You have a critique group and the members love, love, love your work. They’ve been nagging at you for months to send it out. You finally got up enough courage to submit and even received requests for partials and fulls, but in the end, nobody liked the manuscript enough to take it on. What gives?
Let’s take a look at six reasons agents and editors may not love your work as much as your critique group does.
1) The Relationship: This can mean different things depending on the group. For some, they’ve developed a friendship with the members of their group and can confuse “she’s a great person” with “she’s a great writer.” Some members may realize you’re not such a hot writer but don’t want to hurt your feelings, so they tell you what you want to hear instead. Others aren’t in the same league as you. Beginners will love stories written by intermediate writers and might even believe the book should be published, when in reality, it still needs a lot of work.
Lesson: Use a combination of your judgment, that of your critique group members, and feedback you get from agents and editors. If the rejections you’re getting are all canned, you really need to take another look at the book or start something fresh. If you’re getting personalized letters with specific notes on what’s wrong with the work or how to improve it, then you’re on the right track. Just remember, it’s your story. Only make changes if they feel right.
2) Super Premise: Your critique group loves your premise and thinks this is the next bestseller. They may be right. However, they don’t have the inside information agents and editors have. In this case, the industry experts may love your premise but if it’s too similar to something they’ve recently bought or something that’s currently on the market, they won’t want to touch it no matter how good it is.
Lesson: It’s not always about the writing or the idea. Sometimes it’s about who gets their idea out first.
3) Wrong Market: Your critique group loves your fresh ideas and maybe agents and editors do, too. However, you have to research which agents and editors to target. They may love your work but if they don’t feel they can sell it to their market, they’ll pass.
Lesson: Do your research before you submit to editors and agents.
4) Tres Rough: Your critique group expects a rough draft or some form of it, so they might overlook certain glaring errors. However, editors and agents won’t. They want polished manuscript on their desk or computer screens.
Lesson: Take the time to polish your work as best you can. If you aren’t good with grammar, hire a freelance editor (like me—shameless plug alert).
5) The Whole Is Filled with Holes: Your critique group might read chapters at a time, which allows them to really get into the scenes. However, it also prevents them from seeing the whole picture in one swoop like an editor or agent would when reading a full manuscript.
Lesson: Have Beta readers go over your full manuscript after you’ve polished it. They should read the book within a reasonable amount of time (usually a month) and should be able to recognize if a character’s eye color changed, if the protagonist did something out of character, or if a scene or chapter really doesn’t fit with the rest of the story.
6) Too Much Info: This is when the critique group is too familiar with your story either because they’ve seen so many versions of it or you’ve shared too many aspects with them to the point where they can no longer be objective. They start to suffer from the same blindness you suffer from, where they no longer see what’s missing because they believe the elements are there. The story and characters are so fresh in their mind that they don’t notice the plot holes, lack of character development, flat dialogue, etc.
Lesson: Have Beta readers read your story once it’s polished. These should be new readers so they’ll have fresh eyes on your work and should be able to spot things the critique group missed.
All in all, critique groups are wonderful tools. However, to rely solely on their input may be costly.
What are other ways a critique group may give you a false sense of security? How can you protect yourself while still benefitting from a critique group?
Lynnette Labelle
www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Great insights! I think the hardest one to overcome is someone getting the idea out there first. I say this because we want to make our MS the best we can, and yet at the same time we have to feel in a rush to make sure that we don’t miss an editor because someone got to them a week sooner. In the end, I think it’s more important to make the MS shine as much as you can. And then if the only reason you aren’t getting signed is because they just signed someone similar, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to SHOW (instead of tell) that there’s room in the market for your novel, too. (Of course, knowing when it’s time to do that requires some deep thought as well!)
Rebecca: That’s right. I’d take it as a good sign that the publisher or agent just signed someone with a book similar to yours because you know you’re on the right track. Chances are another publisher or agent will grab the book and run with it. Or the writer could self-publish and show them all.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Perhaps the largest problem is that amateurs comprise most critique groups and most editors are professionals with standards far beyond “I loved this!!!” Half of a salable manuscript’s value is the content. The other half is excellent writing.
This is a fantastic post. I can’t tell you how many times I say to one of my critique partners how much I love her story (or some bit in the submission of the week). I can’t wait for her to submit, but I am totally forwarding this on to her and the rest of my group so we have the right expectations!
Thanks,
–A
Another reason I see pretty often is because critique groups are made up of *writers*. The reading audience in general is not made up of writers, and writers like particular things which may not be mass-appeal. How many of your writer buddies liked Twilight? Or The Da Vinci Code? All of my writer friends hate those books.
So a book that is beautifully written, but not commercial, can often garner a lot of crit-group praise, while being hard to sell.
These are really great lessons, Lynnette. Thank you for sharing.
Georganna: Yes. Unfortunately, some of those amateurs believe they know more than they do and offer bad advice.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Amy: Thanks.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Laurel: It’s true that some published books aren’t as written as well as they should be, yet they become best sellers. However, that isn’t the norm. I’d try to accomplish both. Have a great story and make sure it’s well-written.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Mart: Thanks!
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
I’m almost scared to share this post with my writing group (since some of them are already a bit…too tentative), but this post provides such great info that I think I will anyway.
Thanks for the analysis!
Janine: Thanks!
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Fantastic post Lynnette! I was lucky enough to have my new roommate be an English major with a critical eye and a distinct boredom when I talk about my writing. Which turns out to be handy because she doesn’t mind reading it (yay!) and will be honest, but isn’t invested in the story the same way members of my critique group are because I haven’t been discussing every detail of it with her for the last several months =)
Sierra: That is lucky. Not everyone can find a gem like that.
Lynnette Labelle
http://www.labelleseditorialservices.com
Unfortunately, editors buy books, critique groups don’t.