This is an invitation to post the opening of your book or novel in the forum thread “If I were an agent, I’d stop reading…now.”
http://www.authonomy.com/forums/threads/82641/if-i-were-an-agent-i-d-stop-reading-now-/?pagenumber=1
After you post your opening, we will read it as if we were an agent who had requested a partial from you. If we see something, a grammatical error, a cliché, awkward phrasing, we will stop reading. Unlike a real agent, we will explain what made us stop.
If you choose to post your opening in this thread, please keep in mind that few if any of us are experts and only you know what is best for your book or novel. The main purpose of this thread is to help you get some honest feedback, and perhaps gain some readers and backers.
This thread currently has 90,000 views. Why? I’d like to say it is because Autho users like to stop by to peruse excerpt and find new reads, but in truth, the biggest reason this thread is so popular is that people love a circus.
They love conflict and drama and this thread provides it in the form of Authonomy’s resident banned troll, Jay too/JG/JG1/Skid Chains, et al. The way it works is like this, JG thinks he is an expert and that he alone knows the proper way to write. If he comments on your writing, if you get JG’d as we say, consider it to be a bizarre initiation, or ritual hazing. Other writers will likely come to your defense and you will get more attention for your work.
While all this conflicts does draw many eyes to the thread, it also means that your opening can get lost in the shuffle. I encourage you to re-post as often as you want until you’re satisfied with the amount of feedback you have recieved.
Best of luck
Jack Cerro “The Nymph’s Heart”