"Circle of Trust" or having friends read your work...

A lot of newbies get to the point when they finish of a spec and don't know where to turn next. Should I go for the agent and get it sold? Should it be the manager? Should I go straight to a prod company?Of course the answer should be none of the above.IMO, you need to establish a "Circle of Trust".

What is that?It's a circle of maybe 3 or 4 (or maybe more) people who's opinions you trust and who you can pass your work through like a filter to test responses and gets notes from. Once your work goes through this "testing" system, it roots up all your weeds and allows you to manage your work better and take it to another previously unseen level.

How do I get a "Circle of Trust"?

It should start IMO with notes you give to people out of goodwill, or in the form of a notes trade. This could involve some dead ends (people who don't return notes trades) but with almost 100% accuracy, people who you offer notes will give you notes back. Repeat the process and you'll eventually locate people who's opinions you trust and cherish and when you get that email through your inbox with them asking for notes, you'll jump at the chance, because you know they will do it back to you again in the near future (and it should be the NEAR future because we're all writers trying to make a career right?).

So in short, a "Circle of Trust" is critical to not only a newbie writer, but of course writers of any level, but mostly importantly a writer needs that circle of fellow trusted opinions before they start hitting up those agents, managers and execs for reads because we only get one pop at that quality read.