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Looking for beta reader (urban fantasy)

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Carmen Baxter

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Hi everyone

I've recently had a request for a partial, and I need someone to read through my first 50 pages, especially as regards a) general impression and b) areas where I can develop my characters further and c) just about anything else. I'm no stranger to harsh criticism, so please feel free to heap it on. :)

I've been burnt several times asking for a writing partner, because I always ended up reading/editing an entire book in return for a couple of chapters of mine. So please forgive me if I seem a little bit selfish asking for a beta reader without returning the favour. I've simply lost too many hours working on other people's books and need to focus on my own for a while.

About the book, I don't want to prejudice any potential reader, so suffice it to say it's the story of two female heroes, who are thrown together to battle their enemies on the streets of Seattle. It's also laced with good helping of humor, so if you're looking for a dark, moody sort of tale, this isn't it. :)

Thank you.

Carmen
 
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Renée A. Price

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Carmen, I am interested.

Send me a PM and we can see if this works.
 

TCnKC

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Hello Carmen,

Urban fantasy is one of my fav genres. If you need or want more than one person to give you some feedback I'd be more than happy to help.

PM me with details if you're interested .
 

Katrina S. Forest

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First off, congrats on the partial!

I'm not sure what you mean by you don't want to prejudice any potential readers. If you're writing in a sort of love-it-or-hate-it kind of genre, you might as well be blunt about the content of the book so you'll attract the kinds of beta readers who love it.

Also, I realize my advice is probably water over the dam at this point, but your manuscript should be polished to perfection before you start submitting. (Or if you're like me, at least to the point where you'll be satisfied with reading it to yourself just one more time before sending it off.) Your partial should be sent within a couple days of the request.

I've dealt with betas who didn't do their share of the work before, and it sucks, but there's other ways to take precautions against it aside from refusing to exchange. One is simply exchanging in sections. Another is looking at the beta's past experiences. There's a whole sticky of people talking about their awesome betas.

I'm glad you got what you needed this time around, mostly this is just advice that might make things easier (and get you even more betas) in the future. Good luck with the partial request!
 

Carmen Baxter

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I appreciate your comments.

My book is ready, but as soon as I got the news, I started panicking, plus I got advice from another editor, so I tinkered with it some more, and now it needs another read-through. Also, I wasn't actually submitting. The request came as a result of a writing contest.

As to what it's about, well... A twenty-four year old Seattleite is pulled into a world of magic and violence. She is asked to fight for a cause she doesn't understand. Or believe in. Nieve, an experienced warrior, is charged with Lea's training.

That's as much as I want to say. The reason I don't want to give anything away is that I'm hoping for unbiased reading. I appreciate that might put some people off, but it was a choice I had to make.

Anyway, thanks again for your advice.

Carmen
 

edenm

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Hi Carmen,

Congrats on your partial!

If you are still in need of anymore beta readers PM me I'd love to take a look!

Urban fantasy is one of my favourite genres and your premise sounds really interesting.

I'm not looking for anyone to read anything of mine so that doesn't bother me at all. :)


Eden
 

Carmen Baxter

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Just a quick thank you to everyone who offered their services and advice. I really appreciate it. :)
 
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