\u201cWill insult writers for free.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or<\/p>\n
\u201cOut for blood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n
But too often, they\u2019re smiling faces (hats or no hats) on the internet offering to read your book before it\u2019s out.\u00a0Maybe you found them in a Facebook group by posting your tagline and asking for beta readers. Maybe a Goodreads group. Maybe it\u2019s an acquaintance who wants to critique swap but really just wants your beta read and to flaunt their critical knowledge with Cinema Sins flair. You might even pay them because of their pretty dependable persona on the internet.<\/p>\n
It doesn\u2019t matter where you found them.<\/p>\n
What matters is that beta readers aren\u2019t all built the same.<\/strong><\/p>\n The thing you\u2019ve been working on, the thing you\u2019re proud of\u2014don\u2019t let the wrong beta readers get you down or push you in a direction you don\u2019t believe in.<\/p>\n Do this instead.<\/p>\n Okay, let\u2019s get this out of the way first. There are beta readers, and there are sensitivity readers. In my eyes, there is no such thing as Alpha Readers. (Those are called editors.)<\/p>\n Sensitivity readers<\/strong>\u00a0are readers within specific demographics that read your book (or portions of it) to tell you if you have produced anything harmful to any communities represented. This could be race-related, gender-related, disability-related\u2014the list goes on. If you\u2019ve written a book or portions of it on a topic you feel you could misrepresent, you might consider a sensitivity reader.\u00a0<\/p>\n Beta readers\u00a0<\/strong>are early readers on your unpublished manuscript who provide feedback on their reading experience. They\u2019re not meant to replace editors; they\u2019re meant to gauge how real readers are responding to your material. You can either find them for free, pay them, or swap manuscripts with them if they\u2019re a writer with their own work.<\/p>\n \n You send your thing of beauty out for feedback, watching the ticking clock for 2-5 weeks, wondering if now is the moment they got to your badass twist or now is or now is.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s such a deeply emotional experience sharing your unpublished work with other people for feedback. It\u2019s like sending a piece of yourself out, something you\u2019ve been doing in the quiet, something you love; and asking for people to talk honestly about its quality.<\/p>\n But some beta readers don\u2019t see it like that.<\/strong>\u00a0All they see is the manuscript in front of them. For fun, let\u2019s name some of the wrong kind of beta readers. (Apologies if I use your name. )<\/p>\n \n<\/p> ROGER likes finding flaws in books<\/strong>, so he\u2019s going to be looking for them instead of trying to read like a reader. He pauses his reading experience to leave comments so much that he is the reason that the \u201cflow is off.\u201d<\/p>\n LUKE is trying to prove that he\u2019s a great editor and a better writer than you<\/strong>\u00a0(even if subconsciously), so he overcorrects but does it in a very convincing manner. So much so that you change your book about it and it\u2019s not the right move.<\/p>\n BOB is the wrong reader<\/strong>\u2014a person who never or rarely reads in your genre\u2014so he tells you that things are wrong when they are not actually wrong. He shares his feedback based on what he knows, but what he knows about what you are doing specifically isn\u2019t much. This type of reader could genuinely make your book worse; turn your thoughtfully slow-burning romance into an unenthusiastically mispaced romantic thriller.<\/p>\n SANDY thinks it\u2019s better to make you feel good<\/strong>\u00a0rather than provide you with any real honest feedback. This one is very popular among friends and family and a big reason why so many authors move straight to other writers, beta reader groups, and paid readers for their beta reads. This over-positive person is well-intentioned, but it\u2019s true that they could make you hit the publish button before you\u2019re actually done.<\/p>\n CATARINA believes that brutal honesty is better than softening blows<\/strong>, so she takes your whole manuscript, marks up the first few pages, and then jots \u201cDNF\u201d in the track changes of your Word document. She sends it to you and says, \u201cHere ya go,\u201d only to leave you in a coffin a few pages later.<\/p>\n And of course, PENELOPE<\/strong>. The dreaded Penelope. She\u2019s just trying to get one over on you. You paid her or you swapped books with her, and she\u2019s really just trying to get what you\u2019re giving. She skims the book, leaves limited or general feedback, or asks AI to do it for them. (In my experience, this happens far less than writers suspect it will, especially with the ascension of AI. But it\u2019s still worth mentioning.)<\/p>\n Quit.\u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s the most important part. The wrong feedback can send you on a downward spiral. Don\u2019t let it stop you from doing the thing you love.<\/p>\n Automatically throw out all of their feedback.\u00a0<\/strong>Each piece of feedback is new and something that you could allow to influence you. Getting beta reader feedback isn\u2019t getting line-edit requests from your publisher. It\u2019s about listening to the feedback but then you making the final decision in the end. So even if LUKE overdid it or CATARINA hurt your feelings, you can still take\u00a0some<\/em>\u00a0of their feedback. If you genuinely believe in your heart that it\u2019s right.<\/p>\n Respond back to fight with them.\u00a0<\/strong>Your feelings are hurt, or they didn\u2019t get you, or they\u2019re actually mistaken\u2014the scene with the clock\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0there, dummy\u2014but you are going to need to sleep on their bad report. And not just sleep either. Have coffee and maybe lunch or dinner before you answer back. Don\u2019t fire immediately back with emotion. Most of the time, a simple \u201cThanks for your time! This gives me a lot to think about\u201d can suffice. If you really want to teach them a lesson so they don\u2019t hurt other writers in the future, find a way to say it very calmly while still sounding appreciative of their time. You don\u2019t want to fight over this.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get more of them.\u00a0<\/strong>This is the real trick. You can\u2019t depend on one beta reader. Even two, I think, is not enough. You are bound to get one bad review out of twenty when your book is finally published. Now consider that this book isn\u2019t finished yet; you know it has flaws; and you know this person you sent it to is just that\u2014a person. A human reader with their own reading preferences and experiences. The best way to balance out bad beta readers is to get more of them. I like five for a single round. Then maybe another three for a second round, after you\u2019ve revised. That way, you can judge the blemishes off of other readers\u2019 responses too. If three people all said your protagonist has an unlikable, unintentional flaw, it\u2019s probably something worth listening to.<\/p>\n If you feel like you\u2019re struggling to find the right beta readers or just want it done in a certain amount of time, reach out to your boy Joe (me). I run a\u00a0Group Beta Reading\u00a0service<\/a>\u00a0where you can get three or five readers who have expressed direct interest in your genre. They will read your book and provide at least 650 words (but most times more) of feedback on how your book affected them as readers and what they consider to be the most important aspects to consider for revision.\u00a0Bonus points:\u00a0<\/strong>we\u2019re all huge readers, made up of reviewers, booksellers, librarians, bloggers, editors, and authors.<\/p>\n Be patient.\u00a0<\/strong>I consider myself a pretty patient person. I don\u2019t beep when the car in front of me stays still after the light\u2019s green. I don\u2019t freak out when my daughter explodes from my supremely unfair rejections. (Today, it was twelve brownies.) But when it comes to waiting on feedback for my writing, I\u2026am dying inside.\u00a0What if they love me, what if they hate me, what if they think I\u2019m the actual chosen one?\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s hard to wait, but it\u2019s important to. Give them their time. Don\u2019t pop in with little reminders unless the deadline has already passed. You don\u2019t want to negatively affect their reading experience from the outside. Let them be readers (with a deadline).<\/p>\n Trust yourself and your vision.\u00a0<\/strong>You make the final call here. You know what you\u2019re trying to do, and you sought out opinions to see how that vision is being carried out. That\u2019s the first sign of a good writer\u2014someone who knows their job can\u2019t be done alone. So listen to that feedback, decide whether you believe in it or not, and finish that damn book.<\/p>\n Mine isn\u2019t horror. It\u2019s mostly just sad. Back when I was writing on Scribophile, one beta reader read the first 500 words, used the word \u201cYawn\u201d in the in-line comments, and then wrote \u201cDNF\u201d at the 500-word mark. The story was about 2000. But they got the points that Scribophile gives out for critiques, so happy for them! <\/p>\n Joe Walters<\/strong>\u00a0is the founder of\u00a0Independent Book Review<\/a>. After falling in love with reading and writing at Kutztown University, he did the only thing he could think of: quit his teaching job, become a server, and write as much as possible.<\/p>\n When a local job in publishing popped up on a job board, he traded his PF Chang\u2019s apron in for a bookish t-shirt and has been promoting indie press and self-published books ever since. He\u2019s also the author of\u00a0The Truth About Book Reviews<\/a><\/em>. When he\u2019s not writing or doing editorial or promotion work, he\u2019s playing with his kids or reading indie books by Kindle light.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The post The Dangers of Bad Beta Readers<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wish they wore hats. \u201cWill insult writers for free.\u201d Or \u201cOut for blood.\u201d Or \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about.\u201d But too often, they\u2019re smiling faces (hats or no hats) on the internet offering to read your book before it\u2019s out.\u00a0Maybe you found them in a Facebook group by posting your tagline and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}First, understand what beta readers are supposed to be.<\/h3>\n
And sometimes\u2014you get the wrong one.<\/h3>\n<\/p>
What you don\u2019t want to do.<\/h3>\n
What you do want to do.<\/h3>\n
Because I love the gossip\u2026what\u2019s your beta reader horror story?<\/h3>\n
About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n