Five Things to Do When Looking for Beta Readers
Introduction
When looking for feedback on your novel, it’s important to establish a relationship with readers and know what you are looking for in a beta reader. For example, you want your beta reader to be comfortable giving you constructive, helpful feedback instead of providing words that criticize and are destructive about your work. If you’re unsure of what you value in the feedback you receive or how to gain beta readers, here are five things to do when looking for beta readers.
Trust and Clarity
You’ll want to have at least three trusted people as beta readers that you know will give you honest and constructive feedback. Your beta readers can be family or friends, but preferably you want people with writing backgrounds who have experience with stories and giving feedback about writing. You can find a writing group or create your own online or in person and develop relationships with potential beta readers.
You want your beta readers to be comfortable saying what they like and don’t like in detail instead of giving vague responses such as “It was good” or “Nope.” There’s nothing more frustrating than these reactions for a writer. And yes, my manuscript received these exact words. I was left without a clear idea of what was good and what “nope” even meant. Did the reader dislike the whole story, a certain character, or a specific part? I needed clarification.
It may take time and experimentation with different readers, weeding out those who give you valuable comments compared to those who provide feedback that isn’t helpful before you choose your team of official beta readers.
Be Specific
Specify areas in your manuscript where you would like your beta readers to prioritize their feedback. For example, mention you want feedback on a specific scene, character, or plot point.
Ask Questions
Ask your beta readers questions. If there are areas in your manuscript where you’re unsure how the writing comes across, ask how the beta readers interpret the writing. Some questions you could ask include “Are the descriptions clear here?” or “Does this scene make sense for the character’s development?” or “Does the dialogue feel believable?”
Sending Out Your Work
Communicate with your beta readers and see if they are comfortable with you sending the entire manuscript or if the readers prefer to receive it in sections at a time. For example, it can be overwhelming to read through a full manuscript and provide quality feedback throughout. While sending a few pages or a select number of chapters at a time may risk creating consistency errors in their feedback, depending on how often you send a section and how diligent they are in keeping up with the reading and giving feedback, being able to focus on a section at a time can make the commenting process easier for beta readers and the consideration for revisions easier for the writer.
Your manuscript should be fairly finalized before sending it to beta readers. You don’t want to send a first draft to your beta readers because it’s still subject to change and they may feel like their time is wasted if you send them the draft and they provide their feedback only to have you revise the story. If you are in the beginning stages of writing the novel and want feedback or someone to talk through your ideas with, that’s where an alpha reader comes in handy. If you want to know more about alpha and beta readers, here’s a great article from IngramSpark, “Alpha and Beta Readers: What Are They and Why Bother?” that goes over the differences between alpha and beta readers.
Give Thanks
Express gratitude for their time and feedback before and after they have read your work. Consider giving them a free copy of your novel once it’s published. Sign the copy and write a personalized note demonstrating how much their efforts mean to you and how their feedback has helped your story become a finished masterpiece.
Conclusion
I hope this list is helpful to you. Don’t get discouraged if the search for beta readers doesn’t go as planned. It can take time to find the right people for your projects. Keep plugging along and I wish you the best of luck on your writing journey!