I do, does it mean I lack confidence in my own vision?

As we think about these questions, it’s helpful to keep three elements in mind:

  • Whom we’re asking, peers or professionals?
  • Why we’re asking. Do we want a response to the story as a whole or help with a specific aspect of craft, such as pacing or character development?
  • When we’re asking. Is this an early draft, a close-to-ready manuscript, or something in between?

With these elements as a framework, let’s look at the two sources of feedback we might seek and receive, as well as their uses and limitations.

Peer Feedback 

This is often, though not always, part of a reciprocal arrangement with a critique group or writing partner. Each person shares what she likes and doesn’t like the other person’s work, according to a mutual agreement about frequency, number of pages, etc. Typically, feedback is ongoing, given in chunks rather than on the book as a whole.

An advantage of this approach is that you can obtain ongoing feedback from multiple readers at once, especially when there’s a scene or element that’s troubling you—and before you’ve gone too far down a road that isn’t working.

The utility of this kind of arrangement depends on the skill, candor, and sensitivity of those with whom you’re exchanging pages. Responses can be “too kind” for fear of discouraging you or injuring the relationship or, in contrast, inappropriately critical. Your reader might also respond from her notion of how she would have written the scene.

Are you obliged to act on the feedback you receive from peers? Should you view it as valuable advice (ignored at your peril) or personal opinion (taken at your discretion)?

On the one hand, writing is an art form, so there aren’t any ironclad rules. You shouldn’t assume that you have to adopt every single suggestion your critique partners offer. Being discriminating and being defensive aren’t the same thing.

At the same time, if several peers point out a similar problem, it’s probably something you ought to address. It’s important not to assume that being a novice writer (as is often the case in critique groups) means that the person’s feedback isn’t worth much. Someone can be a sensitive and skillful reader—really good at pinpointing the gaps and weaknesses in what she reads—even if she herself isn’t (yet) a terribly skillful writer

At some point, however, you may decide that you need (or want) to turn to a paid professional. When should you do that? Again, there’s no ironclad rule. However, some indications are:

  • If you have concerns about your work that peers simply haven’t helped with
  • If the response of peers is so “consistently inconsistent” that the resultant confusion is starting to overwhelm or paralyze you
  •  If external factors (such as a deadline for a requested revision) are indicating a more rapid or intense evaluation than peers can provide
  • If you can’t help feeling that the response of a paid professional is more legitimate and that, without it, you won’t feel that your book has been sufficiently scrutinized.

Professional Feedback 

There are the people whose feedback we pay for, whether they’re called developmental editors, mentors, or coaches. Their services—and the fees they charge—vary greatly. Services can include a detailed narrative report, line edits on every page, a follow-up phone conversation, or simply a general assessment of the manuscript’s strengths and weaknesses; fees can be hourly or task-specific.

Since this is a business relationship, it’s important to have mutual clarity before agreeing to work together about what’s covered and when the report can be expected. There are too many stories of unhappy writers who felt “ripped off” by a developmental editor whose feedback was vague, late, or consisted of a roster of “problems” that the editor would be happy to address—at an additional cost, of course. Similarly, there are coaches who’ve been unfairly maligned by writers who didn’t get the praise they expected.

Whether professional feedback is worth the price tag is a personal decision. If you do choose to hire a professional editor, you should make sure she’s experienced in your genre and can provide recent, trustworthy references. Ideally, ask for a “test” critique of sample pages so you can assess the fit between her approach and your expectations.

You should also examine your own willingness to listen to what the editor has to say! Good developmental editors often deliver a big wallop of tough love. That’s what makes them good—and what will make your book better, once you recover from the shock and get to work.

It can be useful to return to the same developmental editor for a follow-up consultation after you’ve made the revisions he or she suggested. The repeated feedback can provide a series of data points to help you chart your progress in addressing the story’s weaknesses.

At a certain point, however, you may want to seek a fresh pair of eyes, someone whose mind is free from memories of prior versions of the manuscript and can respond to what’s actually on the page. Of course, a second professional may give advice that’s in direct opposition to what the first person told you! It doesn’t necessarily mean that one is right and the other wrong, or that it’s all arbitrary. You may have gone too far in correcting one issue, only to create another; cleaning up certain flaws may reveal subtler problems, possibly because the first editor didn’t want to overwhelm you. In my experience, each mentor has something important to offer, and multiple perspectives can provide a useful balance.

There are also paid beta reading services, typically with a much lower price tag than a developmental editor. The main difference between paid beta readers and paid coaches (in general) is that beta readers will tell you what’s not working but not necessarily how to fix it. They’re skilled readers, not writing instructors.

The beta reading service may have its own list of items, and/or allow you to specify what you’d like to focus on. Both are useful. Experienced beta readers know what to look for, yet you as author will have specific concerns. Here too, there’s a great variety in the depth and scope of feedback.

In my experience, a professional mentor is more useful at the early stages of a book’s development, while a beta reader is more useful midway or after a major revision. The professional mentor will help you to shape the story; the beta reader will let you know if you’ve succeeded and where more work may be needed.

What should you do with the feedback, once you’ve gotten it?  

Returning to the questions at the beginning of this essay—how much is enough, and how can you make sense of the feedback you receive?

Here are some principles that I’ve found helpful:

  • Pace yourself.  Don’t ask too for too much at once. Focus on one major aspect at a time if you can. Digest what you’ve gotten before asking for more.
  • Try it on. Think what if and play with changing your story the way the reviewer suggested. You may decide that you don’t want to do that, but try it first!
  • Organize your feedback. Summarize the feedback and put it into categories, like pacing or character relationships. It can also be helpful to date the feedback so you can see how you’ve addressed this element over various drafts.
  • Prioritize. Pay more attention to the identification of problems than to suggested solutions. Reviewers may come up with different solutions, but if they all point to the same problem, like stakes or motivation, then it probably is a problem. You might end up with your own solution—rather than a “camel” cobbled together by trying to do what every single person advises.
  • Consider the source. Are there any potential biases at work, either in the reader’s perception—or in yours? Beware of thoughts like: “She doesn’t appreciate my kind of writing” and “I paid so much for this, so she must be right.”
  • Come back later. Sometimes you’ll see things in a different light after you’ve been away for a while.
  • Keep all of it. You may be tempted to throw out some of the comments that you’re certain are wrong—but don’t.  Set them aside and look at them again later.

I like to think of it this way: we learn something from every bit of feedback we receive, although sometimes the lesson isn’t clear right away. It might crystalize in your next book, not this one!

What about you? Who critiques your work or offers feedback? What feedback has proven most useful to you, and why? Share your experiences with us down in the comments!

* * * * * *

About Barbara

BARBARA LINN PROBST is a writer of both fiction and non-fiction, living on an historic dirt road in New York’s Hudson Valley. Her debut novel QUEEN OF THE OWLS (April 2020) is the powerful story of a woman’s search for wholeness, framed around the art and life of iconic American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. QUEEN OF THE OWLS was selected as one of the twenty most anticipated books of the year by Working Mother, a debut novel “too good to ignore” by Bustle, was featured in places like Pop Sugar, Entertainment WeeklyParade Magazine, and Ms. Magazine. It also won the bronze medal for popular fiction from the Independent Publishers Association, placed first runner-up in general fiction for the Eric Hoffer Award, and was short-listed for the $2500 Grand Prize. Barbara’s second book, THE SOUND BETWEEN THE NOTES, launches in April 2021.

Barbara has a PhD in clinical social work and blogs for several award-winning sites for writers. To learn more about Barbara and her work, please see http://www.barbaralinnprobst.com/

14 comments on “What Did You Think of My Book?”

  1. Thanks for all this valuable info. I rely on peer feedback all through my first drafts, thanks to my wonderful critique group. They've helped me with everything from grammatical errors to repeated words--the nitty gritty--to questions about motivation and characterization and plot points. Without their encouragement, I don't know if I'd be about to publish my third and fourth books.

  2. Excellent advice as always Barbara. I've found that I love getting contradictory feedback since it challenges me to discover what feels right - to listen to my gut.

    1. Contradictory feedback can be really stimulating, I agree! What often happens for me is that I end up finding a third path—yet I wouldn't have found it, were it not for the suggestions that I did NOT adopt 🙂 They loosened and opening up my thinking in a useful way

    1. Thanks, Tiffany! And as you've said so well, a writer may need different things at different times, and not ever editor is the right fit for every author or manuscript. It's the same with all the people we let into our writing world, whether they are coaches, publicists, beta readers, etc.

  3. The most important thing my beta reader has done for me is to serve as a check on my voice. Writing with a damaged brain leads me to question sometimes whether the current work is consistent with what I've written before, and that's a very subtle thing.

    Have I change somehow the 'feel' of my writing, am I using fewer or more 'big words,' are the characters changing accidentally, is this piece somehow disappointing...

    It's a big-picture thing, and I've needed it when there has been a gap between pieces for some physical reason.

    She is very good at catching the places where I'm confusing (and often confirms a gut feeling).

    I'm waiting for a chapter's feedback right now, and it's stressful, because this whole year has been that way, and seems to be getting worse, with us going in and out of lockdown at our retirement community.

    I'm a very slow writer, and the process I have to make sure I don't forget anything is long and complicated, and even the editing is ponderous, so it is not a given that it won't show in the final product. So it's very necessary to have someone who looks with those 'fresh eyes' at the results as a whole, who isn't involved in the minutiae - and knows how it has lived up until now.

    1. It sounds as if you have found just the right partner, Alicia, which is so wonderful! You know the kind of help you need, which is half the process. Sometimes we think we need to gather every single kind of "help," all the time, from everyone, and that just leads to confusion. Good for you, and keep going!

  4. Every time I've posted a portion of it on my WordPress website I don't get any comments. Not any. I've asked, requested, and pleaded for comments. Zip. So I tried going the critique route. A woman in Colorado volunteered to read it. All she did was gut it. I told her WIP was not formatted properly and difficult to read. I asked for a Microsoft docx document. She maintained all she could send was a PDF document. I have to ask if this process is really worth it.

    1. Hi Tom,
      I'm really sorry you've had frustrating experiences. It seems like you could try again and find a critique person with a better fit for your genre and style?

      1. To echo Kris: There may be other places to find critique partners who fit your genre. Joining an existing group, where everyone is expected to offer respectful feedback on each other's work, is another option that might be very worthwhile.

  5. Not all critique groups are created equal.

    That said, I've been very fortunate having belonged to two excellent groups. The first few meetings I attended, the members went light on me. Thankfully. There was a lot wrong with my work at the time. As I improved the criticism became pickier, but by then I'd developed a somewhat thicker skin. Sometimes I still have to sit on my hands and refrain from saying, "but . . . but."

    It never occurred to me to keep the old comments. This is something to consider.

    Wonderful post!

    1. Thanks, Ellen. I'm reminded of the way my piano teacher works with me on a new piece—in layers. He never brings all the layers at once, not simply because that would be overwhelming, but also because there's an order. I can't work on phrasing until I've understand how to bring out the melody line. I think it's the same with writing! Layered feedback is easier to assimilate and put to use. The order and pace of feedback may be more important than whether those providing it are gentle or harsh. Another way to think about it!

  6. Wonderful information--thank you!

    I've had good and bad experiences. I try to sift through and find out which is really going to make my writing better.

    denise

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