• Basic Writing questions is not a crit forum. All crits belong in Share Your Work

Why do people charge money for critiquing?

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BlueLucario

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NO, I'm not asking for crits anywhere. No it has nothing to do with a forum. I was cruising around the web before I joined the forum. and came across several site that offer critiques. All of them costs money, like 275.00 for a critique. Why do people charge for that? Could these critiques be some sort of scam? This has been in my head for months. I can't stand it!

I hope this isn't a stupid question.
 
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Danger Jane

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Some people advertise themselves as professional editors or manuscript doctors, and while it's not necessarily a scam, there isn't really much of a reason to pay for their services because of resources like this forum, where there are literally thousands of potential critique partners posting every day. No reason to lose sleep over the possibility of a professional editor.
 

els

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Because they are WAY smarter than those of us who give it away. Grin.

I know a couple of people who charge for crits, and they are pros in the business. You get what you pay for. But I'd want to know their credentials and publishing history before I laid out the money for a professional crit, for sure.
 

Danger Jane

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Because it covers something. I don't see what the payment covers when critiquing.

They get paid for their services and their time. Just like a professional editor. And like those services, professional editing is completely optional. Thousands of writers get along without paying a dime for editing.
 

Mr Flibble

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Because it covers something. I don't see what the payment covers when critiquing.

The time it takes them to do it. The expertise they hopefully have. Just like that IT guy you call to help fix your PC.

OFC if you know how to fix your own PC it won't cost a penny :)
 

Toothpaste

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The time is what is being covered.

Yes it is lovely to find someone to do a critique for you for free, like people here do, but to critique an entire MS is very time consuming, especially if you engage in a dialogue with the author (I mean Blue, you for example, post only a couple of pages of your work and ask enough questions to fill several pages of one thread - there is nothing wrong with that, but you can see how if someone critiqued your whole work how many questions might be involved, and how those questions themselves are VERY time consuming).

While yes it is ideal to find a beta reader who is willing to give up his/her time to read your work, to do you a MASSIVE favour, they are nonetheless going above and beyond the call of normal friendship. That's why in the SYW forum, people remind the people who are getting a critique to thank the critquers because they are doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Some people out there are not scammers and still charge to critique a work because of the time required. Also these legitimate critiquers tend to be editors for publishing houses, or have a lot of experience and knowledge, as opposed to say some random friend you choose to beta read. You are paying them also for their experience.

The key is to make sure the person is worth paying, that they are legitimate.
 

veinglory

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A good professional book doctor offers certainty and a proven track record of making work publishable. For example a free critique may make a book better but they are unlikely to spend the time and effort to make it literally publishing-ready so it could go on the shelf tomorrow.

Just because something can be done by an amateur doesn't mean there can't be a professional class/level also.
 

dpaterso

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I won't tell you how much my writing buddy just paid a recommended professional editor to tidy up his novel before he submits the mss. But it sure as heck wasn't $275. That's loose change.

-Derek
 

timewaster

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I did seriously consider doing some pro critiquing work for a very good Uk based group specialising in YA. I am a quick reader and even so I found it took too long to make the fee worth while.
The company were not a scam outfit and only employed professional writers who had demonstrated a certain level of competence. I assure you anyone going to them would be getting excellent value for money. It takes a while to do properly and while it is relatively easy to crit a short piece on word level stuff it is harder to give sensible advice on a whole novel - structure, plot development, sub plots, theme pace etc.

Quite a lot of people can write really good paragraphs, but joining them up into something bigger seems to be a different skill. IMHO
 

Marian Perera

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NO, I'm not asking for crits anywhere. No it has nothing to do with a forum. I was cruising around the web before I joined the forum. and came across several site that offer critiques. All of them costs money, like 275.00 for a critique.

I crit here because I can crit as little or as much as I like, and because many people here have commented on my own work in exchange.

But if I had to sit down before a manuscript with errors in spelling and grammar and punctuation, or with problems in characterization and plot and style, if I had to read that baby to the end and make notes on every page - heck yeah, I'd want to be paid for it too.
 

Birol

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That's a good question right now.
Critiquing takes time and is work, Blue. It is a service. Nothing is really free. When people offer critiques without charging a fee, they are either offering their time and efforts as a gift or as barter. By barter, I mean: 1) If I critique you, I can learn and grow through the process, 2) If I critique you, then you or others will critique me. Those who critique as a gift are often "paying it forward," doing for others what was once done for them.
 

SpookyWriter

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Critiquing takes time and is work, Blue. It is a service. Nothing is really free. When people offer critiques without charging a fee, they are either offering their time and efforts as a gift or as barter. By barter, I mean: 1) If I critique you, I can learn and grow through the process, 2) If I critique you, then you or others will critique me. Those who critique as a gift are often "paying it forward," doing for others what was once done for them.
I'm more in the #1 category. Although sometimes I wonder if what I'm reading is going to help me better write or drive me into a blissful slumber of insanity.
 

Susan Breen

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Some years ago, I hired a critiquer to go over my novel. At that time, I was home full-time with my children and there was no way I could go to an MFA program. I had gone to some workshops, but I wanted someone to go over my whole 300 page manuscript and give me detailed feedback. I met with this woman over a period of months and it was wonderful. She gave me written analyses of each chapter and, most importantly, she helped me learn about the pacing of the whole thing. That book was never published, but I learned so much that I felt it was worthwhile. You have to make sure you are finding a legitimate person and you need to know what you hope to get out of it. But I don't think there's any shame in hiring someone.
 

aruna

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The time is what is being covered.

...............................

While yes it is ideal to find a beta reader who is willing to give up his/her time to read your work, to do you a MASSIVE favour, they are nonetheless going above and beyond the call of normal friendship. That's why in the SYW forum, people remind the people who are getting a critique to thank the critquers because they are doing it out of the goodness of their heart.

Some people out there are not scammers and still charge to critique a work because of the time required. Also these legitimate critiquers tend to be editors for publishing houses, or have a lot of experience and knowledge, as opposed to say some random friend you choose to beta read. You are paying them also for their experience.

The key is to make sure the person is worth paying, that they are legitimate.

Words of Toothpaste wisdom, as usual!

I crit here because I can crit as little or as much as I like, and because many people here have commented on my own work in exchange.

But if I had to sit down before a manuscript with errors in spelling and grammar and punctuation, or with problems in characterization and plot and style, if I had to read that baby to the end and make notes on every page - heck yeah, I'd want to be paid for it too.

Not only that. If someone agrees to crit my work for free, then it would be brazen of me to say, please get it done in three weeks. I am dependent on their good will to get it finished in a timely fashion. And if they put it aside because of more pressing duties, I can not say, hurry up, please. If I have paid a professional, legitimate person with a good reputation I know exactly when I will get my work back, and that is important to me.

Critiquing takes time and is work, Blue. It is a service. Nothing is really free. When people offer critiques without charging a fee, they are either offering their time and efforts as a gift or as barter. By barter, I mean: 1) If I critique you, I can learn and grow through the process, 2) If I critique you, then you or others will critique me. Those who critique as a gift are often "paying it forward," doing for others what was once done for them.

Again, correct. And since I am simply not in a position--for reasons of time--to crit for someone else in return I would not ask anyone at this point. It's a huge undertaking if it is worth anything (a whole novel, I mean) and I don't expect people to do so out of the goodness of their heart.

For my first novel I used a crit service. She was wonderful. Not only was she worth every penny of the £300 I paid (for a 500 page ms), she afterwards passed the ms on to a fantastic agent, who took me on immediately and sold my book to a big publisher in a week.

In the UK it is quite the norm for many first time novelists to use a crit service, and there are quite a few very successful ones (successful, in that the critted books have have subsequently been published). Many of these services have connections to people in the publishing industry and can give you a referral. Many of them employ published authors.

One example in the US is Caroline Upcher, a well published novelist. She does not advertise and is definitely not a scam.
 
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dpaterso

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maestrowork

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Because it covers something. I don't see what the payment covers when critiquing.

What? So you think critiquing someone's 500-page ms. doesn't take time, effort, and expertise, just because there's nothing tangible such as a hamburger?

Messy lawn -> pristine lawn = $$$ services rendered

Messy ms. -> detailed critique notes = $$$ services rendered


You have a choice, of course. You can mow the lawn yourself or hire a professional landscaper. You can ask Joe Smoe on the street to critique your work for free or a professional writer/editor for cash. Your choice. But don't expect something for nothing. There's always cost.
 
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BlueLucario

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What? So you think critiquing someone's 500-page ms. doesn't take time, effort, and expertise, just because there's nothing tangible such as a hamburger?

No no, I meant if a critique covers something materialistic, like pencils. I thought the critter just crits just for the sake of profit.
 

Devil Ledbetter

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No no, I meant if a critique covers something materialistic, like pencils. I thought the critter just crits just for the sake of profit.
To borrow Ray's analogy, there aren't a lot of people who are going to mow your lawn for the sheer pleasure of it, and only ask that you pay for their gas.
 

PattiTheWicked

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It doesn't matter if they do it for the sake of profit or not. What matters is that they do it well. The trick is figuring out if they're legitimate or not. If they are, it could be worth it to pay them.

If I pay someone to cut my lawn, I don't care if they do it for the love of lawn, or for the cash. What I care about is that they do it right, and it looks really good afterwards.
 

Birol

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That's a good question right now.
If I'm now following Blue's pencil comment -- I might love to crit or enjoy helping people learn or have a passion for language and story, but I still have to eat.
 
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