The IndieCafe' Crit Partner Matching
CLICK HERE TO OPT IN FOR THE NEXT CRIT MATCH (they go every two weeks)
How this all works
Details
Every two weeks SavvyAuthors will run our new automated Crit Matching Tool and match up everyone who has opted in for that cycle and has completed the crit partner matching selection criteria. The criteria are derived from our experience running our Crit Partner Matching Speed Dating event. We found that the best matches only used these three criteria. That was it.
After we make the matches we'll email you with the contact information of your match and the rest is up to you.
At the end of the two-week cycle we'll ask you to rate your partner and we'll publicly reward good crit partners and allow everyone to earn crit credit toward Excellence in Critique Badges. And we'll show rankings of your accumulated points on a Leaderboard
FAQ
- Is this a crit class?
- No, not really. We do give you access to all the lessons in our Critique Class and our great crit checklist. You can always ask questions and one of the SavvyCrew or a mod will happily help you. But we are not teaching this, we are matching you to someone who will be a great crit partner and (hopefully) friend!
- How do I know who I am matched with?
- Your match will be emailed to you. We'll also let you know if you did not find a match this cycle.
- How long do I have to crit?
- Well, you have two weeks but we suggest that you trade pages pretty quickly to make the most of your time together.
- How many genres can I choose?
- You can choose as many as you like in rank order. What is rank order? Simple, just order your top choice on top. The genre and level choices are tiles that you can drag and drop. Just drag one from the right column which is the ones you DO NOT WANT and move them to the left column then order them in the order you would like!
- How many levels can I choose?
- You can choose as many as you like in rank order. What is rank order? Simple, just order your top choice on top. The genre and level choices are tiles that you can drag and drop. Just drag one from the right column which is the ones you DO NOT WANT and move them to the left column then order them in the order you would like!
- How does the match work?
- It's pretty straightforward. We match for both level of writing and genre choices. We do weight genre choices over level but we have a strict match algorithm that requires that you match for both a single genre and a single level. What does this mean in practice? Choose both the level and genre choices that you would like to crit. Only want to crit expert writers? Only drag the "Master" writing level tile into your Enabled column. Really looking for a partrner for that Romantic Suspense story but also have a Urban Fantasy YA in draft? Add the Romantic Suspense and YA UF to your Enabled column and make sure that Romantic Supense is listed on top!
- What happens if I don’t or can’t complete a crit?
- Our program relies on the good faith of the participants. Once you opt in you must either participate or let us or your partner know if something happens and you cannot. When you are matched you are contacted both by email and by private message on the SavvyAuthors site. If something happens to prevent you from finishing your crit, please let us and your crit partner know as soon as possible so we can find someone else to match her with. Anyone who does not complete a crit without letting us know will be dropped from the program permanently. (See “What if the crit I got is horrible, bad, or just not useful”.
- How many pages?
- We ask everyone trade no more than 10 pages (2500 words), this allows your partner to get a sense of your critting without being overwhelming.
- How do I know that I am being paired with a decent critter.
- Well, this is pretty much like life and everyone is different. We try to reduce the randomness by our crit ratings and levels but anyone can have a bad week, and sometimes people are just not a good fit. However, if we find that someone is repeatedly (more than once) ranked by two different people as providing an unhelpful crit, we remove them from the program and they cannot reapply for 6 months.. Once is bad day, twice is a pattern. We also have a Critique Excellence board (aka Leaderboard) so we can recognize critters who are just superb and you can see if you might be one of them! You can also click on their username and view their profile with information about what they write and a bit about them. From their profile you can see what books they have published, if they have ever taught here at SavvyAuthors, If they have blogged for us, and if they have recommended any service providers. This is also why we encourage everyone to complete their profile information!
- What if the crit I got is horrible, bad, or just not useful?
- After each cycle, we will ask you to rank the quality of the crit. These are both used to assess if our program is not a good fit for that person and to give points for the Critique Wall of Excellence. If someone repeatedly (twice) provides poor quality crits we remove them from the pool of critters and they cannot be added back for 6 months. Hopefully, during that time they have improved their critting skills. We figure everyone deserves a second chance. But not a third, if they are still not meeting our expectations, we move them out, for good.
- Will I always be matched with my preferred genre and/or level?
- That is up to you. You can choose to match outside of your genre or strictly within it. See our comments above about how the match works. You can be as specific as you like in your choices, but do realize that the more narrow you choose the less likely you are to find a reasonably close match.
- How many possible critters can I be matched with?
- Well, that depends on how many we get in a pool. There is no upper limit to the pool and it tends to run around 100-200 critters. Please note that the bigger the pool the more likely your match so definitely TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!!
- Does that mean I might be matched with the same person more than once?
- Nope, we figure you match once and that's it. Take your best shot. So be aware that we won't match you again so every match is important.
- How do I do the crit?
- That is for you and your partner to decide. We recommend that you trade pages either by email on by Private Messate on the SavvyAuthors site. Totally up to you and your partner. If you do your inital trade on our site, you can be sure that your content is safe and secure, we can't provide the same assurance for email. But this is totally up to you and your partner!
- Tell me more about the Critique Excellence Board
- It’s pretty simple, each week we ask you to rate your crit partner and provide feedback:
- Was the crit useful?
- Rate the crit from 0 to 3, where 3 is the best.
- Do you want to continue to trade crits>
- How were your interactions?
- Just that. We all aspire to receive useful crits because those get us published. If the crit was useful, the critter gets 1 point on the wall and any additional points based on the rating. The wall is posted on the IndieCafe section of the site so anyone who is in the Match Pool can see what critters are critting a lot and usefully. If you get 20 points, we give you a special critter badge to display on your SavvyAuthors Profile and postbit. We’re also planning to have some fun events around the Wall of Excellence but more on those later!
- What happens after the critting is done?
- You will complete your review of your critter and indicate if you want to continue with them to explore a more permanent crit partnership. We will trade contact information (only SavvyAuthors usernames) between the two of you via a Private Message on the site ONLY if both of you express interest in the review form. What you do after that is totally up to you!
- OK, how much is this going to cost?
- We are offering this free of charge during our Public Beta. This is while we fine tune the process and match algorithm to make it as useful as possible. After that there may be an additional paid upgrade for access to the CritPartner Matching. We're still working out the details on the cost while we pilot the program! We're working with developers to automate as much as possible which reduces our costs and we can then offer the service at a lower cost! Please also note that we have been running the Beta test for an extended period. We are nearly ready to start charging for this, so definitely take this opporutnity to check out the service while it is free!
More questions?