I don't know yet--but I have some serious doubts.
As writers, almost all of us want to get paid for our work.
That usually means payment outright for a limited publication, as in $0.06/word w/ one publication plus archival retention. Or it might be X% of royalties, however computed.
Now, along comes Fresh Ink, to save every writer's career, by "giving" them free unlimited critiques from their beta readers.
Fresh Ink will even edit your work and design a nice bit of cover art for it. For free. And they'll categorize your story so their beta readers can find just what they want to read. And format it for easy cellphone download. (Talk about service!)
Guess who will own the copyright to the cover art? Fresh Ink, of course. (These little details matter!)
All those beta readers will get to read and critique whatever they want. Or to read and not critique. Fresh Ink can't force a beta reader to provide an original critique.
Maybe Fresh Ink sets the critiques up like feadback on Ebay. Read something, click a few buttons (or not!) and read something else.
I don't know yet, but I STRONGLY suspect that Fresh Ink's beta readers will have to pay a monthly fee to maintain access to the massive body of new works that Fresh Ink will quickly assemble.
Say, $9.95/mo. with feedback optional. Forever.
What will the writers get out of it? Nothing, except maybe a few robo-ego strokes.
Writers, even BAD writers, don't need critiques. They need paying markets so they can survive long enough to hone their craft and accumulate a fan base.
Follow the money. Where will the money the writer should be making go when a zillion beta readers can "critique" their stories?
To Fresh Ink, one way or another. They aren't in business to help writers. They're in business to make money.
And, to top it off, once a few billion people can read your stories on the Internet, every story you submitted will probably qualify as "previously published"--and become chopped liver to real publishers.
At the moment, Fresh Ink is advertising a free "contest" that every author can enter an unlimited number of times. It will be judged by the "beta readers". A few people will win some prizes.
You won't.
In fact, you'd probably be better off using the money you didn't spend entering Fresh Ink's free contest to not buy lottery tickets. You'd have about the same chance of winning, and the lottery prize you didn't win would be much larger.
I plan to try to sign up as a beta reader as soon as the opportunity arrives. If it costs me money, the truth will have set me free.
Or, at least, freer.
