I received a physical, printed manuscript with not one indent or paragraph break of any kind. It was hundreds of pages of text-brick.
I can ignore misspellings and such if forewarned - but it does have to be legible. So I would've told her basically the same thing - leave the (pretentious) style until after I've read it! (Actually, I probably would've told her to leave it until she's famous enough for readers to stomach it... )
Does a beta do this? Can he/she be requested to beta-read only for this aspect and not for the 2.5 commas I may inadvertently leave out?
When an AWer requests a beta, I'm assuming (correctly?) they're not asking for nit picks or punctuation/word choice edits, but for a reader to read for story?
As a rule of thumb, it seems that people who've been here awhile understand that a beta generally doesn't do line-by-line edits or act as a writing teacher/mentor. People who are new vary wildly in what they think a beta does.
Can he/she be requested to beta-read only for this aspect and not for the 2.5 commas I may inadvertently leave out?
How do I rewrite, revise, and polish a manuscript in the absence of feedback? I thought the point of a beta reader was to look at an unfinished work and offer suggestions on how to revise and polish it.
It was only a matter of time before someone took advantage of the attention of all of you great beta readers and asked:
(Thanks for killing my thread, Prawn! <--Sarcasm)
Love your thread and I agree with this point.But I suspect it comes down to this: Anything you and a potential beta reader can agree on can work just fine.
What, does everyone on this thread have some sort of shellfish allergy or something?
One of the reasons I'm pretty harsh with my critiques is to filter out people who get whiny or defensive.
I do occasional critiques in SYW, but I wouldn't volunteer to beta read a whole novel unless I read the first chapter and it actually made me want to read the rest.
I think a lot of beta's have a certain fear. Suppose I get a 180,000 word novel that wanders all over the place and requires a week per chapter? How do I say no?
Wouldn't it be interesting to have a "post your 1st chapter and look for people who want to read the entire novel" forum? A dual purpose - people would try to put in hooks to get people to read the rest - which is how it is in real life.
So: No. Revise it, edit it, polish it, and make it as good as you can. Then send it to me. I'll try to spot problems you've missed. That's my job as a beta. Not to spot problems you already know about.