Okay, so I’ve had something happen to me twice in the last month that hasn’t happened to me since I started writing over three years ago. Someone agreed to Beta read my work and then stopped one or two chapters in. I am not going to name names because clearly that’s a dick move, but I do need to ask: is that normal behavior?

Let me set the stage. I have been trying to sell my full length novel, Christmas in Pandemonium, to literary agents for over two years now. I’ve recently decided to go the independent publisher route, going for some of the better known horror indies. This entire book has been through seven or eight beta readers before, and I think about 15 people have read over the first chapter and prologue. However, this guy agrees to beta read my book and then sends it back to me after that first chapter (the one that had already been looked over by 20 or so other readers) and tells me that he just can’t go any further. I won’t go into why other than to say it wasn’t spelling and grammar. I shrugged my shoulder and moved on.

Then it happened again. This time, it was someone from an online critique forum, and he’d already read the first chapter and decided to critique the entire book. By the time he gets to the second chapter, he says it isn’t ready for a complete manuscript review. Once again, based on his comments, spelling and grammar weren’t the issue. Really more stylistic stuff, but he says its not ready.

This time, I was a little peeved. I wrote back. Told him he was rude. I said that while the comments he had so far were valuable, nothing he pointed out seemed like the kind of thing that would cause most rational people to refuse a critique credit. I told him I was surprised he was part of this forum, because I had seen much rougher manuscripts than that and never thought of doing what he did. Then I told him I would review my manuscript and get back to him in two weeks if he still wanted to look at it.

I’ve got to say, the first time this happened, I was a little shocked. As I said, I’ve had 20 people go over that same first chapter and no one reacted that way. Then when the second person does that to me in a month, and with the nitpicks he was basing this off of, I really felt the need to tell him off. Maybe that wasn’t the best way to handle that, but I have this thing about people who demand perfection: they’re assholes.

I’ve had bosses who were like that. I worked for a guy who fired five people before he hired me, fired five people while I was there, fired me, and then fired five people after me. From what I can tell, the firm doesn’t exist anymore. He demanded perfection, and it drove him out of business. What amazed me was that no matter how bad his reputation got or how many people he lost, he refused to train people. Thought it was beneath him.

I guess that’s what annoyed me about these people. Could my book have been better? Yes, that’s why I submitted it to Beta readers. That’s the point of Beta readers. It’s supposed to be about improvement. You don’t need to improve something that’s perfect both because that is what perfect means and also because perfection does not exist in this universe. I’ve read more than enough really bad manuscripts and still given constructive feedback. Jesus actually didn’t have a problem with the Pharisees applying high standards to people. He had a problem with them putting heavy burdens on people without doing anything to help people lift them. To get a little more religious, don’t curse the darkness, strike a match.

So, that’s how I feel. Did I overreact? Have you ever met someone who said they would read something and then throw it back at your face? How did you react?