Good job doing that research, John.

I also joined a wirter's group and asked to see everyone's writing. Only one offered - via buying his book. I bought it and read it and bought and read everyone else's (it's okay, only 2 others out of 12 had published anything). None were interested in feedback.

Then we had a promotion expert give a talk. I listened keenly. This is my achilles heel, I want to know. Turns out his best (and only ) advice was to get you book printed on a T shirt and then get in everyone's face. "Look at my T shirt, see what I wrote."

They were nice people. I stayed around for a couple of years until I didn't have the time.

I'm still learning.