Questions About Beta Readers

I had eight beta readers for my book.

Without exception, they were all friends or family. Friends or family that I trusted implicitly, and trusted to give me the truth about the writing and not just sugar-coat it when things weren't up to snuff.

Two of them are technical writers by profession, and one is an English teacher. And I still needed an editor, afterward.

When I gave them the book, I thanked them for reading it and asked them five questions:

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1. The first and most important question is also the easiest: Did you want to keep reading the story? Beyond simple structure, grammar, character development, etc, is the core of the story good enough that you wanted to find out what happened next? If not, at what point did it falter? Where did you decide “I’m done with this?”

2. Was there a part or parts of the book that you skipped over to “get to the good part”? I know this happens to most of us from time to time: we get to a section of the text that doesn’t particularly interest us, so we skip ahead or merely scan the text until it gets better. I’d like to avoid that as much as possible, so if you can tell me which parts you skipped, that would be very helpful.

3. What pulled you out of the story, or broke your concentration? Was there a scene or action that made you think “What the hell? That makes no sense!” or something similar? Something that was so incongruous with the rest of the story that you stopped your suspension of disbelief for a moment?

4. Were there any problems with a scene or action that made you think “That’s not how they do that” or “No one talks like that” or similar? I’m thinking mainly of the military lingo and action here, but this could apply to any scene in the book.

5. Do you have any structure suggestions? Maybe the chapters are too long, or there’s a scene that would make sense earlier or later in the book. Any plot holes or major “wait, what?” moments?
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Some gave me detailed answers in either written form or verbally, most gave me some sort of detailed feedback, and several gave me back proofread copies - hence why I provided the book in a spiral-bound, double-spaced printing.

Their comments were, for the most part, invaluable in my getting the book finished and published. Without them, it would not have been anywhere near as good as it is. They were vital.

RobertMarda said:

When searching for Beta readers is it OK for me to simply PM people on a web site (like here at Kindleboards - and yes that means I have some of you in mind) and ask them if they want to Beta read my unfinished book?

Or is it better to simply post a message in The Book Corner, or on critique circle? Is there a place on amazon.com to ask for Beta readers?

For those of you who have had Beta readers read your unpublished book, what instructions did you give them? Or what did you ask them to look for?

When do you start looking for Beta readers? Is a month or two before you give them your book to early. I am being optimistic here and thinking I will have my book ready for Beta readers in a month or two but it could be longer.

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I think it's fine to give them a heads-up. I've done beta reading before and if someone comes to me and wants a beta read with no warning, I can almost guarantee the answer will be, 'I can't do it." For one, I don't do very many (they are time-consuming) and for two, I don't have a lot of spare time.

Next thing I would seriously think about is: Stagger the beta reads. Get one or two people to beta read. Make changes. Then do one or two more. You don't need 4 people telling you the same thing or worse, four people telling you different things (because if a problem exists, the beta readers will often try to help you solve it with different advice.)

If you do 4 beta reads all at once, how will you know if you fixed a problem? Let's say they tell you that the pacing is off. So you get rid of a couple of chapters, add in a murder...well, does it work?

A second round of beta readers will help you figure that out.

You do need trusted beta readers, but there are readers who hire out this service (various editors do it--they are editing for storyline in that case or doing what is called a critique read.) There's a couple here on the board who have such services.

Consider using one of them. It will give you a good idea of what you want and need out of a beta reader. Also try to find someone you don't have to pay--someone who will spend a bit more time gabbing with you about the storyline, what worked and what didn't. What was their favorite part...and so on.

PMing is probably fine, but you're probably going to need to throw a wider net.

I ask my beta readers read each chapter as it rolls out. I want to know if they want the next chapter or not. Usually that means that the chapters work as units. Sometimes I get feedback like, "Ok, well, good filler but when you gonna tell us about THIS?!" That's when I know I have to fix stuff.

Some advice I've had over the years:

"You need to kill somebody."

"Where are the pirates?"

and

"Kitty litter? The mysterious cargo is KITTY LITTER!?"


My primary beta readers have also been with me since before the first book. He's a retired English teacher and hopeless romantic. She's a computer geek and a hardboiled egg. She'll kick my butt if she thinks I need it and pat me on the back when I need that, too. I find they're pretty accurate when it comes to "what works" and "what doesn't" and I rely on them waaay too much to keep me on track.

Over the years, I've had several people want to be readers and some offer interesting feedback. Few have stuck with me because of time constraints.

I have a pool of volunteers or people I have dragooned, which increases my chances of catching at least three available with each round. I like a mixture - people who write, but in different genres; people who simply read a lot; and at least one person per round who writes well within my genre. I like the spread of opinions, since the book will ultimately be for readers who aren't necessarily writers.

But I agree it is not easy to find your initial pool - it takes getting to know people, being willing to repay the favour, and "screening" them to some extent (i.e. read something of theirs). It is also difficult to find people with the time on their hands.

I would feel awkward about receiving a random net PM, but if someone PMed me, I would consider it and be friendly about it. I would certainly want to know more about them, and encourage them to screen me first, rather than just go on an expedition.

ETA: My favourite betareader is one lady who is always willing to actually have a chat with me about the book, instead of just sending me notes. That way, I can ask her opinions on various choices I made, and discuss the pros and cons of things. Interactive is very good, though I am also fine with comments.

ETA2: I think crit circles are easier to get with a wide variety of people, since it means reading bits and pieces rather than committing to a full-draft picky reading on something of a deadline. I was with a crit group where I once lived that was in-person and we read our work aloud. That was a nice change of pace, and I found it useful. Perhaps you should check out your city/town to see if there is something similar you can hook up with?

My first readers are all people who I know in real life.  Only one or two of them are family; most are friends from college or other writerly people I met at cons.  

I contact them about a month or two before I'm ready to send the book out (I always send them the finished draft, never while I'm in process of writing it), and ask them to turn on the "track changes" option and include their comments as they go.  I give them about two or three months to finish, just because life gets in the way, but if they drag their feet, that's one sign the book isn't very good.  

When I've got all their critiques, I combine them in MS Word to create one master file so that I can read all their comments together on the same page.  This helps me to know whether everyone had a problem with a certain issue, or whether opinions were mixed.  The surest way to kill a novel is to write it by committee, so I only actually implement about one third to one half of the suggestions I get--and usually, I fix them by coming up with something completely different than what they suggested.

So anyways, that's my system.  I probably wouldn't go with someone I only knew on a message board, but then again, I've already built up a network of first readers.  Also, by knowing them in real life, I have a better idea of who they are and where their interests lie, so I can better judge how well they fit into my target audience and where they might be off a bit.  But it's your call.  Good luck!

Wow, so many different ways you use with Beta readers.  I see I need to put some more thought into this and figure out exactly what will work for me and the people I find willing to help me.  Thanks for sharing with me what you do!  It means a lot too me.

Unfortunately, I don't know many people willing to help out with even one book let alone stick with me for all of the books I plan to write.  I know I'll find people willing to help and see that it may work best for me to find some who I Beta read for in exchange for them Beta reading my books.

I never planned to just PM randomly to people but if I were to use such a method (I probably won't but it was a thought and I tend to explore what I think of to find the best way that will work for me) it would only be to people I know even though they may not actually know me and of course that is my hesitance.  I don't want to bother people who don't know me even though I think they would make a great Beta reader if they had time.

I've looked at the few volunteers at RedAdepts and was pleased to see that one or two of them read YA and/or fantasy so I may contact them to get to know more about them.

I would love to meet people in person but my time to be able to do that is very limited and so mostly unrealistic at this point.