Beta Readers Part Five: You've Got Mail
OMG guys! Spent the weekend with my cousins and ended up staying an extra day than originally planned. I just now remembered (five minutes before midnight, probably not going to make it) that I haven't done my Monday blog post yet. My time clock is way off; I keep thinking it's still Sunday. Probably not going to be a Teaser Tuesday this week. :( I can't figure out anything that I can post. Okay if I think of something cool, maybe I'll post it.
Discoveries of the weekend:
Has anyone ever asked you to sign an agreement before doing work?
Never. I'm not really sure that's even possible unless you know the beta reader personally because then you'd have to mail them the agreement, have them sign it, and then someone would have to pay for it to be mailed back, all before the work could begin. I can understand where someone would want one, but a lot of the time I don't even know the real name of my beta readers.
How many readers do YOU have?
It varies and I'm still trying to find a good system that works for me. Destiny's had...six. The first was a total mistake (sent out Destiny's very first draft. I'm ashamed now that anyone had to endure my 100,000 words of suck.) Joined AW, ran Destiny through a couple edits, and sent it out to three more beta readers. I wish I could remember exactly who they were because I have a few questions for them. Right before my first query round, I had my fourth beta. She was great and part of the reason why I made the decision to rewrite the whole thing. The last two are still reading the new draft. Well actually there are three reading the new draft so I guess that makes seven. (One reason not to have too many betas = you can't remember who they all were.) Shipwrecked was sent out to three betas at the same time and that seems to be a pretty common method that works well.
Who would you recommend?
I can't actually recommend anyone. Mostly because the people that come to mind are all busy at the moment... All my beta readers for right now come from TWFT and OPWFT (two threads in the YA section of absolutewrite), but I've been hanging out with them for weeks now so I think I know them and their writing style pretty well. If they're all busy, then I got to the beta readers section of the forum and look for someone that might be interested.
Now let's move on to the last part of our series. An email from your beta sits in the inbox. You pause with your cursor over it and take a deep breath. You consider procrastinating, reassure yourself that it's going to be fine, and click.
There are the comments waiting for you. Hopefully they're in the correct format and ready for you to read.
Begin by reading through all of them. Try not to take any criticism to heart. I know that's hard (trust me, I really do), but they're criticizing your book and not you. You may have poured your heart and soul into the book, but it's not perfect. It never will be perfect, but it should be the best that you can possibly make it and that means getting it out there to a fresh pair of eyes.
Remember that you don't have to use all the comments. Read through them all and use what you may, but keep them all in mind. If you have more than one beta reader that has the manuscript at a time, don't make any major changes yet, especially if you aren't sure. This is why you have more than one. Because while one reader might hate the ending, another might love it. It's all subjective so compare opinions before making major adjustments.
Feel free to ask any questions. If there's anything in particular you want to know if your beta reader likes/dislikes/was confused by/etc, then ask about it. We don't mind answering questions. Well, most of us anyway. :D
And last, but certainly not least, THANK. YOUR. BETA. READER. Even if what they said wasn't what you wanted to hear. Don't challenge your beta reader's opinion. If you don't want to take their advice, then don't. But there is a shortage of honest beta readers in the world and the number is getting smaller because some of them get fed up with readers that can't take the honesty. I know, I've met one that quit for this reason. I know that if your reading this blog you probably aren't like that, but I'll say it anyway. Imagine reading a 300 page novel, giving up hours of your time to help someone else, and never hearing from them again. Happens to me all the time and sometimes I wonder if the writer even got my reply or if it's lost in cyberspace somewhere.
And that's the end of my Beta Readers series. Next week we'll look at the other side of the coin and I'll give some advice for being a beta reader. And it's 12:30. Didn't make it in time, but better late that never I guess.
Discoveries of the weekend:
- Three days with cousins = three days with no writing
- Coffee is good
- McDonald's coffee is not
- I'm pretty good at the guitar in Rock Band
- My mom can be irritating
- Knowing is a good movie, but very...strange. Just mentioning the ending makes my mom give me a long lecture.
- 50 First Dates is the cutest movie I've ever seen.
- Disadvantage of ordering books from the bookstore = it takes them forever to get here. (Handcuffs still hasn't come. You'll know when it has.)
- 1 pm is now my new record for sleeping in. Even though I woke up several times, I still think it should count.
Has anyone ever asked you to sign an agreement before doing work?
Never. I'm not really sure that's even possible unless you know the beta reader personally because then you'd have to mail them the agreement, have them sign it, and then someone would have to pay for it to be mailed back, all before the work could begin. I can understand where someone would want one, but a lot of the time I don't even know the real name of my beta readers.
How many readers do YOU have?
It varies and I'm still trying to find a good system that works for me. Destiny's had...six. The first was a total mistake (sent out Destiny's very first draft. I'm ashamed now that anyone had to endure my 100,000 words of suck.) Joined AW, ran Destiny through a couple edits, and sent it out to three more beta readers. I wish I could remember exactly who they were because I have a few questions for them. Right before my first query round, I had my fourth beta. She was great and part of the reason why I made the decision to rewrite the whole thing. The last two are still reading the new draft. Well actually there are three reading the new draft so I guess that makes seven. (One reason not to have too many betas = you can't remember who they all were.) Shipwrecked was sent out to three betas at the same time and that seems to be a pretty common method that works well.
Who would you recommend?
I can't actually recommend anyone. Mostly because the people that come to mind are all busy at the moment... All my beta readers for right now come from TWFT and OPWFT (two threads in the YA section of absolutewrite), but I've been hanging out with them for weeks now so I think I know them and their writing style pretty well. If they're all busy, then I got to the beta readers section of the forum and look for someone that might be interested.
Now let's move on to the last part of our series. An email from your beta sits in the inbox. You pause with your cursor over it and take a deep breath. You consider procrastinating, reassure yourself that it's going to be fine, and click.
There are the comments waiting for you. Hopefully they're in the correct format and ready for you to read.
Begin by reading through all of them. Try not to take any criticism to heart. I know that's hard (trust me, I really do), but they're criticizing your book and not you. You may have poured your heart and soul into the book, but it's not perfect. It never will be perfect, but it should be the best that you can possibly make it and that means getting it out there to a fresh pair of eyes.
Remember that you don't have to use all the comments. Read through them all and use what you may, but keep them all in mind. If you have more than one beta reader that has the manuscript at a time, don't make any major changes yet, especially if you aren't sure. This is why you have more than one. Because while one reader might hate the ending, another might love it. It's all subjective so compare opinions before making major adjustments.
Feel free to ask any questions. If there's anything in particular you want to know if your beta reader likes/dislikes/was confused by/etc, then ask about it. We don't mind answering questions. Well, most of us anyway. :D
And last, but certainly not least, THANK. YOUR. BETA. READER. Even if what they said wasn't what you wanted to hear. Don't challenge your beta reader's opinion. If you don't want to take their advice, then don't. But there is a shortage of honest beta readers in the world and the number is getting smaller because some of them get fed up with readers that can't take the honesty. I know, I've met one that quit for this reason. I know that if your reading this blog you probably aren't like that, but I'll say it anyway. Imagine reading a 300 page novel, giving up hours of your time to help someone else, and never hearing from them again. Happens to me all the time and sometimes I wonder if the writer even got my reply or if it's lost in cyberspace somewhere.
And that's the end of my Beta Readers series. Next week we'll look at the other side of the coin and I'll give some advice for being a beta reader. And it's 12:30. Didn't make it in time, but better late that never I guess.
Comments