Getting Effective Feedback on Your Nonfiction Manuscript

Today, we are talking about getting effective, efficient feedback on your full nonfiction manuscript.

And before we dive into the three tips that I have, these are very discreet tips that you can use today, I wanna start by really defining what we mean by effective feedback.

Because I do often find that when folks try to get this initial feedback, oftentimes from their personal circle, from folks they know, they will often find that either what they hear back is, "Oh my gosh, it was so good.

You did such a good job," which feels good but isn't really effective, or on the other hand, they will get line edits back.

They will get that dreaded marked up document that while that person was helpful, they did put a lot of work, I'm sure, into giving you those line edits.

Often I find line edits are not even what we need at that stage.

If this is your first time getting feedback on this manuscript, you almost certainly do not need line edits.

And what that means is you have now gotten feedback that is not only not helpful for you, that was also kind of a waste of a time for the person giving it to you, and most importantly of all, you've also probably gotten feedback that has made you a little bit less confident.

No, friends.

When we need feedback at these early stages, it must balance being helpful, pushing us to grow more, telling us where we need to dig in a little bit deeper, where we need to expand, what the strengths of our manuscript are, so that we can lean into those and really use them for all they can be used for, and to help us see that we have both strengths and weaknesses in that manuscript, and that both are worth honoring and celebrating.

Now, this is what effective feedback can do for you, and I promise I see it all the time.

When you work with someone who knows, who has been given direction, at least, on how to give solid feedback, you can get some of this input that you're wanting, both in a way that does not blow smoke, that actually does give you real improvements to make, but also that really acknowledges and recognizes the hard work that you have already done, the accomplishment that you have already accomplished.

So we want both of these.

But as I teased a bit ago, if you don't ask specifically for how the feedback is going to be given to you, if you are not strategic about how you go after this feedback, you are very, very likely not to get either a fulfilling set of praise comments as a part that is going to build up your confidence or a fulfilling set of comments that are going to push you forward.

Often we will end up with neither one, can be a really frustrating experience for the author, sometimes even to the point of demoralizing, even to the point of making you lose confidence.

And of course, especially when we're talking to people that we know and love and that we have gone to because we trust them, it can be quite damaging to the relationship to set out to get this feedback.

We haven't really thought about what we need, what we want, and we most importantly, have not communicated with others what we need and want.

So with that said, let's talk about these three concrete ways that you can go about making sure you have effective feedback on that manuscript.