Looking for a Beta Reader for a Fiction

Punk28 · Feb 19, 2015

Hi, I'm looking for a beta reader that likes reading or critiquing fiction stories. The story that I'm working on is set in the future (in the year 4100), it focuses on one family (a mother and her five sons) as they try to live a normal life after the Amercas have been taken over by a hostile alien. The family that is the focus of the story has been forced to relocate from Colorado to Germany.

Lillith1991 · Feb 19, 2015

I hope I don't sound overly critical, but I don't think you've given enough information to entice a beta. And you seem to have common misconception for newish writers in that you think labeling something simply as fiction is sufficient. All novels, short stories, novelettes, and novellas are fiction. So simply saying something is fiction doesn't tell potential betas much. Non-fiction like history and memoirs can use techniques found in fiction to arrange things in an entirely factual but also interesting manner, but that does not make them stories.

The good news is that your halfway there, because the concept is to me interesting enough on its own. But what is the wordcount for the story you want beta'd? What is the genre of the story? Some people don't read first or third person, so what POV is the story told in? What are some things you want the potential beta on the look out for if you already know? ( ex. Plot holes, continuity of story and character, tense shifts etc.)

Hope you find a beta!

Niccolo · Feb 20, 2015

Everything Lillith said +1,000.

Fiction just isn't specific enough. It sounds like science-fiction, but you know your story better than us so I don't want to make any assumptions. What's the word count? Is it a short story? Novel?

More information will help immensely in finding a beta-reader. Best of luck.

Punk28 · Feb 20, 2015

Sorry, wrote this late-last night so I wasn't fully awake or in-control of what my fingers were putting on the screen. The story that I'm writing is based on Third-person POV, the genre's involved are Magical Realism, Family/Comfort and there are some Fan-fictional elements included (for flavor, about 95% of the story is original).

I'm really looking for a beta to help me along in getting past the sixth chapter which I am re-writing from scratch, I've got over 1,000 written one possible and another 3,000 written on the second. The plot for the 6th chapter deals with the family settling into their new life in their new home (getting unpacked, going out to buy groceries for their kitchen cabinets and their new refrigerator and getting the other essential items that they will need in their new home like: a broom, a mop, a vacuum clear/carpet cleaner, bedding for their beds, pillows (for their beds) etc etc etc).

Lillith1991 · Feb 20, 2015

Punk28 said:
Sorry, wrote this late-last night so I wasn't fully awake or in-control of what my fingers were putting on the screen. The story that I'm writing is based on Third-person POV, the genre's involved are Magical Realism, Family/Comfort and there are some Fan-fictional elements included (for flavor, about 95% of the story is original).

I'm really looking for a beta to help me along in getting past the sixth chapter which I am re-writing from scratch, I've got over 1,000 written one possible and another 3,000 written on the second. The plot for the 6th chapter deals with the family settling into their new life in their new home (getting unpacked, going out to buy groceries for their kitchen cabinets and their new refrigerator and getting the other essential items that they will need in their new home like: a broom, a mop, a vacuum clear/carpet cleaner, bedding for their beds, pillows (for their beds) etc etc etc).

You still aren't quite giving us enough to choose if we want to help. What is the wordcount of the story?

Unimportant · Feb 20, 2015

Punk28 said:
Sorry, wrote this late-last night so I wasn't fully awake or in-control of what my fingers were putting on the screen. The story that I'm writing is based on Third-person POV, the genre's involved are Magical Realism, Family/Comfort and there are some Fan-fictional elements included (for flavor, about 95% of the story is original).

I'm really looking for a beta to help me along in getting past the sixth chapter which I am re-writing from scratch, I've got over 1,000 written one possible and another 3,000 written on the second. The plot for the 6th chapter deals with the family settling into their new life in their new home (getting unpacked, going out to buy groceries for their kitchen cabinets and their new refrigerator and getting the other essential items that they will need in their new home like: a broom, a mop, a vacuum clear/carpet cleaner, bedding for their beds, pillows (for their beds) etc etc etc).

Punk, it would probably help if you would clarify a few things.

1. Do you want someone to look at a single chapter and tell you which version to go with? Or do you want someone to read the existing 5 chapters, help you with decisions on chapter 6, and stick with it as you write the remaining ~80,000 (or however many) words of this novel? If the latter, then you'll probably want to give your potential beta-readers an approximate timeline, so that they know whether it's a commitment they can make and keep. (If the former, normally I'd suggest getting involved here and posting it in Share Your Work, but the AW workshop disallows fanfic so that's not an option for you.)

2. Are you looking for overarching plot/structure feedback, or general 'would you read further' feedback, or grammar + spelling + punctuation + sentence structure feedback, or dialogue + point-of-view + characterisation feedback? Different readers have different strengths and weaknesses.

3. What are your intentions for this book once it's finished? You mentioned it has fanfic elements, which means that legally it is unpublishable.

4. How do you handle feedback? Do you want lots of praise and very kind, mild criticisms, or do you want someone to rip into your prose until it hemorrhages red ink? Do you want beta readers to offer suggestions for how to fix potential problems, or just to point out bits that confused them?

Punk28 · Feb 20, 2015

Unimportant said:
Punk, it would probably help if you would clarify a few things.

1. Do you want someone to look at a single chapter and tell you which version to go with? Or do you want someone to read the existing 5 chapters, help you with decisions on chapter 6, and stick with it as you write the remaining ~80,000 (or however many) words of this novel? If the latter, then you'll probably want to give your potential beta-readers an approximate timeline, so that they know whether it's a commitment they can make and keep. (If the former, normally I'd suggest getting involved here and posting it in Share Your Work, but the AW workshop disallows fanfic so that's not an option for you.)

2. Are you looking for overarching plot/structure feedback, or general 'would you read further' feedback, or grammar + spelling + punctuation + sentence structure feedback, or dialogue + point-of-view + characterisation feedback? Different readers have different strengths and weaknesses.

3. What are your intentions for this book once it's finished? You mentioned it has fanfic elements, which means that legally it is unpublishable.

4. How do you handle feedback? Do you want lots of praise and very kind, mild criticisms, or do you want someone to rip into your prose until it hemorrhages red ink? Do you want beta readers to offer suggestions for how to fix potential problems, or just to point out bits that confused them?

1. Look at a specific chapter and then tell me which version to go with

2. General 'would you read further' feedback, or grammar + spelling + punctuation + sentence structure feedback, or dialogue + point-of-view + characterisation feedback

3. The fan-fiction elements will be written out after the book is complete so their really only being used as a way to get the story going

4. The general word count for the chapter that I want beta'd is between 8,000 and 9,000 words

Unimportant · Feb 21, 2015

Thanks for the info, Punk!

It's not something I'd volunteer for, because without having read the earlier chapters and knowing where the subsequent chapters are intended to go, I don't think I could make any helpful comments on what the best in-between chapter would contain. It's also a fair amount of work to suggest corrections on all aspects of craft and English in a ~9000 word piece, unless the author is a very skilled writer, and of course I've no idea where your skill level sits since you're new here.

I always beta-read without asking the author to read my work in return, since I don't have any novels I need readers for, but I do try to volunteer to beta-read for authors who have shown that they are willing to put some time and effort into this community by beta-reading for others, critiquing other people's stories in Share Your Work, sharing knowledge and skills, etc.

Please do stick around and get involved. You'll make friends, get to know people, let us get to know you, and that way you're more likely to get people volunteering to read your work.

Looking for a Beta Reader for a Fiction

Punk28

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid

Niccolo

Punk28

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.

Punk28

Unimportant

No COVID yet. Still masking.