I joined YWO in April this year under the user name of Cordero. I quit all writers groups in September, wrote without distraction and submitted my work to a publisher. I did lots of homework (I’ve submitted work to numerous agents and publishers over the six years I’ve been writing) and managed to get the first 20,000 words of my MS to them within their three week submission window.
Imagine my surprise when, a week later, they asked for the full MS. I will reveal the publishers name in future, when I know the deal is 100% on track, but suffice to say it has a good reputation, isn’t a vanity publisher, self publishing house or one that requires a brass farthing from the author.
Why bother re-joining YWO and uploading the work? I’m not arrogant enough to think I’m good and wanted genuine, helpful feedback. I want to improve, always. And truthfully, I was interested to see how it would rate. As an exercise, I worked in nearly every suggestion given by reviewers, first with The Ordinary Man & then with The Ordinary Man revised; this is something I wouldn’t normally do. The results on the latter were 4.0 on general ratings, 4.5 on genre ratings. The 4.0 rating pitches me around twenty in the charts, the 4.5 somewhat higher I think, if it counted that is. You’re wondering where this ramble is leading? Simply this: YWO has been of immeasurable help and without your input I don’t think my writing would have reached a standard where a publisher would take an interest. My punctuation is still lousy, as is my ability to spot faults in my work. I can only assume they see it as having commercial possibilities.
However, there came a point when I had to put into practice what I’d learnt without message board involvement, re-writing to attain better ratings etc. I’m about to do the same again. You can’t please everyone but you can please yourself. My advice would be, don’t put all your time and effort into trying to get that illusive critique. Instead, learn, improve, take criticism on the chin without bleating about it, find out who wants your work and make every effort to get your MS into their hands. Maybe, I’m the odd one out because I want to get published, earn a few bob, and have the satisfaction of knowing I beat the odds? I don’t know whether I have yet, but it’s the closest I’ve ever been. The standard of most of the writing on this site is way, way above mine. So why not get it out there, get it noticed and get published! And believe me, the odds in the market place are no different from hoping to get a deal off the back of a professional critique.

Special thanks to everyone who reviewed The Ordinary Man.
I’ve hard copied all the reviews so don’t think your efforts were wasted. If my novel does end up on the bookshelves, I promise to thank each one of you personally on the forum.
All the very best to you all, John.

Nonsense John, there is good writing all around on the site, true, but yours is JUST as good.

Well done on the publisher thing - I think I remember saying something about 'go out there and get it published' at the time - nice one! Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation - Alasdair Gray

Well done, Halgoth - all the best with it.

I tend to take much the same approach, take on board the comments and use it as a springboard to improve, rather than aim for a top ten critique. My book 'One Man Drowning' got to 19 here but I felt I'd got enough feedback to start sending out to independant publishers and agents. It didn't matter about the top 10 as I was happy with the work. It's with 3 publishers at the moment for reading. Steph

My Fiction Blog

great stuff! I was wondering where you were. I hadn't seen you lurking around for a while.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Hopefully we'll hear something wonderful over the next few months. If not, don't lose hope because there are always other agents/editors/publishers.

Jen

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts." Charles Dickens