Advice on getting critic wanted

[Emz]

Hey there everyone.
I've been writing poetry for a few years now and am now considering getting a professional critic so I could possibly publish my work.
My style is mainly freelance/spoken word and with romanic, reflective content.
Could anyone suggest an appropriate ageny and give me an idea of how much to expect to pay for the ciritic?

Thanks so much,
Emz x

[Dichroic]

Um... my suggestion is, "don't". I haven't actually heard of many forms of writing (bar the occasionally workshop) in which paying someone makes you more likely to get published. Haven't heard of poetry agents, either, and it sounds to me like a great opportunity to be scammed. Instead, I'd suggest a little time exploring the (free!) resources of this very site, including the crit forum where we critique each other's work.

[AnonymousWriter]

I'd have to agree with Di. There is a high chance that you will pay for some scammer to "crit" your work, and you'll end up not getting the poem published. And if you did get it published, you would probably get paid less than you paid the critic to look over your work.

The best way to go about it is it to post some of your stuff in the Poetry Critique room here. You'll get a lot of sound advice on ways to improve your poems and make them publishable.

Good Luck.

[Izz]

I agree with Di and AW.

[skelly]

I agree with Di and AW and Ike.

:D

[Magdalen]

I agree with Di and AW and Ike and Scott.

[JRH]

A poet should NEVER pay to have work Criticized.

There are dozens of forums out there, including the Poetry Critique Forum here, that will be glad to critique any Poem you post. The trick is that you will have to make a judgement concerning the validity of those criticisms but that's good because it's the best way for you to learn to trust your own judgement and, it's, ultimately, a poet's responsibity to be his/her own best critic,

In point of fact, you'll seldom see any criticism, even of published poems, except for critiques of volumes published by Traditional Publishers, and that's paid for either by the book's publishers or by the publisher of the magazine/journal that the Critique appears in, and even that is likely to be suspect as being reflective of the reviewer's bias as opposed to being an impartial evaluation of your work itself.

By all means, post here and in similar venues for whatever feedback they might offer and insights that they might give you, but learn to trust yourself and your own instincts.

Write On,

Jim Hoye, (JRH)

[veinglory]

If you wish to publish your work I would suggest submitting it to markets. You can get plenty of critique onlien for free, including from published poets.