Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Are online critique groups a good substitute for editors?

You can certainly get pretty far by using an online critique group. There are two problems you'll find with such a service: It's hard to get people who can commit to reading a whole book. The qua...

posted 12y ago by JSBձոգչ‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:20:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5558
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar JSBձոգչ‭ · 2019-12-08T02:20:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
You can certainly get pretty far by using an online critique group. There are two problems you'll find with such a service:

1. It's hard to get people who can commit to reading a whole book.
2. The quality of reviews and feedback that you get can vary a lot, and many reviewers won't tell you anything very useful.

When you hire a professional editor, problem #1 is taken care of with the promise of cold, hard cash. Problem #2 still exists, however, as the quality even of "professional" editors varies quite a bit, and you have to exercise diligence and good judgement to decide whether or not a given editor is actually worth your money.

If you're trying to self-publish, you can probably get _good enough_ by relying on online critique groups and some trusted writer friends. However, if you really want to take your writing to the top level you'll probably benefit from finding a qualified, professional editor.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-05-01T13:13:33Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 11