Everything About Beta Reading
Beta reader is a term that is thrown around from fanfiction to traditional publishing.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
What and who beta reader is
When to bring them into the writing-editing-publishing process
Where to find beta readers
Beta Readers should know your chosen genre very, very well.
They are a sample size of your target audience.
Who and What is a Beta Reader?
Beta readers are readers who provide reader feedback on your manuscript.
Vague? I know.
That’s why there can be so much confusion around beta readers.
Beta readers are not professional editors or critics, mostly they’re people who are widely read in your chosen genre. The key here is they know your genre very, very well.
With them being feral for your genre, they’ll alert you to cliches, played-out tropes, and missing key elements (e.g., when a capital-R romance doesn’t end in a HEE or HFN when it must or risk getting the romance readers throwing tomatoes at you).
Essentially, beta readers = a test group of your target audience.
When to Bring Beta Readers into the Editing Process
This is where many of us look at each other and scratch our heads, waiting for someone to speak up first.
Many say beta readers come after the first or second draft. Some say betas should come once professional developmental edits and line edits are finished.
BUT WHAT IS THE TRUTH, KOURTNEY!?
I hear you. After a very serious conversation in the editor Discord, here’s what I’ve got for you:
Feedback happens in 3 stages:
During drafting, the feedback most beneficial to you will be from trusted writers on a similar level who will give you critical, story-level feedback. If we want to give them a name, then they could be called alpha readers and critique partners. Personally, I like calling them critique partners because it eliminates the ambiguity of the term alpha readers.
Once you’ve nailed down the structure (and maybe sent it back to your critique partners for more feedback) you’ll clean it up and send it over to a developmental editor.
After developmental edits, you’ll do another round of revisions, at which point you may want to tap into more feedback, namely writer feedback and reader feedback. This is generally the best place to bring in beta readers.
Critique partners (aka fellow writers) will be able to handle seeing raw, messy rough drafts as they’re neck-deep in their own messy rough drafts quite often.
Readers (like beta readers) should really only see cleaner copies of your manuscript, because beta readers sometimes aren’t writers and they’re likely not professional editors.
Where to Find Beta Readers
Many authors find beta readers through online networks or by tapping into their friends and family.
If you want the most honest and objective feedback, look outside those you know well. They’ll likely go easy on you or be afraid to hurt your feelings.
Here are some places to find beta readers:
Discord servers
TikTok (#BookTok)
Facebook groups (e.g., Absolute Write Water Color, Beta Readers and Critique Partners Facebook Group)
Freelancing platforms (e.g., Fiverr)
Give Your Beta Readers Guidance
Feel free to ask your beta readers questions on specific areas of your manuscript.
If you’re a Google Form nerd like me, create your beta reader questionnaire there. It compiles data from all of your readers and is way easier to manage than a dozen Word documents.
Be general, be specific. It’s up to you.
And finally, treat your relationship with beta readers like they’re freelancers—give them a deadline for them to return their feedback to you.