How long do you give beta readers?

Charlie Horse · Apr 29, 2008

Probably everybody in the world knows the answer to this question but me. But since this is the first time I'm proactively putting my 2nd draft out, I realized I have no idea how much time I should allow before I start looking for comments to come back.

badducky · Apr 29, 2008

How long do you take when you're beta reasing for others?

That's about how long you should wait.

Calla Lily · Apr 29, 2008

2-4 weeks. We all have lives, jobs, kids, etc. etc.

And our own WIPs.

ToddWBush · Apr 29, 2008

As long as they need. They are the ones volunteering their time. Give them that respect.

Charlie Horse · Apr 29, 2008

ToddWBush said:
As long as they need. They are the ones volunteering their time. Give them that respect.

I have all the respect in the world for anyone volunteering to read my stuff and provide feedback. I was just wondering what others here have experienced.

CaroGirl · Apr 29, 2008

I'd like to say "as long as it takes" but it helps to give readers a reasonable deadline. The length of the book and the type of feedback it requires can affect the amount of time it takes to review. My novel is relatively short and didn't require a copy edit. I was looking for overall feedback on character, possible plot holes, and so on.

Most of my betas took 4 to 6 weeks. I think that's a reasonable amount of time to expect them to read and crit the work. I also set up a crit session for all the betas in my crit group to get together and discuss the novel. Kind of scary, but it was a great experience.

czjaba · Apr 29, 2008

That answer all depends on you and the person who is reading for you. And it varies even then. I do some beta reads and sometimes, I can zip right through in about 3 days. That is when my work load is light and I'm not actively working on my own WIP. It all depends on what you want the beta reader to do. If he/she is doing a line-by-line, it may take a while. If you just want a reader to give an opinion of the story, it shouldn't take too long. But there again, it all depends on the betas time schedule.
As a beta reader, I have no problem if the writer sends me an email like, "how's it going?"
I just save what I've done, let the writer know that I'm not finished and send it back. I still continue working on it, but as a writer, I like to know progress, too. The first couple of chapters are always the toughest for me and that's what I usually get the most feedback on.

ToddWBush · Apr 29, 2008

Of course, let me add to my response. If they are a responsible person (and why would you give something you've bled over for close to or over a year to someone who's not responsible), then they won't take a huge amount of time.

maestrowork · Apr 29, 2008

I gave them two months. I know they all have busy lives, but when they agree to beta read, there's certain commitment involved. Two months is long enough that it won't feel like a chore, but short enough that they won't just put it aside and forget about it.

I usually don't pressure them either. I have great betas. They're very responsive.

Phaeal · Apr 29, 2008

I like to send out and receive beta readings a chapter at a time -- that way, I can give and get quicker feedback. It takes me about three-four days to do a close line-edit and critique of a chapter, so multiply by the number of chapters, then add some more for RL.

Straka · Apr 29, 2008

I just one beta who read my book in a week! Talk about instant gratification. Now I'm spoiled big time.

True be told though its usually more like a month and half otherwise.

Claudia Gray · Apr 29, 2008

On the book I'm working with now, I knew I'd need a very fast beta turnaround. So, a couple weeks ahead of time, I wrote all my potential betas, apologized for needing such quick turnaround, and asked who would be able to do it that fast; if they couldn't, no problem, I'd grab them next time. Everybody who either opted in or out was very understanding about it, and those who betaed did get me notes within that short time frame. I prefer handling it that way ahead of time to rushing people after the fact.

dreamsofnever · Apr 29, 2008

This is a great question Charlie! I had no idea how long to give either. I'm just getting beta readers that I don't know for the first time myself. At first, I told them I didn't care when they got it done. It's been about three weeks and the only ones I've heard back from are the people I gave a time period to. I told them 1-2 months, but one finished in 2 days, and then another in a week! I got spoiled by them.

To speed up the process, I asked for just commentary on plot, character development, etc. I can do the spelling and grammar myself (I'm a bit of a grammar/spelling nazi anyways), with my husband as back-up. In my opinion, it takes less time to read something over when looking at the big picture instead of having to check for grammar/spelling errors with every word.

It also helped that it was a shorter book (one of the things I was aiming for is places I could expand it) so that makes it easier to read quickly.

But I do believe 1-2 months is fair. Just work with them. Ask them how long they think is reasonable. Everyone will be diferent I'm sure, but that way you can come up with your expectations and hopefully make everyone happy

Dale Emery · Apr 29, 2008

Charlie Horse said:
Probably everybody in the world knows the answer to this question but me. But since this is the first time I'm proactively putting my 2nd draft out, I realized I have no idea how much time I should allow before I start looking for comments to come back.

My take is: Attend to their needs and attend to your own needs. And the only way to do that is to make your needs and theirs explicit.

To attend to your needs: Test a number of timeframes. If it took two weeks, how would that be for you? A month? Two months? Four months? At what point does the delay become more than you want?

Then pick a timeframe that works for you.

To attend to your potential readers' needs: When you ask people to read, tell them when you need feedback and why, and ask whether that timeframe fits for them. If it does, you know what to expect.

If your timeframe doesn't work for them, then don't ask for their feedback. That is: Don't put them in the position of spending the time to do something that is less valuable for you.

Dale

billyf027 · Apr 29, 2008

I am currently writing my first novel and I'm confused about beta readers. Where do you find them? Are they people you know already?
This may sound like a stupid question but I only wrote short stories before and never used readers.

Thank you

nybx4life · Apr 29, 2008

Charlie Horse said:
I have all the respect in the world for anyone volunteering to read my stuff and provide feedback. I was just wondering what others here have experienced.

Well, from my first time someone beta read my work, it took no more than 3 days for a response (actually, I think it was 2 days).

But I suggest, at least 2 weeks.
When you get no response, ask about it from them. They might have been really busy with the rest of their lives

Riley · Apr 29, 2008

Yikes. It takes me about two or three months, but then again I have about a thousand projects going on and other stuff (like everyone else). How do you guys manage to be so prompt?

SPMiller · Apr 29, 2008

billyf027 said:
I am currently writing my first novel and I'm confused about beta readers. Where do you find them? Are they people you know already?
This may sound like a stupid question but I only wrote short stories before and never used readers.

Thank you

As far as I know, most people don't have beta readers beyond what they can find through their own social connections. This means relatives, friends, significant others, and what have you. However, few of these people are any good at being betas, and even fewer are interested.

Then there's this website, which has a section dedicated to finding betas.

Harper K · Apr 30, 2008

billyf027 said:
I am currently writing my first novel and I'm confused about beta readers. Where do you find them? Are they people you know already?
This may sound like a stupid question but I only wrote short stories before and never used readers.

Thank you

I just started putting together my group of beta readers. Most of them are people I know marginally through my website. Then I have two people whose novels I beta'ed, and so they're returning the favor. I also agreed to have my brother-in-law read it. I know most people don't recommend using family members as critiquers / beta readers, but my BIL has his MFA in fiction and has been published in several of the big literary journals. Plus, he's been bugging me to read my stuff forever and ever, so... we'll see how it goes.

I plan on giving them about a month to read my novel (which is YA, and will top out at about 60,000 words).

Judg · Apr 30, 2008

I have asked a couple of people on this site who have pertinent expertise or obvious affinities for the work, one of my sons (who is a voracious reader and feels free to tell me what isn't working for him), a blogging friend who also writes, and someone who approached me. My crit group sees individual chapters.

What I have done that is a bit different is send out the first 50 pages after doing the first major revision. I've done a lot of pruning, converted telling to showing, rewritten the painfully bad sentences, but not yet done the final polishing. This way the burden is less on them, I can deal with major issues in a more timely manner and it's great for my morale when they start bugging me for the next 50 pages...

Straka · Apr 30, 2008

One trick to keep yourself occupied and keep the time spent on the project well managed is having multiple parts of it going on.

Right now one project, a fantasy, is out to 3 beta readers (who are focusing on flow and content). For the same project I'm already drafting the query and gathering a list of agents even if I'm nowhere near ready to submit. Once I get all the relies back from the first betas, I'll do more edits, then submit to by editor (aka my gf) to check grammar & spelling. That will most likely happen mid summer. Then starts the querying.

Meanwhile I've already started drafting another story.

Just keep it going.

Charlie Horse · Apr 30, 2008

Straka said:
One trick to keep yourself occupied and keep the time spent on the project well managed is having multiple parts of it going on.

Right now one project, a fantasy, is out to 3 beta readers (who are focusing on flow and content). For the same project I'm already drafting the query and gathering a list of agents even if I'm nowhere near ready to submit. Once I get all the relies back from the first betas, I'll do more edits, then submit to by editor (aka my gf) to check grammar & spelling. That will most likely happen mid summer. Then starts the querying.

Meanwhile I've already started drafting another story.

Just keep it going.

I've actually managed to keep from looking at Forbidden Seed(s) for over a month now while its in the hands of a few readers, then going to be discussed by a reading group in June. After being consumed by this project for over a year it's been a little hard letting go and exercising patience.

But...I have since started a new work, which I'm about 11k words into, and I've reworked the query for FS(s) about 1000 times.

This has all been very helpful. Thanks everyone.

HorrorWriter · Apr 30, 2008

Charlie,
I usually just ask them in the beginning about how long do they think it'll take. I just received my last bit of feedback and it only took about a month and a half for me to get back everything from all of my betas.

spacejock2 · Apr 30, 2008

When I asked for beta readers I made it clear I had to have feedback within three weeks. That gave me only 48 hours to address their comments and changes before I had to hand the novel in to my editor.

In the end I got 12 readers, only one of whom missed the deadline (never responded, in fact.) They're all thanked in the acknowledgements, and I also promised them all a copy of books 1 & 4 in the series.

Danalynn · May 1, 2008

WOW, spacejock2! That was cutting it close. lol

:tongue

How long do you give beta readers?

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