5 Steps to Effectively Process and Accept Editorial Feedback
(And 5 More Steps to Handle Beta Reader Feedback)
I’ve worked with new writers who are attempting to write a novel for the first time ever, nonfiction writers who are trying their hand at fiction-writing, and even published novelists. The writers I see have the most success—no matter where they are in their writing journey—are those who are open to continually learning and evolving. A big part of that is the ability and willingness to accept editorial feedback and to thoughtfully incorporate it into the story as well as future storywriting.
It’s not easy to receive editorial feedback. Writing is emotional work, and you’re likely to have an emotional response. You put so much of your heart into a story, and criticism—even constructive criticism meant to help improve your writing—can feel like a personal attack. You might want to lash out at the person giving the feedback. Or—perhaps worse—you rage inwardly and tell yourself you’re no good. Neither tactic is very helpful.
But while writing is emotional work, writing a book is also a business venture and it’s important to keep your composure. As with anything you know might trigger an emotional reaction, it can help to come prepared with a plan. Below are steps to guide you through receiving, processing and evaluating editorial feedback, which—in my opinion—is just as important as learning to craft a compelling story.
STEP 1: Before you even receive editorial feedback, consider these questions and write down your responses.
What would be the best thing you could imagine someone saying about your work? What do you most hope your readers will say?
What would be a gut punch to receive as feedback? Is there something in particular you’re worried about hearing?
I ask you to reflect on these because it can help to understand your own hopes and expectations as well as your greatest fears before you even receive feedback. This can help you keep perspective on your own response. If you’re secretly worried your dialogue sounds unnatural and awkward, it’s going to sting even more if you receive criticism about it. But knowing these parameters ahead of time can help you recognize if your reaction is an emotional one.
STEP 2: After you receive and review the feedback, do not make any sudden movements!
Do not immediately begin revising. Do not email or call your editor, book coach or beta reader to tell them they’re wrong or even to ask for more clarification. Just sit with the feedback for at least a few days. Let yourself process the feedback and consider your own response to it.
STEP 3: Reflect on your reaction to the feedback. The one exception to not taking any sudden actions is to consider writing down your response to this feedback—only for yourself—as a way to process it.
Try to be as honest as possible. You need to understand your own emotional response before you can see the feedback clearly.
Consider these questions: Did the feedback resonate with you in some way? Does it feel on a gut level like it’s right even if it’s painful to consider? Does the feedback touch a nerve? Is it something you were particularly worried about?
Look back at your responses to the questions in Step 1. Often a critique stings because we already suspected it was true.
STEP 4: Evaluate and process the feedback. Remember not all editorial feedback carries the same weight.
There are two main ways to evaluate the feedback. First is to consider the source, and second is to examine the feedback itself.
Is the person a professional editor or book coach who you’ve vetted or are working with through your publisher? A person who is professionally trained to evaluate a manuscript, such as a developmental editor or book coach, should carry more weight than your best friend or even someone in your critique group or a beta reader. Even a published author does not always know how to provide editorial feedback in a helpful manner. (I’ve seen this many times first-hand.)
Occasionally those who are not trained in how to provide effective editorial feedback can share unhelpful criticism or suggestions that are meant to be helpful but are not, or are even—intentionally or unintentionally—harmful.
Unintentionally harmful feedback might look like a person who says, “You should write it like this because this is how I would do it” or “I just don’t like this character” or “I think this story could use a dog” or anything not backed up with a factual, logical argument but that instead shows their own personal preferences or biases. Note how this is different from feedback that says something like, “I struggled to connect with the protagonist because it wasn’t clear what the character wanted or how they felt about the situation.” This kind of feedback is providing evidence from the text. This is the kind of feedback that is meaningful and weighty.
As you evaluate the feedback, consider the following:
Who gave you this feedback? Is this person trained as an editor or certified as a book coach? The evaluations of a trained professional who you have vetted should carry more weight.
Is there evidence to support the feedback either provided by the evaluator, or that which you can see in the text?
Does this feedback resonate with you? Does the feedback carry additional emotional weight because it’s opposite what you’d hoped to hear? Or did you already worry this was the feedback you would get? Writers often know, even on a subconscious level, where the weaknesses are in their work.
Does the feedback reflect a pattern in your work that you’re now able to identify and learn from? For example, do you have a habit of info-dumping at the beginning of each chapter? Or is your protagonist depicted as unintentionally inconsistent? Can you take this feedback and use it to grow as a writer?
STEP 5: If you’re working with a book coach or editor, jot down the issues you’re struggling the most with and come prepared to your next meeting to discuss them.
To get the most from your editorial feedback, it can be extremely helpful to talk it through with a trained professional. We can help you brainstorm solutions or reimagine scenes. The synergy and excitement that happens during these one-on-one sessions is one of my favorite things about being a book coach.
But what if you didn’t hire a trained professional? How do you get constructive feedback from beta readers?
Don’t worry—I’ve got steps for that too!
STEP 1. Carefully choose who to ask.
It’s not necessary for your beta reader to also be a writer, but you do want someone who reads widely in your genre. They might not be able to explain the nuances of the genre, but they should read widely enough that they understand if your story doesn’t align with expected genre conventions.
STEP 2. Do not ask too many people to beta read for you.
Too many cooks and all that. I recommend three to four max.
STEP 3. In addition to asking for their overall impression of your story, ask your beta readers to answer specific questions.
Here’s a sampling of questions some of my writing clients have used with their beta readers:
What was your overall impression of the story?
What did you like the most?
Was there anything you didn’t like about it? What?
Did the opening grab you?
Was there anywhere you started to lose interest?
Was the story easy to follow?
Was there anything you found confusing?
Did you find the protagonist engaging, relatable and/or likable?
Did you see/understand the protagonist's personal growth journey on the page?
Did you find secondary characters engaging, relatable and/or likable?
Which characters did you find the most engaging? The least engaging?
What did you think of the ending? Did you find it emotionally satisfying?
STEP 4. Evaluate the quality of the feedback.
As above, you need to consider whether or not the feedback is helpful or accurate. Again consider the questions in the Step 4 above. And, here’s one more question specific to beta readers: are you hearing this particular critique from more than one beta reader? If you answered yes to one or more of the questions, that’s generally a sign there is an issue you need to address in your revision, or at least dig into further.
STEP 5. Remember what you’re gathering from your beta readers is feedback. This is not the same as solutions.
You are not asking a beta reader to solve your challenges nor would you want them to. Editorial feedback should bring an issue to your attention, but it does not resolve the issue for you. You as the writer want to receive and process the feedback and then determine the best solution that aligns with the story you want to tell.
Even in my work as a book coach, I find what my writers most need from me is to offer solutions as jumping-off points. It’s not my purpose to architect an author’s story, but rather to help them find their own storytelling voice and be sure their vision for the story is translating to the page. I do always offer clear action steps for tackling the revision process, but any examples I give are only to highlight one possible direction. As I emphasize to my writers: my aim is to show you one possibility…you may take this idea and run with it, or you may decide it doesn’t resonate with you, but you have another idea that will work even better. I love it when I offer a potential solution and the author rejects it, but uses it as a springboard to come up with their own even better solution!
One last thought…as I was reviewing this post I was struck by my overuse of the word “consider.” Maybe you noticed that too? I’ve used it 10 times already! I was about to revisit each instance to see if I could replace some of those when it occurred to me there’s a reason I use “consider” so much here.
If you take nothing else away from this post, I urge you to remember this one thing: Consider.
Consider means you don’t immediately accept feedback without first evaluating it to determine if it’s helpful or harmful. Consider also means you are open to change…that you use the feedback to reflect and ponder and grow as a writer. Consider means you’re learning and evolving. And that’s the best any of us can do.
Here’s some helpful, related advice from fellow book coaches…
The Beauty of Beta Readers by Monica Cox on Beyond the First Draft
Using a Workshop Experience Inventory When Workshops Go Wrong by Alissa Butterworth on Jane Friedman
What Really Sustains a Writer by Nicole Meier on Dear Whole Writer (Nicole’s thoughts on what she calls “The Courage to Evolve” is what got me started thinking about this post in the first place, so thanks, Nicole!)
But, my favorite workout is feedback tantrums! 😭
Great advice, Heather!