The Crapometer is in full swing!

Over at Miss Snark's, the fourth Crapometer is in full swing. I am number 248 in the queue (our kind hostess is up to number 169 at the time of writing) so it'll be couple of days before I'm in the firing line. So, far it's been very educational in a number of ways.

Agents (and I suppose editors, for that matter) must have to wade through some crap in their slush piles. Some of the hooks submitted have been pretty good, a few have been superb (number 92 is my favourite so far, closely followed by number 72) but there have been a couple that were unbelievably bad. Kind of like on 'X Factor' when people bereft of any form of talent insist on humiliating themselves in front of Simon Cowell.

A couple of Miss Snark's choices have puzzled me, but I won't comment on them here or on Miss Snark's page as I feel it really isn't my place. And this brings me to a point that's been niggling me since our hostess began tearing through them: isn't a bit presumptuous for anyone other than Miss Snark to critique the hooks on her blog? I mean, over at Elektra's crapometer.blogspot.com it is a given that all and sundry can have a crack at your work, and it was a very useful experience for me. However, when it's Miss Snark's place I don't think anyone has any business criticising someone else's work unless she has specifically asked for the opinions of commenters. I did comment on one hook, and that was to heap praise on it because I thought it was great, but other than that I have abstained. Maybe I'm being arsey about that? I don't know.

Anyway, I shall remain on tenterhooks until my number's up.

Edit - I realised after posting this that, contrary to my claims, I had indeed commented on one of the early hooks. Not only that, I was unduly hard on the author. Feeling suitably sheepish I apologised to them.