The way things are now, I agree with Christopher.
Funding authors tend to be the most active, and therefore the most visible. So funding books naturally tend to draw the most attention and get the most exposure - which is a good thing and totally makes sense. The understandably sympathetic reluctance to leave criticism on funding books sort of bleeds over onto drafts. Also, authors here are really considerate, and don’t want to unintentionally discourage another author. So it can be challenging for an active Drafter to draw attention, and organically get criticism from people browsing, or even those that follow your book.
Plus, critiquing takes time. Not only does a draft need to garner someone’s interest, but that person also has to be invested enough to take the time to provide constructive criticism. Most important, there’s no real incentive to critique. That’s why DraftShares was such a great idea.
I bring up incentive because I was recently introduced to the site Scribophile (this is not intended to be an ad, just a resource I wanted to share). They have a system where you earn points for giving solicited critiques that you can use to post your own work for feedback, and earn things like having your book featured. It appears to be a robust community where people are pretty honest. I suggest checking it out if you’re looking for an option to get your work thoroughly reviewed. I’m definitely going to give it try
Sometime in the future, I think it would be of value for Inkshares to have some sort of similar, formal system of solicitation and incentive for critiques. I wouldn’t think they have the resources to try something like that right now. But as the site grows, it’s something I would personally love to eventually see. I think that knowing there was an incentive to give and receive feedback would draw more authors, who would then potentially move on to the funding phase with a much stronger draft – hopefully increasing the chance of funding success.
I would love to know what everyone else thinks.
