Beta Readers Part Four: Sending the Project / Title Contest Results
It was a long weekend. I had a family reunion and remembered why I hate them so much (reunions, not my family). But I spent a lot of time on the lake in the boat and my cousins even managed to get me to go tubing. Unfortunately that means there wasn't a lot of work getting done...
Okay, enough delay, it's time to announce the winner of the contest! And the winner is...coming up after this commercial break! (Don't you hate it when they do that?) Seriously now, the winner is Madeline-Rose who suggested Destiny! *cue applause* There were a lot of awesome suggestions which is why this post is coming almost an hour late. Because it took me that long to decide. Madeline-Rose email me at the email I posted on the contest page to let me know which prize you'd like. If you want the critique, please mail me your first three pages.
And now that the excitement is over, let's get on to part four of my beta readers series. You've found the beta reader that's perfect for you and it's time to send them the project. Now what?
The first step -- if you haven't done it already -- is to edit the manuscript. Especially if you're asking for a line by line. There is nothing that I hate worse than a manuscript full of typos because it's a first draft. While I do sometimes do critiques on first drafts, I never enjoy them as much as I would've if the writer had taken the time to run it through at least one edit. And if you read through it, you might find that it's not good enough to be sent out yet. If you're sending it to beta readers it should be because you have it as polished as you can get it and you're looking for a fresh set of eyes before it goes out to agents/publishers. You wouldn't send a rough draft to an agent or publisher (I hope) so don't send one to the beta reader. Your beta reader is not there to edit for you. You wouldn't send a rough draft to your publisher saying 'here's the rough draft, it's your job to edit it for me' because they're not going to.
Once you've got it all polished up and you're happy with it, it's time to think about a few things.
How much do you want to send? I've read both partials and fulls and while I always send fulls, I wouldn't hesitate to send only a partial if I thought that was necessary.
Partials are good if the whole thing isn't edited yet or you just want an opinion on your writing. Common writer faults will often show up throughout the whole manuscript and if the beta catches them in the partial, you can fix the whole manuscript yourself. I've also read partials for people that liked to keep the ending secret, which is perfectly understandable especially if you don't actually know the person that's reading your story. Don't be afraid to send a partial, but make sure that it's agreed upon in advance. I hate reading someone's story and then finding out that I might never get to see how it ends. That's like buying a novel and then finding out that the last third of it has been ripped out.
Chapter by chapter is an interesting way to send manuscripts. I've never read one using it, but I have sent projects chapter by chapter. It's useful because you don't pile the whole thing on a beta reader at once, but it can also be a pain because you have to send each chapter when the last one is returned. And also if you have more than one beta reader using this format at a time, it could get confusing on who has what chapter.
Once you've decided on what you're going to send, you need to know how. Printing out the whole thing, even for a partial, is obviously expensive and only viable if you know the beta reader personally and they live close by. So the easiest way is through email. For partials and chapter by chapter it's possible to send the chapters right in the email rather than as an attachment, but as a beta reader I've always preferred attachments. That way I can make my comments right on the document and send it back. I've beta read via Google docs before too, but I'm not entirely sure how that works on the writer's end.
Now we're going to talk about the different ways beta readers use to comment on manuscripts. It's usually the beta reader's decision on which to use, but if you want the comments a specific way then you can ask about it.
Right on the document -- this is my favorite method for both myself and my own beta readers. I mark all my corrections and comments in red right on the document and then just send it back as an attachment. I have a beta reader that uses different font colors to mean different things and that can be very handy too (as long as you don't use every color of the rainbow). This format is most commonly used for line by line critiques.
As a separate email/sheet -- a different way to do it is to mark all the comments and corrections on a different sheet. I've had a beta reader that did this as well. They'd mark down the chapter and page number of the correction and then put the line in quotes with the correction marked in red. All I had to do was hit Find, look for the line, and correct it. It is a little more difficult, but I didn't have a lot of trouble with it. This format is most commonly used for general critiques.
Both -- I use this one. I mark all my typo corrections and thoughts right on the document and then if I have any general questions/comments, I put them on a seperate Word doc. Then when I'm ready to send back the project, I just have to paste the comments into the email, attach the document with corrections, and hit Send.
All at once -- this is where the beta sends you the full back with all their comments on it at once. This is nice because you get everything back, but it can also be a hassle because the amount can get overwhelming.
Chapter by chapter -- this is just like the sending format, only the beta is sending you each chapter as they finish it. It's great because you don't have to wait as long, you know exactly where the beta reader is at the time, and you don't have to be overwhelmed with editing because you can edit each chapter while the beta sends them. It can be a pain in the butt for the beta reader though. I really like this format, but because of the extra trouble it doesn't happen as often as 'all at once' does.
Once you've got your manuscript all polished up, and you and your beta have agreed on a format for sending the manuscript and receiving the comments, follow through with it and hit Send. Now begins the killer waiting process so sit back, relax, and start writing another book because you're going to need something to do. Next week is the final part of our series covering what to do when you have mail from your beta.
Okay, enough delay, it's time to announce the winner of the contest! And the winner is...coming up after this commercial break! (Don't you hate it when they do that?) Seriously now, the winner is Madeline-Rose who suggested Destiny! *cue applause* There were a lot of awesome suggestions which is why this post is coming almost an hour late. Because it took me that long to decide. Madeline-Rose email me at the email I posted on the contest page to let me know which prize you'd like. If you want the critique, please mail me your first three pages.
And now that the excitement is over, let's get on to part four of my beta readers series. You've found the beta reader that's perfect for you and it's time to send them the project. Now what?
The first step -- if you haven't done it already -- is to edit the manuscript. Especially if you're asking for a line by line. There is nothing that I hate worse than a manuscript full of typos because it's a first draft. While I do sometimes do critiques on first drafts, I never enjoy them as much as I would've if the writer had taken the time to run it through at least one edit. And if you read through it, you might find that it's not good enough to be sent out yet. If you're sending it to beta readers it should be because you have it as polished as you can get it and you're looking for a fresh set of eyes before it goes out to agents/publishers. You wouldn't send a rough draft to an agent or publisher (I hope) so don't send one to the beta reader. Your beta reader is not there to edit for you. You wouldn't send a rough draft to your publisher saying 'here's the rough draft, it's your job to edit it for me' because they're not going to.
Once you've got it all polished up and you're happy with it, it's time to think about a few things.
How much do you want to send? I've read both partials and fulls and while I always send fulls, I wouldn't hesitate to send only a partial if I thought that was necessary.
Partials are good if the whole thing isn't edited yet or you just want an opinion on your writing. Common writer faults will often show up throughout the whole manuscript and if the beta catches them in the partial, you can fix the whole manuscript yourself. I've also read partials for people that liked to keep the ending secret, which is perfectly understandable especially if you don't actually know the person that's reading your story. Don't be afraid to send a partial, but make sure that it's agreed upon in advance. I hate reading someone's story and then finding out that I might never get to see how it ends. That's like buying a novel and then finding out that the last third of it has been ripped out.
Chapter by chapter is an interesting way to send manuscripts. I've never read one using it, but I have sent projects chapter by chapter. It's useful because you don't pile the whole thing on a beta reader at once, but it can also be a pain because you have to send each chapter when the last one is returned. And also if you have more than one beta reader using this format at a time, it could get confusing on who has what chapter.
Once you've decided on what you're going to send, you need to know how. Printing out the whole thing, even for a partial, is obviously expensive and only viable if you know the beta reader personally and they live close by. So the easiest way is through email. For partials and chapter by chapter it's possible to send the chapters right in the email rather than as an attachment, but as a beta reader I've always preferred attachments. That way I can make my comments right on the document and send it back. I've beta read via Google docs before too, but I'm not entirely sure how that works on the writer's end.
Now we're going to talk about the different ways beta readers use to comment on manuscripts. It's usually the beta reader's decision on which to use, but if you want the comments a specific way then you can ask about it.
Right on the document -- this is my favorite method for both myself and my own beta readers. I mark all my corrections and comments in red right on the document and then just send it back as an attachment. I have a beta reader that uses different font colors to mean different things and that can be very handy too (as long as you don't use every color of the rainbow). This format is most commonly used for line by line critiques.
As a separate email/sheet -- a different way to do it is to mark all the comments and corrections on a different sheet. I've had a beta reader that did this as well. They'd mark down the chapter and page number of the correction and then put the line in quotes with the correction marked in red. All I had to do was hit Find, look for the line, and correct it. It is a little more difficult, but I didn't have a lot of trouble with it. This format is most commonly used for general critiques.
Both -- I use this one. I mark all my typo corrections and thoughts right on the document and then if I have any general questions/comments, I put them on a seperate Word doc. Then when I'm ready to send back the project, I just have to paste the comments into the email, attach the document with corrections, and hit Send.
All at once -- this is where the beta sends you the full back with all their comments on it at once. This is nice because you get everything back, but it can also be a hassle because the amount can get overwhelming.
Chapter by chapter -- this is just like the sending format, only the beta is sending you each chapter as they finish it. It's great because you don't have to wait as long, you know exactly where the beta reader is at the time, and you don't have to be overwhelmed with editing because you can edit each chapter while the beta sends them. It can be a pain in the butt for the beta reader though. I really like this format, but because of the extra trouble it doesn't happen as often as 'all at once' does.
Once you've got your manuscript all polished up, and you and your beta have agreed on a format for sending the manuscript and receiving the comments, follow through with it and hit Send. Now begins the killer waiting process so sit back, relax, and start writing another book because you're going to need something to do. Next week is the final part of our series covering what to do when you have mail from your beta.
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