Seeking Beta for LITERARY - 1st 3 chapters ONLY

Thanks for looking in.

I have a 70K-word manuscript ready for querying. It is a 'serious' literary novel, so unless you habitually read and enjoy literary novels, you may not be interested.

At present, I am asking for a reading of the first 3 chapters only, 49 double-spaced pages. I feel fairly comfortable with the way the novel has turned out -- i.e., plot and character strengths are not immediate issues. I think an agent or publisher who will have asked for a sample, would likely read the first 50 pages before giving the manuscript further consideration.

What I would expect from a willing Literary Beta:

- Straight talk: no soft and fuzzy reassurances
- Feedback on the MC: did I make you care about / what happens to my MC?
- Flow and pace: too slow / too fast / too uneven, etc...
- Narration / writing style: at any point did the writing bore you / did you skip over any passages / paragraphs?
- Interest: topic / story: is it something you would be interested in reading more about, e.g., would you REALLY WANT to read the whole story?

...of course, any other comments would be more than welcome!

Thanks again for looking in. I am hoping to find one or two really tough Literary Betas!

tomber said:

Yeah, I'll bite. I'm sorta looking for a literary piece to beta, so that works out. Your expectations are reasonable, and I'm sure I could meet them.

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Deal. But only because I luved your Query.

Prawn said:

I'd swap first chapters with you.

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Cool!

A big thanks to all the generous AWers who agreed to Beta my first three. Feedback has been very helpful, likely saved me months of dejection/rejection.

The biggest change brought on by the feedback is "the beginning of the book" -- it was not engaging enough and some said they would probably not read further.

I still think it can be a pretty good novel, and rather than shelving it, I decided to revise and reshuffle the chapters. Should have the new first chapter ready in a couple of days, and I'm considering posting it in SYW.

I'd be grateful if any of my Betas can give that a look then, and let me know what they think, either in SYW or via PM.

Many thanks for your input, it has been of great, great help to me!