Scribophile

If you're just learning and want to write in a genre, like fantasy, horror, crime, etc, you will get some helpful reviews, but if you have been writing for a while and want to write creative literary fiction that doesn't fit into a genre and pushes boundaries for creative purposes, the site may not be for you.
Some members, usually those who have been on there forever, believe they know *the only* way to write and will virtually scream and insult their way through a critique of a work that doesn't precisely fit into their mold, offering not one word of encouragement, then brag about how tough they are. If you posted 3000 words by Cormac McCarthy or William Falkner, they would tear it apart. That's not to say that *all* members are like that. If you're lucky you won't get too many reviews by the "my way is the only way" crowd, but that's the main downside I encountered. I'm still a member but don't visit too often anymore.

Wrote a pretty good critique of a chapter, but since English is my second language, I let an AI polish my text. I wrote I did, thinking next time I would not do it. I wrote what was good, what needed improvement, and tried to help the author. I read some of the critiques others wrote and they were not great. One went in and made some suggestions about the wording. Another was just good work. I saw no one give advice on the structure of the writing and what needed to be worked on. So I guess it was no loss to be banned.

Scribophile offers writers the opportunity to find writing partners and critique groups from all over the world. It takes time to network and find the right people, but if you're willing to put the time in, it's quite valuable. The site offers a free version that puts limits on the functionality, but the cost of a "premium" membership is far less than most writing classes and gives you access for an entire year.

Yes, the karma system can be tedious when you start out, but once you start sharing/reciprocating critiques, it generally adds up quickly.

If you're an experienced professional who just wants confirmation that you're on the right track with a particular new story then Scribophile ought to be a good place to trial stuff right? Wrong. Whilst there are genuine people there, and I did get a lot of very good feedback, there are a lot of trolls with no writing experience at all, who simply exist to make life hell for the rest of us. Additionally, there's hardly anything posted on there that isn't Fantasy of some kind. I had to leave for the sake of my sanity.

I've been to so many other writing sites to look for beta readers, and none of them have been very good. I'm glad I finally found Scribophile! I've been a member for a few months and I already have a fantastic group of beta readers who are reading through my novel. You have to earn points to post your writing and that means there's always someone to read your work. At first it's a little tough, but after a while I've wound up with more points than I can use.

Everyone is so nice and it's awesome to finally find other writers who can do beta reads!

I signed up for Scribophile earlier this year. It's helped my writing so much! The system makes you write critiques for other people before you can post your own novel. At first I was a little hesitant but let me tell you, sitting down and thinking hard about what other people can improve in their writing goes a long way to helping me objectively look at my own work.

So far I've made a lot of friends and critique partners, and I'm getting ready to do a complete beta read swap with another member. I would never have gotten this chance without Scribophile.

Besides critiquing, the forums are usually pretty busy and while the moderators can sometimes be a little zealous I think they're usually pretty fair.

In short I can't recommend Scribophile enough. Love it!

You never own the stuff you put on there. Let me explain. If the owners or those who run the site ever dislike you or you write about something controversial they will remove you from the site and all your data will be lost. No you can't retrieve your stuff. All it takes is one to two people complaining. It is not a place for creative freedom if you write horror or anything not pg-13. With the exception of romance but even then you can get reported. Art should be freeing. Like music, a cd will warn of explicit details. That cd wasn't removed from stores. Imagine working on a book and losing everything because someone didn't agree with your vision. Your not treated as an adult, your treated like children who should behave and stay silent.

I spent a long time writing on my own and I didn't realize how nice it is to talk to other people about writing. The selling point of Scribophile is getting reviews for your novel but I've found it even more useful as a chat space to talk to other people who are all trying to write. It is so nice to find a group of people who are all going through the same struggles as you are in writing a novel. And everyone is so welcoming. The reviews are nice too but where the site really shines is as a place to talk with other writers.

First off set up is pretty good I like the critique features but this site takes a ton of work to post anything. It's like I critique five other works just to get one chapter of my work up. Leadership is terrible the mods do keep things moving but they are bias and for some reason volunteers. The head guy is unprofessional and plays favorites. People are leaving this place left and right save your money and go for something else.

I joined this site as a novice unpublished writer two years ago. There were/are numerous groups I could join, that best suit my writing interests. The critiques I have received have been extremely insightful. Unfortunately I'm one of those authros who think I'm so very clever when I write something - the critiques have shown me that I'm not so clever and ways in which I could improve my writing.

I've now done quite well having been a finalist in six national short story contests (yet to win though) and most of those where greatly improved through the critiques of those on scribophile.

That said, the critiques one gets can vary considerably, depending not only on the writing experience of the critiquer, but their capacity to have insight into how one can improve the writing and where/why the writing was weak

The site is free nut you can pay a modest premium to get added benefits, which I elected to do. You can message other authors with whom you have developed a collegial relationship and arrange more consistent critiques of your work.

I find this site to be far more helpful than the writers group I attend at a writers centre.

I've been using Scribophile on and off over the past few years. The community is very friendly, and the critiquing features are top-notch. I've gotten lots of great feedback over time. The karma system makes it a little time-consuming to earn points but ultimately it's more than worth it.

I signed up for Scribophile recently and have critiqued others works and posted two of my own works. The community really helped me improve my work, and I appreciate it. However, earning enough karma points to post them, and esp. Premium is really a problem.

It takes forever to earn karma points (you have to critique over 125 words to get 1 or 0.50 points). And Premium can make things unfair. What esp. bothers me is that non-paying writers have to delete past works just to post more.

So to conclude, if you are willing to pay and very professional, then this site is for you. But if you are a college student like me, you might find some issues.

I've enjoyed my time at Scribophile, but was surprised to find out two things as a non-paying member:

1. You cannot italicize anything in your submitted stories. I use italics a lot, so I was disappointed to find this out. Granted, they do say that "premium members" will enjoy certain format enhancements that will make your writing shine. Too bad I didn't read the fine print.

2. I somehow missed that at a certain point, you must pay up to continue membership. Nothing is free in this world after all. Trouble is, I'd already critiqued enough stories to earn 5 credits, enough to submit my next story. Ok, after reading more fine print, they do let you delete past stories and critiques to keep submitting stories for free. I guess you just have to be really on it. They have subtle ways of urging you to become a "premium member." Perhaps marketing is marketing, and I just need to deal with it!

I joined Scrib years ago when it was starting out. There was a great community of writers there, nearly all of them gone now. I came back last year, because a friend encouraged me to return to writing. It is almost exactly as it was then, a great writing community. Here's the problem, my friends. The owner. Alex Cabal. He runs the place through terror tactics. Say anything on the forum or in a group or in a private group that he doesn't like and you will get your message deleted, you will get a strike, and you will be stalked, and you will be banned. It doesn't matter if you paid for the premium membership, you will be permanently banned and your writing deleted and your access to your writing community will be gone. The people who remain are silenced through fear of being banned. So prepare yourself: if you want to join a site where anything you say can be held against you, where the owner can ban you even if you paid in full, if you can't appeal any decision, if you can't speak out on behalf of any friends who were unjustly banned, if you want to get your heart broken by losing all your work in the blink of an eye, if you can't respectfully protest anything, then you have been warned. Oh, and Alex favorite words for people who dare to speak out: Jerks. $#*!s. He proudly comes onto the forums (another intimidation tactic) and brags about the jerks and $#*!s he's banned from the site. He lies and makes up reasons when he bans people. He is a bully who has created a reign of terror on the site. The forums are dull and dead because everyone fears him. Look for another community of writers, this one will break your writing spirit, and your heart.

I went to scribophile to learn and grow as a writer. While the site is fairly well structured and encourages writers to support one another, their critique system could use improvement. As could the overall attitude from members and moderators alike.

Commenting on other's work in regards of grammar, etc. can earn you flags. Not to mention they discourage lengthy critiques. They also don't like you posting chapters or pieces over 3,000 words. Which can be quite a pain as a number of writers end up having to divide their work into even smaller parts just to comply with the rules.

Also, unless you're a paying member... which its $9 dollars a month just to message freely and not have a limitation on the amount of work you post, it can slow you down to a snail's pace. Not to mention actually present your work in a decent format. If you're not a paying member, it is even harder to earn karma points. Even if you do a lot of reading and critiquing the limitations they set makes all those stacked up karma points seem wasted. Not to mention, it slows a number of writers down that might have deadlines or be looking for some serious feedback on their work.

Though I'll say this much... I ended up being a paying member so that way I could fully utilize everything, it still felt overpriced as there were times I would take out a lengthy time to read and critique another's works to get flagged and would end up get half-assed critiques that were pointless to even acknowledge imo. But as I did not want to cause trouble, I let it slide. Not to mention I didn't want to have to deal with the moderators which came off as rather pushy, snooty, and condescending.