Let’s Start a Reading and Writing Barter Group

Some fall color from my home.

“Unter vier Augen” is German for “under four eyes.” Having at least four eyes instead of just two reading your work can help any writer improve their fiction or non-fiction stories, novels or screenplays.

Barter is the act of trading services or goods for other services or goods of approximately equal value.

What I’d like to do is set up a group of people willing to read—not necessarily edit—works then provide feedback to the authors in exchange for similar treatment.

The basic concept is:

1.      Writers willing to read someone else’s work will submit semi-final draft stories to people willing to read them.

2.      The readers then comment on the stories, providing valuable and unofficial feedback.

3.      Authors can then read the feedback and determine if the suggestions merit making changes to their manuscripts or not.

There are several requirements necessary to make this program work for everyone.

First, we need a group of writers willing to read someone else’s documents. Only having one or two people means this idea will die a quick death.

Next, we should have a non-disclosure agreement that prevents readers from telling someone outside the group what they are doing. The idea here is to help keep each author’s works private until they are ready for submission to a publisher.

We also need a plagiarism agreement that protects the original author’s ideas from being copied or slightly modified. If I turn your unsold suspense story into a best-selling romance novel that uses an identical plot, similar characters and a carbon-copy setting, I profit from your original ideas. That is unfair,unethical and not the way I work.

There should also be a general form each writer-reader combo can use that provides enough feedback for writers to benefit, but doesn’t take the time or effort of a full-blown edit. If writers don’t get enough feedback, they lose interest. Readers don’t want to spend a lot of time reading unless they are getting paid.

A final thought is this: Most published books have author comments where they thank people making valuable contributions. It’s a good idea for authors to publicly thank their readers here as a form of payment instead of cash.

Now I’d like to hear from you. Do you like this idea? Do you want to participate? How can we make it better for you? Send your comments to mailto:davereyn83@gmail.com.