Where and how to look for people who can review and critic my book properly?

Question

I just finished a short story, and I wanted someone to review it. I wanted someone to answer "How is my book?" with accurate critics and suggestions, not someone who only said the good things about it to make me happy.

But I'm pretty sure nearly everyone knows what's the problem with it.

Whenever I ask a friend to rate my writings, I always have the feeling that he is just saying it to make me happy. I felt that because everytime I asked my friend about what's so good/terrible about it, he always shows a confusion inside his answer. He didn't know what should he say, he just said that it was good, and he couldn't explain it. Either it's because he wants to make me feel happy or it's because he doesn't know anything about literature, I didn't get a satisfying answer.

I tried to look for a person on the internet who could rate my writing, but I'm just too afraid and shy to give it to strangers. Even if I'm not, I couldn't find anyone that could do it in my country.

So where can I find someone who can review my writings with satisfying answers? Or, at least, how can I convince my friend to review my writing as how the writing is?

Answer 1

Sounds like you need beta-readers. There are sites for this online scattered across the internet, but most of them have gone inactive or are not very good. One idea on convincing your friends though, publish the story anonymously somewhere and tell your friends that you read this cool book want to know their thoughts. Have them give you feedback and tada!

Also, I started this chat a while ago for the purpose of beta-readers. I'd be happy to take a look at your story if you post it there. (preferably you'd post a link to a site with the story and a review function, this way the chat stays mostly clean. fictionpress works well for this. )