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PS That should be: I could definitely, not probably, learn a lot from other beta readers 🙂 At the moment I do beta reading in a particular way and that’s probably not the best way possible or at any rate not for all authors. Expanding my ideas would be a good thing.
What I meant was that we can post images now, providing they are online somewhere. That said, like many things on the Den, it’s a bit hit and miss whether it works.
I am all for the idle chatter and discussions on beta reading as well. I think that is another wonderful pro of what we have here, along with the comps. The ability to get quality critique on the works we want and hope to publish. It’s like the second, necessary step on the road to being a writer. You do the work and write the thing, and then you seek quality feedback before going on to edit and hopefully get published. Discussions on the how tos of querying, seeking representation and publishing would also be cool. No matter how many of us have gone on to be released out into the great wide world as real-real writers – perhaps even because a few of us have, and could therefore provide some useful insight – we could always do with and enjoy good convo on the many processes involved in the one thing that has brought us all here together. While chatting idly too of course 😊✨
Phew! Nothing new to add to all the above, really. I don’t spend much time here because I’m spread way too thin as it is – life is crazy trying to keep a travel business alive during this time and also publicise book one and edit book two and I genuinely struggle with fitting it all in and not burning out.
However – when I do have time and inclination, the unfriendly interface puts me off, frankly. It makes it really hard to be a good community member. I too like idle chatter and the community forming nature of that, and I’m here mostly for my Random group, who led me to the Cloud and to here. I didn’t join in all that much on the public site there – I’d only joined up because of my SE course – and I wasn’t there for long anyway.
I’m one of the published writers Ath mentioned but I definitely wouldn’t rule out seeking writerly feedback here – it’s just that when you have your own editors and agent, a large part of the ‘bouncing ideas’ aspect is taken care of. You know what you have to do. But my beta reading Randoms are invaluable and their feedback is something I really prize – and I also love to read their work! Also the quality of the writing esp in the Winter Challenges is just fantastic. The range of skill and experience here makes it really valuable.
If we could make idle chat welcome and easy, like those damned addictive social media sites, then I would be here. I blame the interface of this site more than anything. I agree that letting it go for a year (because this has been a very bruising year) and then deciding is the way to go, but I also think that if it stays as it is it will die a natural death.
Thanks to everyone doing the work to keep things going, because I know that is definitely not me! x
I don’t know if anyone has already suggested this but an option to show when someone’s read a post, akin to the ‘like’ option on the Jericho Writers’ Townhouse community, would be useful if it’s possible to implement. Often I don’t have time to reply to someone there and then, or a reply may not be necessary, but it would be good to indicate I’ve seen a comment. It may help encourage idle chat too.
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