Beta Readers, Critique Partners and Publishing Partners

One aspect of being a writer I've never cracked (as well as, you know, getting the darn novel published) is to strike up constructive relationships with one or more beta readers. This post over on the Literary Rambles blog and this one on Help! I Need a Publisher! discuss the whole area. They've really made me think. I've worked with short story and poetry editors from time-to-time in the past and I've always found it an enjoyable and rewarding experience. But what I don't have, I realise, is someone I can regularly trade drafts with and get constructive criticism from. Somone who is knowledgeable and prepared to be completely frank (but hopefully not too damning). Someone for whom, if they were also a writer, I could reciprocate.

Take the novel I'm working on at the moment, for example. It's sort of a fantasy novel in that it's set in an imaginary world, but there are no mythical beasts or magic spells. Perhaps one of its forebears would be Gormenghast. And I am constantly prevaricating between thinking it's utterly fantastic and utterly ridiculous. It's great, of course, to just write and not censor yourself, but at some point you need to step back and think about whether anyone will actually want to read it. And I just don't know.

I do have writer friends with whom I've had a beta/critique partner relationship in the past but, as if happens, they generally don't go for genre fiction and a fair portion of what I write would be labelled Fantasy or SF (although, as I always say, I hate these pigeonholes). I, in turn, do read and enjoy realist fiction a lot (although it probably wasn't a great idea to suggest throwing in some zombies and/or aliens into that literary novel). My nearest-and-dearest have offered to play the role, but I don't know - aren't there are always going to be problems of objectivity there?

So, I'm interested to know what other people do. Do you work alone? Do you have people you can trade manuscripts with to get honest feedback? Would, even, anyone be interested in striking up such an arrangement to see if it can be mutually beneficial? No strings attached. I'd love to hear from you ...