March Street Press
Feedback
Writers are always asking for feedback. We decided that instead of scribbling advice one-writer-at-a-time, we would provide feedback here. You might enjoy reading all of the advice. Some of it is sure to be confusing, enraging, or amusing. You are likely to disagree with what we have said. Please share your thoughts by emailing us and we will include the best responses—“best” being defined as most interesting, amusing, or useful. We’re a quirky bunch. You never know what you’ll find.
Disclaimer: The first thing anyone might want to know is what qualifies us to comment. We get hostile letters about once a year, usually from people who have Ph.D.s, accusing us of ignorance, lack of taste, poor breeding, and the like. Our response is, “Buddy, you sent your stuff to us; we didn’t come to you.” But the real answer is that we’ve been writing for decades, reading even longer, and have formed well tempered opinions based on sound principles and familiarity with literature of all kinds.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: If your feelings are easily hurt, if you think that every criticism is an attack, if you are not willing to endure strong, specific—and quite possibly erroneous—criticism, READ NO FURTHER! Stop now, turn around, work the web, pretend you never heard of March Street Press or Parting Gifts.
NO
Please return me to the web.
YES
I want to hear what you have to say and I promise not to sue you, threaten you, or dis you because you took the chance to be honest with me. I understand that as a writer and as a student, you found that the most useful advice was also the advice that cut you to the bone and made you bleed. I want to know what you have learned, even if it may not be useful to me at this time.