Beta Reader for Past-Lives Spiritual Book

Can you handle some tough love? It's clear you don't intend to become a part of Absolute Write's community. Since you joined in April, your entire involvement has been to request beta readers twice. You want our time but don't offer your own.

Some people here retain their basic trust in the goodness of humanity. Time permitting, they will beta read for anyone who asks. This is wonderful, of course, and I like to imagine fine beta-for-beta arrangements stemming from their generous spirits. But there are plenty of AWers like me who have beta read entire novels, written up five or ten thousand words of commentary we hoped was both insightful and useful, and never heard a word back. Or heard a single word, Thanks, or in one memorable instance, Asshole!

On behalf of those who have been similarly burned, here's why I won't beta read your book:

• You arrived with your hand out, asking for a lot without having given anything to the AW community in general. I've seen lots of people take what this site has to offer--critique, beta reads, proofreading, professional advice--then disappear. So far, every post you've made seeks a beta, which is not a good indicator of any intent to become part of the community.
• You may know some of us from lurking, but we don't know you. A beta read takes many hours, at a minimum. A book which has 'issues' takes much longer. Pretty huge favor to ask of a stranger, don't you think?
• You've never put a scene, chapter, or story up at your genre's Share Your Work board because you don't have the required number of posts to put up your work for feedback. I need to see your writing to know if you've mastered basic mechanics, can string together coherent sentences, know the difference between show and tell, can pare away unnecessary words, etc. Show me something which suggests you've got the goods.
• You haven't offered to beta read anyone else's work, at least not in public where I might see it. Of course I have no idea what private messages you might have sent. Maybe you've been one of those generous people--but I suspect not, because if you had, you probably would not need to make a new request once a month.
• You have not given of your own time and expertise to critique anyone else's work. There's no minimum post requirement for giving feedback to others.
• Your requests for a beta don't offer to do the same for those who beta read for you.

To quote Medievalist, "The thing about communities--and networking--is that you get out what you put in. Entitlement is a no-win-scenario."

I'm not the total hard-ass you might want to assume from this post. I genuinely hope you will participate here, let us get to know and like you, learn from your posts and see you learn from others', and in general become part of this community. We like new people, we really do. It being Sunday morning, your posts in any of the social threads might get your a mimosa and a chocolate croissant.

Maryn, truth teller