Hi Everyone,
I belong to a different group where there was a discussion of beta readers. One person said that there is an expectation that the beta readers you give your book to before it's out will leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere once the book is actually published and that you, the writer, should be emailing them to remind them, since people forget or get bogged down with other things.
I'm very new to beta reading but I've been doing some research and I don't recall every seeing anything like this.
Personally, I don't think it's fair to "expect" people you've asked to beta read your book before publication to leave a review once the book is published as a way to start gathering reviews. Yes, it would be nice if beta readers would do this on their own because they liked the book or think it deserves a review or just want to help out the writer (provided the review is an honest one, of course). But I don't think I would ever expect them to do this and I certainly wouldn't nudge them about it. This goes doubly for beta readers who might be kind enough to review my work even though the genre might not be one that they would naturally go to on their own (for example, I write historical fiction, so someone who is more of a thriller kind of person who might agree to beta read for me). I would feel like I'm forcing them out of their element, which just isn't fair.
Thoughts on this?
Djuna
I belong to a different group where there was a discussion of beta readers. One person said that there is an expectation that the beta readers you give your book to before it's out will leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere once the book is actually published and that you, the writer, should be emailing them to remind them, since people forget or get bogged down with other things.
I'm very new to beta reading but I've been doing some research and I don't recall every seeing anything like this.
Personally, I don't think it's fair to "expect" people you've asked to beta read your book before publication to leave a review once the book is published as a way to start gathering reviews. Yes, it would be nice if beta readers would do this on their own because they liked the book or think it deserves a review or just want to help out the writer (provided the review is an honest one, of course). But I don't think I would ever expect them to do this and I certainly wouldn't nudge them about it. This goes doubly for beta readers who might be kind enough to review my work even though the genre might not be one that they would naturally go to on their own (for example, I write historical fiction, so someone who is more of a thriller kind of person who might agree to beta read for me). I would feel like I'm forcing them out of their element, which just isn't fair.
Thoughts on this?
Djuna