I've been beta reading my friend Karen Odden‘s new historical mystery draft. Naturally, this got me thinking about beta reading for authors in general, why authors use beta readers, and how you, as a writer, can benefit from beta readers.
What is a Beta Reader?
A beta reader is a reader who reads a draft of your book before or in between revision stages and gives you feedback on it. They look at the big picture, the plot, the characters, the pacing, and don’t have to worry about knowing all the punctuation rules. That’s what line editors and copyeditors worry about!
Why Would I Use a Beta Reader?
Recently on Threads an author said she had done one round of developmental edits and was asking how she could tell if she needed to do another round. I recommended she get a few beta readers to go over her book and listen to their feedback. This is something beta readers are perfect for! As the writer, you are always too close to tell some things about your book. Fresh sets of eyes will let you know if you only need to do a few more revisions or if there’s a lot more work to do. In other words, this author can listen to the feedback from her beta readers to tell if she’s nearly there, if she thinks she can handle whatever revisions they suggest by herself, or if it sounds to her like she needs the support of her developmental editor for another round of edits. Some books only need one round of developmental edits and the author can go from there while other books need two or three rounds with a dev. editor. There’s no right way, only what the author feels most comfortable with.
Who Should Beta Read My Book?
Beta readers are (usually) not professionals, and you go into beta reads with no specific expectations that the reader will give you professional advice on how you should fix anything- the opposite of hiring a developmental editor.
Beta readers shouldn’t be just anyone. They are standing in for your target reader- which means they need to be people who read and understand your genre. You don’t want to just get your friends and family to be your beta readers unless they also read the type of book you’ve written. Beta readers need to understand the genre and the expectations of the audience. Does the book need to have a happy ending? How dark can it get before you lose most of your readers? How violent is too violent?
Where Do I Find Beta Readers?
If you have friends or family members who do read your genre, ask them. Are you in a writer’s group or a book club? Writers often serve as beta readers for each other’s work. You can hire a beta reader on Fiver or through other platforms, but you absolutely don’t need to pay beta readers- and most authors don’t. Offering to swap services like beta reads for each other is more common. If your readers are friends or someone you can’t beta read for, thank them in your Acknowledgements page when the book is published. It makes them feel incredibly special.
You can always use online groups of writers to find beta readers, but use extreme caution there. How well do you know that person? Do you trust them?
When Should Beta Readers Read My Work?
This is an “it depends” moment. Did you work with a developmental editor? Then I recommend not bringing in beta readers until after you’ve finished all the revisions you and your editor discussed. After that is a great time to let your book go to a test audience and see how they respond. Once you’ve gotten all your reader’s feedback and thought about their responses, you can decide how to move forward. Have your beta readers responses told you that you need a lot more revisions or that you’re nearly done? You may be only a few revisions away from sending your book to a copyeditor, or you may need to do some serious rethinking and rewriting, depending on the reactions of your beta readers.
What if you can’t afford a developmental editor? Then I recommend approaching it this way: once you’ve typed “the end” on your first draft, put the book away for at least a week and give yourself a break. Now you’re ready to start the self-editing process. After you feel comfortable with draft two, bring in a few beta readers. If you have any writer friends who can be your beta readers, they will be particularly useful at this stage since they can advise you on craft issues if you need/want it (see Jane Friedman’s blog on a study about beta readers). Revise your draft again and you’ll probably feel confident enough for the more general beta readers at this point.
How Do I Get The Most From Beta Readers?
Decide before you start what exactly you want to get out of them. For example, do you want the writers to give you advice on writing issues? Are there specific elements you worry readers won’t find appealing?
Communicate these to your beta reader. Ask them specific questions. Don’t just give them the manuscript and say “tell me what you think” because usually you’ll get something vague in return. And vague doesn’t help you in the revision stage.
Here are some sample questions to think about asking your beta readers. You don’t have to use them all, take what might apply best to your book or use these as a springboard to write your own questions:
What did you like the most?
What worked best for you?
What didn’t work for you?
Was anything confusing?
Did the beginning hook you?
When did you start caring about the characters?
When did the story grab your attention?
Did the characters appeal to you?
When did you want to find out what happened to the characters?
Where any parts of the book too slow?
Did you feel like there was anything missing?
How did you feel reading it?
Did the ending feel right?
Did you have questions left when you finished it?
What books would you compare this to?
Will I Need To Use All The Feedback?
Feedback is always subjective. One person will love what the next person hates. So the only thing you have to do is this: remember that you asked for this feedback in order to make your book even better than it is now. Unless the responses you get are just downright rude, the people giving you feedback are giving you their opinions hoping they are helping you.
Read all the feedback you get. Not all at once, because that could be overwhelming. Consider it, especially if you know the person giving it is an expert in the genre. But do you need to act on all of it and revise your writing accordingly? No. This is your book, your characters. The only time you should seriously think about acting on something is if every one of your readers mentions the same thing. If all 5 beta readers you used say the same thing confused them, that’s a big red flag and you should take it seriously. Did all your readers finish the book feeling like there was something left unfinished? Consider an epilogue to wrap things up. If only one person felt that way, listen to their reasons and decide if you agree or not. Just like when you work with an editor, if the suggestion really doesn’t work for you, you don’t have to use it.
Are you looking for a writing, marketing coach or a developmental editor? Contact me and let’s talk about your project!
Comments