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Topic : Re: Is it a bad idea to publish individual chapters of my book idea online for feedback? I have already typed at least 6-7 chapters of this book I've been focused on, but what I want to ask - selfpublishingguru.com

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I think posting a work in progress online for feedback is enormously dangerous.

Not because people will steal it. They almost certainly won't.

Not because those readers will refrain from buying the book when it's published. Those readers might refrain from buying it, but the number of people would would have bought your book otherwise is a vanishingly small fraction of your potential audience.

Posting a work in progress online for feedback is dangerous because the feedback will influence you.

Here are some things that are generally true:

The people who give feedback online have no better idea than you do about what makes a good book.
The people who give feedback online have no idea how to give useful feedback.
You will get feedback from people who would not have bought your book if they saw it at some retailer. They are not your audience.
Most of the feedback you can get online is from writers. And not only writers, but unsuccessful writers spouting fallacious rules about stories and how to write them.

You will find some people for whom those things are not true. But most of the feedback you get will be worthless.

If there is any chance that you will take the feedback of anonymous strangers to heart, you are setting yourself up for trouble. And if there is no chance that you will take it to heart, there's no point seeking it.

My recommendation: Finish the novel. The worst that can happen is that you get lots of practice writing the middle and end of a book.

Then get feedback from a few readers who typically enjoy the kind of book you wrote.


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