If we feel your work is a good fit for Buzzy Mag we will contact you via email. At that time we will assign you to a Beta reading group consisting of two or three other authors. There your work will be read by two other beta-readers who will give you feed-back and criticism. You will be expected to do likewise for each of them in return.
What is this modern mania for writing by committee? Can you imagine any of the great authors of the modern age having anything to do with this sickly, sanitised approach to literature? Is literature one of society’s creative forces or isn’t it? Because if it is, there’s only one approach that’s worthy of the fact. You say what you have to say in the way you want to say it, using your own judgement and experience to say it as well as you can. Then you accept that people either like it or they don’t as the fancy takes them. It’s how Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, Franz Kafka, Flann O’Brien etc, etc, etc did it. If it was good enough for them...
And while I’m ranting: What person of discernment would ever consider calling a publication ‘Buzzy Mag?’ And since when was the word ‘feedback’ hyphenated? And who the hell invented that idiot term 'beta reader' anyway? It's become one of those buzz terms that people don't question because people like that don't question things. Perhaps 'Buzzy Mag' isn't so surprising after all.
2 comments:
It's good to laugh at this after reading your Agent post and thinking about all the horrors. Of course this is another kind of horror and because I sporadically follow writing blogs that talk constantly about "focus" and reading groups and beta this and beta that, I couldn't agree with you more. Beta reader is a thoroughly obnoxious term, thank you. I'm seriously losing heart about writing at all these days because I don't understand what they're all talking about and feel isolated by it. Is writing a mathematical equation and I've missed something? As for the name Buzzy Mag, that really says it all.
I suspect the problem here, Della, is something you've mentioned before. For most of history, writers were a tiny minority of strong, skilled individualists with something to say. They didn't take creative writing courses, use beta readers, or engage with forums. I know there were 'clubs' like the Algonquin and Bloomsbury Set, but these were tiny groups of people who had already made their mark.
In today's highly commercial and communicative environment, writing has become both sexy and a way to possible fame and fortune. So now the world is full of wannabees, and it seems that most of them are obssessed with the modern preoccupation with consensus and the 'right' way to do things. As a result, I think the writing environment is now full of followers rather than creators.
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