Next time (assuming there is one) I send out stuff for read, I'm bringing in a service level agreement. Or something like. :D
I suffer from protestant work ethic. Generally, I do reading I've promised (I avoid getting bogged down by only very rarely promising to read) first so that I can avoid guilt tripping. If I'm mid-week and tired, I generally advise the sender I'll be on it at the weekend, with a rough ETA. I do this as someone who has been let down again and again by potential beta readers, particularly in early fanfic days. The other reason I tend to prioritise is because when I adminned on a site, I felt for the submitter. If you're new, it's particularly painful to wait for your story to be vetted. One of the reasons I stopped adminning was after too many weekends where I got nothing done of my own, while I worked the coalface.
Sending out files and getting no response really creeps me out. Why do people say they'll read if they aren't going to? I don't ever send out drafts unsolicited, except when submitting for publication, so any friends getting stuff asked for it first. Therefore it's hard sitting on no response. I inevitably end up assuming they HAVE read the files and are sitting too horrified by the sheer crapitude of it all to get back. Because I tend to assume if people are bogged down, they'd advise me of the fact. I'm a pushover as a negotiator (ask my staff and colleagues at work), so they'd have no problem getting me to say okay to an extended deadline.
But the waiting (particularly for original work, which, after all, is your bonny blue-eyed baby) can be cruel. I'm confident enough to take rejection from publishers on the chin (hell, I need to be!), but when it's people who are friends (I include f-listees here) it's painful. If there's a long hiatus where no one gets back with comments, my default is to assume it's because what I sent is rubbish. I can't properly describe the hopeful clicky on the 'send and receive' button, and the ensuing crestfallen mood when nothing happens. Day, after day, after day... Your mind makes up excuses for every reader, and then eventually, you become convinced there are no excuses. It's actually because they are embarrassed at telling you the truth. Do you email them, and ask for an update? Or is that harassment, in the circs? And the days go by and you fester, and turn yourself inside out. It's the knowledge of this that makes me try and respond quickly (even if I have to respond later with more detail).
So back to the question of service level agreement. That seems madly constrictive in a volunteer situation, but having just beat myself around the head over late responses, I don't think I'd operate without some sort of agreement in future.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-10-26 09:54 am (UTC)I suffer from protestant work ethic. Generally, I do reading I've promised (I avoid getting bogged down by only very rarely promising to read) first so that I can avoid guilt tripping. If I'm mid-week and tired, I generally advise the sender I'll be on it at the weekend, with a rough ETA. I do this as someone who has been let down again and again by potential beta readers, particularly in early fanfic days. The other reason I tend to prioritise is because when I adminned on a site, I felt for the submitter. If you're new, it's particularly painful to wait for your story to be vetted. One of the reasons I stopped adminning was after too many weekends where I got nothing done of my own, while I worked the coalface.
Sending out files and getting no response really creeps me out. Why do people say they'll read if they aren't going to? I don't ever send out drafts unsolicited, except when submitting for publication, so any friends getting stuff asked for it first. Therefore it's hard sitting on no response. I inevitably end up assuming they HAVE read the files and are sitting too horrified by the sheer crapitude of it all to get back. Because I tend to assume if people are bogged down, they'd advise me of the fact. I'm a pushover as a negotiator (ask my staff and colleagues at work), so they'd have no problem getting me to say okay to an extended deadline.
But the waiting (particularly for original work, which, after all, is your bonny blue-eyed baby) can be cruel. I'm confident enough to take rejection from publishers on the chin (hell, I need to be!), but when it's people who are friends (I include f-listees here) it's painful. If there's a long hiatus where no one gets back with comments, my default is to assume it's because what I sent is rubbish. I can't properly describe the hopeful clicky on the 'send and receive' button, and the ensuing crestfallen mood when nothing happens. Day, after day, after day... Your mind makes up excuses for every reader, and then eventually, you become convinced there are no excuses. It's actually because they are embarrassed at telling you the truth. Do you email them, and ask for an update? Or is that harassment, in the circs? And the days go by and you fester, and turn yourself inside out. It's the knowledge of this that makes me try and respond quickly (even if I have to respond later with more detail).
So back to the question of service level agreement. That seems madly constrictive in a volunteer situation, but having just beat myself around the head over late responses, I don't think I'd operate without some sort of agreement in future.
*sigh*