If you’re a writer and hate discussing your work in front of people and getting constructive criticism, Urbis is the perfect site for you.
It’s essentially an online writer’s group that encourages the participation of authors, based on the concept of “You review mine, I’ll review yours.”
You post your work. Other people read your work and review it. Then, if you have enough “credits” earned by reviewing the work of other people on the site, you can unlock those reviews and see what people have to say.
You can publish anything from short poems to chapters of your next novel. It’s a nice way to get unbiased criticism from total strangers.
Another nice feature of Urbis is that you can set up a group with people you know and keep the viewing of your work restricted to just you guys. A nice feature if you know writers outside your area, or if it’s too hard for everyone to physically get together and meet.
They also allow you to set goals for the items you publish. This means once you’ve got your masterpiece done, upload with goals of “Getting Published” or “Published in Literature Magazine.” They haven’t posted success stories, so it’s unclear if any publishers or agents are actually using this site yet.