Quote:
Originally Posted by Teresa Edgerton  I, personally, would be wary about sending an electronic file of an entire book to someone I didn't know very well, someone who hadn't a professional reputation to maintain. |
That happens on a frequent basis in online writing workshops. Not only is your fiction "published" - and not always behind a password - but total strangers get to download copies for themselves. What assurances do you have that those people are who they say they are? And, to make matters worse, you know they're as keen to be published as you are.
But... guess what? Plagiarism doesn't happen. Or happens so infrequently it's never mentioned.
To be honest, Kissmequick, from your comments any feedback you get from bloke this is going to be so useful enough that it's not worth worrying about the incredibly remote possibility that he might rip you off. And he's not likely to. Do you know why? Because if he's interested in reading and commenting your own ms, then he too is likely a writer. And he might well ask the same favour of you.
I've come across unpublished writers keeping their manuscripts secret from everyone except editors and agents before, and I've never understood it. I know of a couple of authors who were published as a result of others reading their unpublished novels. Those readers created a buzz... which eventually reached the ears of an editor...