Thread by @Joannechocolat

New authors: If a stranger e-mails you out of the blue, asking you to read, critique or comment on their unpublished book, there's no reason you should indulge them. In fact, there are plenty of reasons you probably shouldn't.
Short thread follows.

Authors - whatever their profile - get these requests all the time. New authors often feel guilty at saying no. However, your time is valuable. A proper critique would be worth something like £500 from a professional manuscript evaluator, and would cost you a week of your time.

And if you do accept to critique a manuscript as a favour, word will get round. Once people hear about it, you'll suddenly receive a hell of a lot of requests. The ones you reject (and you'll have to reject some) will feel you've been unfair to them.

You wouldn't give a stranger the keys to your car, or to your house. Why give them your time and your work for free? You don't know who they are. They could be anyone. They could react badly to your critique, stalk you for years, or even accuse you of stealing their work.

Of course, it's your choice. But these things happen to authors all the time, even though they don't always discuss them in public.

It took me a long time to learn how to say no to requests like this, partly because I was sympathetic to beginner writers wanting a break. However, now I find it easier to refuse all requests that don't come through my agent of publisher.

I have a standard reply, which explains that: I don't have time to read 6-12 extra books a week; that for my own protection and for the protection of the writer's copyright, I don't read unpublished work; and I enclose the details of a reputable manuscript service.

I also try to raise awareness of this, so that ideally, writers think twice about contacting authors directly in the first place, and that published authors understand that they don't need to feel obliged to accept unreasonable requests just because someone has read their book.