Feedback Request Guidelines

Paul_Lulu

The Lulu Author Workshop is a space authors (both published and unpublished) are encouraged to talk about their craft. We encourage anyone interested in feedback to post a feedback request here!

When asking for feedback, please adhere to these guidelines:

1. Post a short excerpt (1000 words or less) – This is not a strict rule, but you will get better feedback if others can quickly read the passage you post and supply feedback.

2. Please title your post "Feedback request" or something similar to indicate your are looking for feedback and review of the work posted.

3. Include a brief description at the top of your post identifying any specific feedback you're looking for (such as, "does this character seem real?", "am I going overboard on the descriptions?", "does this opening paragraph make you want to keep reading?").

4. Check your passage for spelling and grammar before posting – The Author Workshop is here to help develop and refine your story, not check it for spelling errors. Please make an effort to run MS Word spell check or use Grammarly to check for spelling errors before posting.

5. Be respectful – as with all threads on the Lulu Community, adherence to the Forum Rules & Terms is mandatory. Commenters should strive to provide useful feedback and writers should give the benefit of the doubt that everyone is giving feedback with the intent of helping the writing improve.

Paul_Lulu

With the few requests for review over the last couple weeks, I wanted to add some semi-standard guidelines to encourage folks to keep posting here and to help anyone considering doing so.

If anyone thinks of any additional elements that should be added to the guidelines, please feel free to post them as a comment!

Papi_Soñoliento

One thing new authors should bear in mind is it helps to have a bit of a thick skin when it comes to asking for feedback. The fora regulars tend to be fairly dispassionate when offering up ways to improve the work in question, as in it's not a personal attack on either the work or the author.

Ron Miller

Very good advice! Thanks for posting this!

Just Kevin

1. Post a short excerpt (1000 words or less) – This is not a strict rule, but you will get better feedback if others can quickly read the passage you post and supply feedback.

I fully agree with that. Posting almost entire chapters or even books, is not helpful.

Skoob_ym

Size is relative.

Just Kevin

 It depends on how much time one has to read them all. Some posters seem to want a free editing job. 

davidRoddis

Just Kevin said:

 It depends on how much time one has to read them all. Some posters seem to want a free editing job. 

With all respect, snarky, pre-emptive criticism like this is a bit discouraging. If the post is "too long" people can give feedback on however much they are able to read; if there are a lot of "errors", feedback can gently point this out.  No one is being forced to do a "free editing job", and I don't really think anyone is looking for that; I do think they might be inexperienced/unclear about what is appropriate. Writers here are very likely at all different stages of their journey, different ages, etc. It's trial and error, and sometimes you have to make errors to learn what's expected.

I don't mean to jump all over you for your I'm sure perfectly well-intentioned comment, but when one is about to offer one's "baby" on the altar of public feedback, it felt a little squelching.

Ron Miller

Just Kevin said:

1. Post a short excerpt (1000 words or less) – This is not a strict rule, but you will get better feedback if others can quickly read the passage you post and supply feedback.

I fully agree with that. Posting almost entire chapters or even books, is not helpful.

Posting a single chapter is more than enough. Most publishers will ask to see just the first chapter of a book for a pretty good reason: if the first chapter is lousy there is a fairly good chance the rest of the book is, too.

Ron Miller

davidRoddis said:

Just Kevin said:

 It depends on how much time one has to read them all. Some posters seem to want a free editing job. 

With all respect, snarky, pre-emptive criticism like this is a bit discouraging. If the post is "too long" people can give feedback on however much they are able to read; if there are a lot of "errors", feedback can gently point this out.  No one is being forced to do a "free editing job", and I don't really think anyone is looking for that; I do think they might be inexperienced/unclear about what is appropriate. Writers here are very likely at all different stages of their journey, different ages, etc. It's trial and error, and sometimes you have to make errors to learn what's expected.

I don't mean to jump all over you for your I'm sure perfectly well-intentioned comment, but when one is about to offer one's "baby" on the altar of public feedback, it felt a little squelching.

I agree. And this is exactly one of the reasons a 1000-word limit to posts (or, at most, say the first chapter) is a sensible suggestion. Any mistakes an author makes in the first few pages are likely to be the same mistakes they will make throughout their book.

Skoob_ym

On the other hand, we don't want to be too sensitive about what's "Too long to read."

As Mr. Roddis pointed out, one can always just comment on the parts one did take the time to read. Usually the first couple of paragraphs are a good indication of how things are going to go, especially if the passage fails to make the first filter of "Good grammar, proper sentences, and conventional spelling."
 
Flexibility can be a good thing, especially when trying to assist someone.

Just Kevin

With all respect, snarky, pre-emptive criticism like this is a bit discouraging.

And comments like that can put one off reviewing a person's work.

 If the post is "too long" people can give feedback on however much they are able to read; if there are a lot of "errors", feedback can gently point this out.

And that is normally what I do.

  No one is being forced to do a "free editing job", and I don't really think anyone is looking for that; I do think they might be inexperienced/unclear about what is appropriate.

There are often people who paste in 5,000 words, which is OTT. And if they did not expect people to read review it all, they would not do that.

 Writers here are very likely at all different stages of their journey, different ages, etc. It's trial and error, and sometimes you have to make errors to learn what's expected.

I don't mean to jump all over you for your I'm sure perfectly well-intentioned comment, but when one is about to offer one's "baby" on the altar of public feedback, it felt a little squelching.

 What you need to do is read all of this thread and not take individual postings out of context.