Beta Project 2017

[Sage]

2 hours to enter!

[Sage]

58 minutes left to enter

[Sage]

5 minutes left. Just in case you were deciding on one last word to cut

[Sage]

And time is up. I'll post them as quickly as vbulletin lets me

[Harlequin]

Where are the forums located?

[Sage]

Okay, all 51(!) entries can be found here (password: testing) or you can find it by going to the Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies forum and then into the Beta Project Subforum 2 subforum, where the password will still be "testing." Do not be fooled: there are crit threads from 2016 & 2015 in there, but just ignore them unless you want to see examples of crits. I've had people accidentally critique the wrong year's entries, which is sad because they put in a lot of work, and more likely than not, the authors aren't looking for crits on those projects by now.

I will send out critique assignments later today. Every entrant will receive a PM with the 3 entries you will be assigned. Don't worry about not having received them yet unless I've posted in here that I've sent them and you didn't receive anything.

Only one person failed to send the info I requested before the deadline. At this point, I cannot change the entries because I'm not the BPS2 moderator, so that entrant is just stuck with the answer I made up for them.

We were just shy of the record, guys. There were 52 entries in 2009.

More instructions to come once I've sent out critique assignments. But anyone can critique or beta request from any entry starting now.

I'll be getting some sleep now, and will be up shortly to start work on the critter puzzle

[CoffeeBeans]

Awesome work Sage!

It's like Christmas morning part 1!

ETA: Harlequin Here is the forum, password testing. The long way to get there, Forum > Discussion > Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies

[lianna williamson]

Sage, I am humbled by your greatness.

[sockycat]

Thank you so much for putting this together Sage!

[edutton]

Go Sage!

[Maggie Maxwell]

Sage, you're a rock star. Hope you're getting some well-deserved sleep.

Lots of high-quality pieces this year!

[Sage]

Ha, I've had at least two people whose genres they don't want to read included something that made me try to block their book from their potential crit assignments.

Also, two that I tried to give the author their own book because it sounded "perfect" for them based on what they did want to read

One entry had both of these things happen.

[Sage]

ETA: This is no longer true

Entrant #43 will not be able to participate after all, and since they won't be able to do any crits, they will not be receiving any. If you were dying to critique #43, I'd hold off. If there are new developments, I'll update in this thread. I didn't want someone to put in the effort on a critique that won't go anywhere.

This will not affect any other entrant's crit assignments (which are still in the making).

[RJDrake]

Sage, thanks for all your hard work!

[Unimportant]

Sage, you rock. You boulder! What a truly terrific thing to do for AWers.

[Harlequin]

Many thanks Sage x

[Sage]

Okay, Entrant #43 is back in, so feel free to crit the entry if you would like to.

[Ambrosia]

Ha, I've had at least two people whose genres they don't want to read included something that made me try to block their book from their potential crit assignments.

Also, two that I tried to give the author their own book because it sounded "perfect" for them based on what they did want to read

One entry had both of these things happen.

That you can figure it out at all amazes me.

[Sage]

Just updating you guys that I'm still working hard on the critter puzzle. You haven't missed out on any PMs.

[Dysnomia]

Thanks so much for doing this, Sage!! I'm curious, how's the critter puzzle done?

Also, is anyone else having an issue with pressing space towards the end of the PM box turning the next line into a new paragraph? As in, when I reach the right hand end of the PM box and then press space for my next word, it automatically becomes a new paragraph. Something I won't be able to tell unless I preview the message. Is there a way to resolve this? Minor issue, but it's just slightly annoying...

Anyway, there are so many wonderful entries so far! Thanks for the reads, all of you!

[Sage]

Okay, critter assignments are all passed out. If you didn't get one, let me know. If yours really doesn't make sense (I'm pretty loopy right now), let me know.

I'll give some stats and answer questions in the morning.

We already have some critting and beta requesting love.

[Sage]

Okay, some notes.

Unlike in the entry round, I'm not going to send "Got It"s for crits and beta requests. Mandatory crits are a finite number (unlike the infinite possibilities of entries), and if something went wrong and I didn't get your entry or messed up getting it from my inbox to the Beta Project docs, I'll be checking in with you before the deadline, and you'd be able to resend it. So don't delete your sent PMs, because it'll be much easier for you to send the already formatted entry back to me from the one you've already sent. To the best of my knowledge no crit has ever been lost, but I like to be ready for the day it is. All other crits are infinite possibilities, but if someone were to see that their crit didn't appear on June 2, they'll be able to add it themselves or send it to me again after I've posted.

Send all crits to me. You can batch them in one e-mail or send one at a time. You can crit things you weren't assigned. And anyone can crit!

Send beta requests to me. How this works is that after the entrant does all their mandatory crits, I will start sending requests to them. They will receive the name of the requestors, and it is up to the entrant to contact the requestor and start the conversation about sending the novel to you.

Critters, if you want to beta read an entry that you have critted, please be specific about that. If you say in your crit that you would like to read the novel, I will consider that feedback, not a request. If you say in your crit that you would like to beta the novel, I will use that as a beta request. If you send me a message outside of the crit that you want to beta, obviously, I'll know it's a request.

If you want to propose a beta swap (which you don't *nods seriously*), you must let me know that before I send the beta request to the entrant. You have a ton of information to decide whether you want to volunteer your time on those novels, and it's not fair to ask the entrant to take on your novel blindly on. Just because I want to read a contemporary YA, doesn't meant the author of that novel wants to read the third book in my superhero trilogy, for example. A lot of entrants also request from the BP, and it's not fair for you to get to plan out how many books you have time to beta and then intrude on their betaing plans by adding to it. If you're an entrant wanting a swap, first of all, trust the system. You don't know how many requests you'll receive by the end. Second of all, the entrant has the ability to read your entry for themselves. If they didn't choose to request it, it's probably not their thing. It's not a slight on you. It could be that even though you like their genre, they don't like yours. It could be a small element is turning them off ("Man, this erotica fantasy sounded great, but then the author mentioned the angel, and I'm worried it gets religious on me."). It could be that they're not into your style of writing. It could be they just beta'd 3 other books that kinda were similar-ish and are burned out. Anyway, it's a little weird to say, "I want to read your book, but only if you'll read mine," right? But if you just can't help yourself, please please please, request the swap through me. It gives the entrant a little time to research what you write and decide if they want that swap (even though they've already requested 10 entries) before contacting you.

All right, I have to go to rehearsal, and I already have 12 PMs of crits in my inbox, so I can only imagine what it will look like when I get back

[JJ Litke]

Note: pay attention to entry numbers--not the same as post numbers.

Not that I just confused myself with that. Nope.

[sockycat]

Wow, so many of the entries are fantastic! I think I'm definitely going to end up critting way more than the 3 I was given. It's hard not to when you read something really interesting and your brain goes "ooh! ooh! but what about this? and that? and those? and omg what if this happened, and what does this mean?"

Thanks again for doing this Sage! I was so apprehensive at first but I'm really glad I entered. It's going to be so fun interacting with everyone's work

[DancingMaenid]

I'm really excited to get started critiquing this weekend! I'm happy with my critique assignments, but there are so many good entries that I'm going to try to put aside time to do more.