1. Fill out the questionnaire.

2. You will be sent a list of names of possible candidates for a match, along with their critiquing goals and preferences.

a. Critique Partners: Choose a name of a prospective partner from your list and contact the Critique Coordinator to request the person's mailing address. Make an initial contact by writing to your prospective partner. Be sure to include an introductory letter with a short bio and your partnership expectations. Include a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) so that your prospective partner could respond. Decide between yourselves who should begin sending chapters first.

b. Critique Groups: Choose two names of prospective group partners from your list and contact the Critique Coordinator to request their mailing addresses. Make an initial contact by writing to your prospective group partners, including the names of all members in your group. Be sure to include an introductory letter with a short bio and your critique group expectations. Include a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE) so that your prospective group members could respond. Decide among your group who should send chapters to whom.

3. Begin critiquing via the Round-Robin format:
a. Critique Partners: Using a three day priority mailer, send your first chapter to your critique partner. Your partner will critique your manuscript and place it in a priority mailer envelope, along with his/her own, and mail it back to you. When you receive the manuscript, you will not only have a critiqued chapter, you will also have a new manuscript to critique. When you finish critiquing your partner's chapter, send it back to your partner along with another chapter from your manuscript. And the cycle continues.

b. Critique Groups: Using a three day priority mailer, send your first chapter to one person in your group. That person will critique your manuscript and place it in a three day priority mailer envelope along with their own, and mail it to the next person, who will critique your manuscript along with the other member's manuscript. The third person will then return your twice critiqued chapter to you, along with the second and third members' manuscripts for critiquing. When you finish critiquing your group members' manuscripts, send these, along with your second chapter for critiquing, back to the second member, and so on until you all finish critiquing each of your manuscripts. (Note: Three is a recommended number for a critique group by mail. It might get too confusing for a bigger group and you don't want to get so overwhelmed with reading other members' works, that you neglect to write!)

4. Should you find a partnership or group which works best, contact the Critique Coordinator with your choice/s and ask to be taken off the active list. Should you wish to reactivate your file, contact the Critique Coordinator and she will return your name to the list of active members choosing critique partners or critique groups.

5. The FF&P Board and Critique Coordinator would love to hear from groups or partnerships on how things work out. Please feel free to contact the Critique Coordinator should you wish to share your experience with the Critique Service.