The Glory of the Beta-Reader

First of all, what is a beta-reader? Only this – someone that you allow to read your work before you send it out into the world. You should make at least one pass looking for typos and blatant inconsistencies. You might want to get it to the point of what you think is the final draft. I suggest that with longer works, you only do minimal clean-up. Take care of plot holes you find yourself on your own first read, and then send it on. Why? You don’t want to spend a huge amount of time editing and making language flow and brainstorming perfect metaphors, just to find out that you have to throw a lot of it away based on your beta-reader feedback.

Have you ever used a beta-reader? This might depend upon your ultimate purpose for your work. If you hide your words away, never to be seen by another human eye, with a secret self-destruct code embedded that will send your pages (or your hard drive) into a ball of flame upon your death, this article might not be for you.

If, on the other hand, you dream of the New York Times bestseller list and the Pulitzer Prize, or simply being able to thumb your nose at one of your nearest and dearest who said you could never write a book, read on.

What Can a Beta-Reader Do For You?

Beta-readers can be a wonderful salvation for your story before you take it to the next step – query letters and agents.

A qualified beta-reader can illuminate plot holes and sneaky anachronisms. They can tell you they would like to know more about one character and less about another. You can get feedback from a third party about slow spots in your story, things that they didn’t understand, weak prose, and so on. 

All of this feedback can help you to strengthen your story and get it dressed up and ready to land in the hands of a waiting agent or editor (we hope). Even if you choose to self-publish instead of going the traditional route, having your story as cleaned up as possible before you send it out to play can spare you the embarrassment of negative reviews due to preventable sloppiness. I can’t tell you how many self-published novels suffer from this malady. Oh wait, you probably know.

What Should You Look for in a Beta-Reader?

Personally, I look for an honest person who reads a lot in my preferred genre. It helps if they write as well, but that is not essential. What is essential is the honesty bit. The last thing that you want is your best friend or your mom telling you how wonderful your story is when they really just don’t want to hurt your feelings.

You want a story sent back to you with lots of red marks of questions, things to improve, things you can leave out, and so on. You may not think that you want this, but you do. Why? Because despite the sting of having your imperfections called out to you, what you most want is to have a well-polished story. It’s well worth a couple of blows to your ego to find out what you can improve.

There is no such thing as a perfect writer, you will have to edit and possibly revise. Writing is rewriting. It just goes with the territory.

Where Do You Find a Beta-Reader?

You can look for beta-readers anywhere. The more the merrier. You can ask friends and relatives, ask members of Facebook groups (including the Write Makes Might Facebook group!), or join real-life writers’ workshops.

I think a good dozen opinions would be great, but at least a few should be very helpful. Ok, you can ask your mom, but please make sure that she’s not the only one that you ask.

The more you are open about your writing, the more you will have people who volunteer to beta-read. You also have the option of sending your work to a professional, like the folks at Book Butchers. (Please investigate any editing service before using. I have not actually used Book Butchers, but I just love their vibe, and I’ve been visiting their site for years. Also, they have some good reviews. See here.)

https://www.quora.com/Is-Book-Butchers-a-good-book-editing-company/answer/Liam-Garcia-26

Do You Have to Follow the Advice of Your Beta-Readers?

No. Of course you don’t. 

Your writing is your art. If you want to have your heroine staring into the distance for three hundred pages contemplating her navel, that’s up to you. 

I would suggest, though, that if the same comment comes from multiple beta-readers that you do look into it. The people that you use to beta-read should be close to the sort of people you want and expect to buy your novel, so they should know what they are looking for in a good read. If they aren’t finding it, they should have no qualms about letting you know. This is why they have their grubby little hands all over your precious pages in the first place.

So use as many beta-readers as you find prudent, weigh their feedback, and incorporate it into your work as needed. The use of beta-readers can only strengthen your story.

Happy Writing!

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