Bet you do
At least, I hope you do use Beta Readers.
Beta readers improve your books. They point out ways your stories aren't working. You need to know if the reader didn't understand the character's goals and motivation, hated your hero, and thought your book was a thriller when you believed you wrote a romance, so you can turn the book around and deliver what you promised. You can spend years writing your novel, but if the reader doesn't understand it, you've failed, no matter how beautiful the cover and the words inside the book might sound.
How many beta readers should read your book, and when? There is debate on the answer to this question. Two readers may be enough. Two authors I corresponded with expressed concern that too many beta readers can ruin a book and create extra work. I've used up to three readers, usually after a developmental edit, and found it to hit the sweet spot for me. Other authors thought you needed enough to represent your audience, ten or eleven.Â
How to select beta readers? Most authors agreed it's best to find beta readers of your genre. Find beta readers comfortable with what you write, whether a dark romance or a paranormal romance. At the very least, include a description of your content when offering the job, or you could open yourself up for unneeded criticism. The beta reader of contemporary romance might not be into the BDSM antics of your couple and/or the overly enthusiastic alpha dominant, or the bloodthirsty half monster, half-man with a tail that's also a vampire who's collecting human females to start a master race, unless they stated otherwise.
Make your expectations known and reasonable. Several authors reached out to me and said their needs should align with what a beta reader does and standard expectations. Some beta readers will give you a critique almost paragraph by paragraph, and others will provide something akin to a book report. Some do something similar to a developmental edit, and others push more towards a line edit. If they do that and you desire a line edit, it's mighty nice of them, but at no point should you consider a beta reader taking the place of an editor. More on that later, when I ask beta readers for their input.
Where do you find beta readers? You can find beta readers on Facebook Groups and Goodreads or barter with another author. A couple of authors said they've discovered excellent beta readers on both platforms but needed to wait a week or more for someone to answer their call for a reader. One author said she was concerned when a person who joined the site that day insisted that she send her the book immediately. The author became worried they were trying to steal it. Another author said she's found good critique partners on Twitter but not beta readers.
Paid beta readers. There are advantages to paying a beta reader. You can hire them from companies like Fiverr and Upwork. I've discovered qualified readers on both sites. You can define the timeline and expect questions you put forth to be answered. You can also see what kinds of manuscripts they've read in the past and how other authors rated their services.
How Much Does it Cost? I paid between $80.00 - $125.00 for an 82,000-word document. Each beta reader sets their rate of pay. I received two reports, my manuscript with line-by-line comments and another document with overall comments on the strengths and weaknesses of my story. It takes anywhere from four days to two weeks for the beta reader to return the work, depending on how many jobs the beta reader has scheduled. Again, read the description of what the beta reader includes for their fee.
What do beta readers have to say? I asked two beta readers, from Fivver what they wanted authors to know about beta readers. Kate and Susan’s answers are paraphrased:Â
Kate said, "This is the greatest job in the world--I'm getting paid to read! How lucky am I? But that said, it's a job. One I take it seriously, and that's why when I'm beta reading versus reading for fun, I take about twice as long to read the book as I normally would. For that reason, it's not the greatest paying job in the world. Rarely, do I make more than minimum wage. Because of that, I can only do this part-time and think most others do the same, so most of us work full time as well. As much as we love telling you when we love something about your story, we hate telling you when there's something we don't love. It's not fun to deliver this news, but it's our moral responsibility to be as honest as possible. Otherwise, we can't help you improve your novel, and you aren't getting what you paid for. Please be gentle with us when we deliver this news to you and try to remember it's why you hired us."Â
Kate's experience on how and why she became a Beta Reader touched me.
"I got into this because I was looking for a way to make a little extra money when my dog was dying of cancer and I wanted an extra job to pay for her medications. I, simply, love to read and that passion combined with my experience as a journalist and newspaper editor and published author helped guide me to the conclusion that I'd be a fairly good beta reader. It probably goes without saying that I was pretty upset about my dog and not handling it very well, and I thought what better way to make some extra money and find some solace than in someone's romance novel? A happily ever after (or at least happily for now!) is a guarantee."
Susan, another beta reader and an author of paranormal and contemporary romance, said, "I like to give my reaction as an average reader. And it's nice to use my brain differently. Plus, it helps me write because you learn what patterns seem to work best and what is currently on trend." Many authors expect their beta readers to take the place of an editor, hoping they'll find grammar errors and typos. I do that to some extent when beta reading, but I don't think it should be an expectation. They are entirely different tasks, and many beta readers are not necessarily qualified to do that."Â
Think of your beta reader as someone reading your book looking for "entertainment mistakes." Notice I did not use the word editing mistakes.
What should you ask your beta reader? Here is an example of questions you could ask, but please do not consider this a complete or exhaustive list. I also do not suggest sending a list of this length. I would be selective about what you want the Beta Reader to focus on. Do not scare the beta reader!
Did the story hold your interest from the beginning? And did it start at the right place?
Do you know who's telling the story and where it's taking place?
Could you relate to the main characters? If not, why not?
Were there too many other characters or not enough?
Was dialogue interesting and natural?
Is there anything you read that seemed problematic or insensitive?
Were the scenes exciting, and was there enough description and exposition or too much?
At what points did you put the manuscript down, or did any chapter read long?
Were there parts that were confusing, frustrating, troubling, or annoying? Any plot holes? Anything that seemed contrived or contradictory.
Which scene do you remember best?
Was there enough conflict, tension, and romance?
Were the sex scenes believable?
Did you skim? And if so, were you bored or in a rush to find out what happened next?
What kept you reading?
Was the HEA satisfying?
Is there another author or book this one reminds you of?
Did the book teach you anything?
Would you read another one in this series?
Anything else you would like to offer?
First, take this list and review the book yourself before hiring your beta readers and make some changes before you send it out.
Lastly, what's the difference between an alpha reader, a beta reader, and an ARC reader? An alpha reader could be a writing buddy or someone in your writing class or group who looks through a rough draft or section of several people's writings at one time and gives a critique. A beta reader is concentrating on your manuscript at a particular time, and it should be more polished at this point. An ARC reader is the person who reads the book just before publication and posts a review before or immediately after the publication date.
A personal thank you to all the beta readers who’ve assisted me in improving my books. Thank you to my beta readers, Kate and Susan, for their input and Facebook group members from Contemporary Romance Writers and The Romance Beta Readers Collective for their responses in shaping the article.
I'd enjoy hearing from other writers about your experience using beta readers, where you've found them, and from beta readers about your experience working with authors. Please leave comments. Have a wonderful week!
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I have served as both ARC reader and beta reader. Almost all of them have been positive experiences. The one that wasn't is an example of how not to work with beta readers.
In a Facebook group, I agreed to read the first chapter of a work in progress to give the writer an idea of whether they were going in the right direction. The chapter was great, I sent back my thoughts, and our interaction was concluded. Or so I thought.
Several months later, additional chapters showed up in my inbox without warning. And then alternate chapters arrived. By that point, I had forgotten what the original chapter was about.
Moral of the story: Before sending off your book baby, make sure you have an agreement with your beta reader as to what they will receive (how many words, in what format, title and subject of the book, etc.) and what feedback you want from them. Include delivery dates for each person. Even if you're not paying the beta reader, an agreement like this shows you respect them and their labor, ensures both of you are clear on the process and expectations, and wards off problems caused by miscommunication.
Another place to find beta readers is the member directory of the Editorial Freelancers Association. https://www.the-efa.org/membership-directory/
Selecting "beta reading" in the skills box returns four pages of names. Narrow your results further by choosing options in the content areas and fiction genres sections. If you're writing a book set in another state, you can even opt to search for someone who lives and/or works in that state!