I often suggest to hopeful authors, who are in the beginning stages of writing a book, that they join a writers’ critique group and participate for a while. This is a good way for new writers to learn more about the process, and for budding novelists or nonfiction book writers to find out if they have a viable project or not. While I wouldn’t suggest this as a final step before publishing, this is an excellent initial strategy for many authors.
New authors who have become involved in good critique groups will tell you that they learned a great deal about telling a story, organizing a how-to book, grammar and publishing in general.
Now some of you have trouble finding a critique group in your communities. But did you know there are online critique groups for authors? I did a little research recently and came up with some links for you. I did not check the reputations of these sites—I’ll leave that up to you. But these all seemed to be popular and active. If you are new to writing or if you would like some reader feedback for your manuscript, you might consider joining an online critique group. This could just be the boost you need for your manuscript and for your confidence as an author.
I’m offering a list of critique groups. It’s up to you to do the follow-up research so that you locate the best match for you and for your project. Keep in mind that they all have their unique standards and protocol. So what you learn about one might not apply to another.
CritiqueCircle in Iceland is a very active critique group. They claim to have processed over 65,000 stories and have over 2,500 active members. http://www.critiquecircle.com
The promo for Scribophile says that this is the best place to be if you want to give and get the best critiques around. They’ve had over 100,000 critiques. http://www.scribophile.com
ReviewFuse is another online critique group opportunity. They offer peer feedback for free. http://www.reviewfuse.com
And then there is WeBook. Check it out at http://www.webook.com
Of course, you can locate other critique sites by doing your own Internet search. Good luck.
Are any of you already involved in a critique site? How’s it working for you? Leave your comment here—it could be helpful to others.