Seeking a literary critique partner? Would you be interested?

Mmlaw95 said:

I'm writing a lesbian romance novel. People have refused to be an editor for me because of the topic. It sucks.

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Hi MM,

I'm not quite clear on what you mean. Have professional freelance editors refused to take on the job because of the topic? That seems very odd. And is it the topic that sucks, or the refusals that suck? What is the topic that seems to be turning people off to such a degree?

Adding: With "critique partner", for most people the emphasis is on "partner". You've noted what you would like: someone to check up on your progress, and someone to review your work. It might help if you were to include what you were offering to do for the partner in exchange.

I don't think you need to worry about people stealing ideas. Ideas are easy. Writing is hard.

It might work out better if you get to know folks here first. Many new members find that they have better success if they become active on the forum, and help out other people -- generally by writing critiques in the password-protected subforum "Share Your Work" -- before looking for a beta reader. This way, they learn their way around, establish a reputation for being someone who gives as well as takes, and get to know other authors in their genre who might be their ideal beta readers/critique partners.

Once you've made 50 posts, you can put your own work up in Share Your Work. This will help you identify readers who enjoy the topic/genre you write in, and will get you some feedback on your opening scene.

Mmlaw, whoa, there. It's not a real nice intro to what's probably a lovely person to theorize we want to steal your ideas.

That said, there are people here, myself among them, who write "hard" erotica with graphic sexual content featuring every mix of human beings (and sometimes not-human sentient beings) and many of us sell it. This site has a group of erotica writers built-in, and many people who read it but don't write it might also be happy to help you craft the best work you can.

I urge you to become a part of our community, both the greater one at all of AW and the smaller one at Erotica, participate in threads, and most of all, to critique the works of others. By the time you have fifty posts and can put up your own work for feedback, people will know who you are and you will know us all well enough to laugh at the notion we'd steal anything. Or perhaps you will continue to prefer feedback in private, but with people who know you and vice versa.

Maryn, pleased to meet you

(And if you're not writing erotica, there are also subforums in Share Your Work for fantasy, science fiction, romance, horror, and every other genre under the sun. So it won't matter if your theme is a girl kissing a girl, or a girl kissing a martian, or a girl killing a puppy: you'll find readers who are into it.)

(Also adding that 'literary' is itself a genre. If you're writing a romance, you're probably not looking for critiques from people who read/write literary fiction. The styles and genre expectations are too different.)