How To Get Feedback On Your Novel...Without Freaking Out About It

So you’ve finished your novel. You followed Classic Novel Structure and used The Master Document. You’re feeling pretty good about it, and probably are right to do so. You’ve been doing the right things. Now’s the time to pat yourself on the back. You have learned a lot.

But you still need to get your work out there, and there are two processes still to go through: firstly, getting feedback on the novel, and secondly, pitching and selling it to the industry. Let’s begin with feedback.

Feedback

All novels need editorial help of some kind. That’s not a reflection on the writer at all. Novels are huge, complex things. They might be up to one hundred thousand words long, or even longer. They handle so many threads and characters. They have themes and have to provide narrative satisfaction and emotional meaning to readers. Imagine a classical composer who wrote a symphony but never rehearsed it with an orchestra until the opening night in a big theatre. It would be madness. The composer needs feedback before opening night. So too do novelists.

Where To Find Feedback On Your Novel

Writing Groups

Check online for real, live groups in your area which meet regularly and have existed for a while. These are the best groups from which to get feedback. But online can be great too. Check your contacts online and in the real world to find others who might want to start a group. Start one yourself.

Writing groups offer a supportive community where writers share their work and receive encouragement and advice. Being part of such a community encourages regular writing habits and also allows you to see the problems others encounter and the solutions they find, or you yourself suggest. It really is a wonderful way to grow your technical ability and confidence as a novelist. Feedback can uncover flaws and gaps in a novel that are not clear to the reader. This is where it is really useful.

The quality of feedback may vary based on members' experience levels and interpersonal dynamics, so you might need to shop around to find the right group. Don’t be put off. Writing groups are valuable because of the variety of views, but especially when a consensus forms of issues – and high points – in the book, because then you actually do know what is or isn’t working. They also allow you to workshop suggestions and solutions for the issues that have come up, which is hugely valuable.

Beta Readers

Beta readers are individuals who offer feedback on a more one-to-one basis, although you can certainly have more than one reader. They also provide great insights, especially if they come from your target audience. They will offer the same support and insights as a writing group. This is definitely a way to go if you can’t find a group you like, or if you prefer more of a one-to-one experience. The downside is that you are getting fewer points of view, so it can be harder to get a rounded sense of what is or isn’t working in the book. You will probably get less group brainstorming you might in a good writing group.

Beta readers can be strangers who offer to help you, or trusted readers such as mentors or writers you have got to know. The second group may have greater industry or technical knowledge, but that doesn’t mean they don’t “get” your book any more.

Writing Courses and Workshops

Writing courses provide structured learning environments with expert guidance and feedback from instructors. If you are working in a group, you may not get a great deal of attention, but many people find them very useful for gaining confidence and technical knowledge. In my experience, the quality of teaching can vary, as can the ability and knowledge of those teaching them. Many creative-writing tutors have never developed an ongoing career as a novelist, or even published a novel. [A2] This may or may not be important to you, but that does not mean they do not have valuable things to say.

Courses and workshops can be expensive and time-consuming, and offer no promises of a published novel at the end. However, very importantly, especially the well-known courses usually offer some process at their end in which students can meet or submit to pre-selected literary agents. These can be their greatest benefit. Many literary agents prefer to select clients from here rather than the notorious “slushpile.” But again, there are no guarantees. Only you know if this is affordable or attractive to you.

Professional Manuscript Assessment And Mentoring

AI offer manuscript assessment and mentoring, via the thisishowtowrite.com website . As with all of the above, the quality of such services can vary, depending more on which assessor/mentor you get assigned rather than the company itself, most of whom are extremely professional. It’s good to get a sense of whether your assessor/mentor is the right person for you and seems easy and supportive to work with. They should also have a good knowledge of the realities of the industry and of the technicalities of writing. Again, you might prefer to use a working novelist, but that does not guarantee any better quality of feedback.

With this point and the next, you should always remember that as soon as you are paying money for a service, the relationship changes and you can be much clearer about what you expect, or indeed if you need help deciding what you want. When I work with mentees, this is very often the case that the first part of the work is to explore what the client actually wants from the process. It’s your money, so make sure you are tailoring the service to your needs.

The Importance of Taking Feedback Seriously Not Personally

You have just finished a novel. Some people describe it as like having a child. You will have your own views on whether that is true, but it is useful to look at it this way in one respect. If someone criticises your novel, remember: it is not your child. And even more so: a criticism of your novel is not a criticism of you.

Perhaps the single greatest issue I see in people not successfully pursuing a career, and I also see it all the time in published writers, is the conflation of professional critique with personal attack. People say things about your novel that you do not like, and some little voice inside you says, “They are attacking me!” and you stop listening. You discount what they say: “Well, they just didn’t like it,” for which read “me.”

Believe me: lots of people do this. The truth is, though, that malicious or unhelpful feedback does exist, but honestly, it’s very rare. It’s far more likely that the person saying it genuinely believes it, and even more to the point, might be right.

There is a more serious thing to learn here, though. This is an industry filled with feedback. Agents might reject your work, or ask for rewrites. Editors will certainly ask for rewrites and tell you what is not working in their view (and their view matters if they are publishing you). This is all before you get to the opinions of bloggers, reviewers, and readers, who will say the most eye-watering things about your work.

Remember, once you have found an agent and she places your book with a publisher, the following editorial stages will occur, each time asking for changes:

- Your agent might make suggestions pre-submission

- Editors might ask for changes before they offer you a deal

- After you sign a deal, the editor will perform a major structural edit, asking you to rewrite, cut or move potentially large parts of your novel, alter beginnings or endings or change characters or events - to which you might feel very committed!

- After this, you will have a finer line edit from them (yes, two separate processes with the same person) to fix the text even more precisely - because it’s still not there yet!

- Then a copy-editor will suggest further changes and corrections

- Lastly, a proofreader will point out all the embarrassing typos you left in and why all those things you Googled actually aren’t correct!

This is not to discourage you. It’s to tell you the facts of being a writer.

People have opinions about your work. For the most part, these are suggestions made to get your book as good and publishable as possible. So what I want to do here is to encourage you to open yourself to feedback, not to take it personally and to accept it as a fact of being a novelist.

You are putting your work out into the world, and it is inevitable that the world will sometimes say things you don’t like or don’t agree with, and more to the points, sometimes it might be right!

Always remember: these people want your book to succeed. For some of them, it’s literally their job.

It’s not personal.

How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter available here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Novel-Chapter-Outlining-ebook/dp/B0DJ8TMVWL?ref_=ast_author_mpb

You can also check out our other services, Mentoring and Manuscript Review, on the links above.