betas
No, it's not really an issue of having my work copied. It's an issue of having stolen time away from other things I need to do to revise, and highlight the revised text to make it easier for the beta to find in the full ms, and getting this in reply to my it's-ready message:
Glad you're working on it. My offer to reread was to give a fair critiquing exchange based on your comments of the first chapter of mine. After that I only got a summary, so I feel the critiques were likewise as they stand. I was hoping to get comments in the text, like I provided, so I was disappointed to be frank.
Good luck with your manuscript. I think it has potential but can't reread it.
Nice, eh? No second chances. Just gone. Get lost. The beta knew I was going to let her know when the revisions were ready, and had this waiting for me.
Many a chapter I have line edited and sent out, and received in return a chapter with one, maybe two, comments in the text and one short note at the end. That's not a fair exchange. I never said a word.
Betrayal has been a constant companion of mine, but I never expected something this petty from anyone in these forums.
Again, proof that it's the people who repeatedly quote the word "fair" who have the least respect for the concept.
I would now be beta reading not as much with an eye for the writing as I would wondering if the other beta has her own kiss-off message ready if she doesn't think what she's getting is "fair." (Or maybe if someone points out to her the spelling and grammar mistakes that should have been corrected long before the ms reached beta stage.)
Computer technology and the anonymity of the Internet also make possible things that, until a few days ago, I never had the need to think of. Like whipping up a synopsis and query for someone else's ms -- that shouldn't be too hard for even a novice with command of the language -- and sending it out, or simply sending the complete ms file as-is to someone else who never heard of AW and letting them have at it.
The offer of a ms for comments and crits might also just be a project for a college human behavior class, like many personals ads already are.
Dishonest writers have been known to exist. Anyone remember James Frey? Doris Kearns-Goodwin and Kaavya Viswanathan are two other well-known plagiarists of recent times.
Double crossing, game playing, the possibility of easy plagiarism ... there are already enough reasons to wake up at four in the morning and be unable to get back to sleep. My stay on this beta exchange forum is over.