Eons ago when I was a starving grad student, I had a job as a proof reader. It is MUCH more difficult to notice errors (be it spelling, piunctuation or grammar) in interesting reading than to notice them in reading that is boring. The eye tends to correct when you are paying attention to the content rather than the mechanics.
We had one manuscript that was was the reminisces of a forest ranger in the deserts of Nevada--fascinating book! And veryone in the department read it, and even on the 6th or 7th proofing we STILL found new errors. But when we proofed phone books (talk about boring!), we never had to have more than one person look at it.
So, someone who is not really "into" the genre might well be able to critique spelling or grammar, but any modern word processing software can as well. In this case what is needed is someone who can look at the characters and find them believable and interesting; characters that conform to the structure of the genre, or confront it; not ones that simply exist. Someone who can look at the story and see that it follows reasonable progression through conflicts. Different publishers have different formulas, expected word counts and amount of conflict and characters. Without that knowledge, it would be really hard to say what is likely to be accepted or not.
We had one manuscript that was was the reminisces of a forest ranger in the deserts of Nevada--fascinating book! And veryone in the department read it, and even on the 6th or 7th proofing we STILL found new errors. But when we proofed phone books (talk about boring!), we never had to have more than one person look at it.
So, someone who is not really "into" the genre might well be able to critique spelling or grammar, but any modern word processing software can as well. In this case what is needed is someone who can look at the characters and find them believable and interesting; characters that conform to the structure of the genre, or confront it; not ones that simply exist. Someone who can look at the story and see that it follows reasonable progression through conflicts. Different publishers have different formulas, expected word counts and amount of conflict and characters. Without that knowledge, it would be really hard to say what is likely to be accepted or not.
