Jeremiah Tolbert

The Pitch

My writ­ing career is in full swing again, and that’s some­thing to be excited about.  I’m going places, I tells ya.  Unfortunately, I don’t get things quite right on the first draft, which means I need help from keen-​​eyed read­ers such as your­self.   That’s right, I’m not per­fect.  I know it’s a shock to hear, but let’s keep it together.  I might not be per­fect, but you can play a part in help­ing me look that way.

What I Need From You

I need your sweet, deli­cious braaaaai­iin… to look over my early drafts of sto­ries.    I’ll email you and the other First Reader Brigade mem­bers copies of sto­ries in MS Word or RTF for­mat.   What you send back can be any­thing from a sim­ple one line, “didn’t like this because [rea­son]” to detailed line edits or multi-​​page cri­tique.  I’m happy for either.  Basically, I need raw feed­back to improve my work. The First Reader Brigade are stal­wart defend­ers of the read­ing pub­lic mak­ing sure that my worst schlock is never foisted upon their pure, untar­nished minds.

When I’m writ­ing short sto­ries, I pro­duce around one a week, some­times more.  When I’m writ­ing a book, I don’t send any­thing out at all for long peri­ods of time.  Until the book is ready.  Then you get a really big file.

Here’s the impor­tant part.  If you agree to join the First Reader Brigade, you are NEVER oblig­ated to read or respond to any­thing in par­tic­u­lar.  Pick what inter­ests you, and only spare the time when you have it to spare.  I’ll never harass you about send­ing me feed­back unless you ask me to do that.  There’s no pres­sure in this Brigade.  Just opportunities.

My friend Jay Lake works on this model—another writer who pro­duces quite a bit, and I think it works for him.  Hopefully it will work for me too.

What You Get From Me

My undy­ing love and grat­i­tude for one.  For sec­ond, if you’re a writer, then I ask that you send me your own sto­ries for me to return the favor.  If you’re not a writer, I’ll owe you a favor.    That favor is yours to define.   Think of how you might exploit the hell out of that.  The only stip­u­la­tion I can put on it is that I would pre­fer you not ask me to build you web­sites for free.  I want feed­back, but I can’t trade my poten­tial income away for it.   That said… advice, lit­tle fixes of odd bro­ken things, no problem!

And if it’s remotely pos­si­ble for me to add an acknowl­edge­ments sec­tion to the pub­lished ver­sion, you will be in it, even if I have to bump my own mother to fit you.  Unless you are my mom, in which case, er, guess you get men­tioned twice?

How to Join

Email me at jeremy@​tuginternet.​com.  That’s not my main address, but it’s one I expect to get spam at, so I am post­ing it here.  If you have a dif­fer­ent address for me, use it, no wor­ries.  Just let me know you’re inter­ested, and I’ll put you on my auto mailer list.

If you were look­ing for­ward to read­ing TAKEDOWN NOTICE or “The God-King’s Right Hand” then this is how you’ll do it.

I’m really deter­mined to be the best writer I can be.  But I need your help to do it.  I can’t see my own mis­takes very clearly, but to you I’m prob­a­bly just one huge mis­take so this should be a cakewalk!

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Tags: critiques, first readers, My Writing