Ok, I've spent my Thanksgiving vacation polishing away (see why) and I think *fingers crossed* I'm ready to start taking that next step.
I'm looking for a beta reader for my collection of folklore about human/animal transformation for young readers (I'm not sure whether it qualifies as middle grade or young adult, but I'm leaning toward YA). You can look at an outline of the book here.
I am willing to beta read your manuscript in return, or I can "pay it forward" by putting myself on the beta reader volunteer list at the top of this forum (your choice). I can send a print copy of the manuscript or a file (your choice). You can beta read according to your own style. If you want to mark up the manuscript with red pens, tell me, I can send red pens and return postage for the marked-up manuscript. If you want to just write a few paragraphs about what's wrong with my book, that's fine too. I think I'll get the best critique in whatever style you prefer to use.
If interested, reply in this thread or PM me with your questions or with any preferences. If you want to see a sample legend, or a sample chapter, before deciding whether to ask for the whole thing, that's okay too. I'll try to wait until Friday (Nov. 30th) to settle on a beta reader in case I get more than one request and need to make a decision (or, of course, even longer if I don't get any volunteers). If you have a kid between the ages of about 12-18 and if you're pretty sure you can get the kid to look at it and say whether they like it or not, that's a plus because I believe that's my target audience.
I am willing to take brutally honest critique. Go ahead and tell me everything bad, so that I can fix it before an agent sees it. However, since I'm writing nonfiction (if you don't know why folklore collections get classified as nonfiction, see this blog post of mine) there are some types of suggestions I can't take. I'm retelling my folklore, not adapting it ( the difference is explained here). This means that if you want me to change events, and I don't have any source versions of that legend with the event you desire, then I need to either keep it as-is or throw out the entire tale and replace it with another. The way I tell the stories can be changed, but what is actually in the stories can only be changed within confines that are usually fairly narrow unless I've got a bazillion variations of a particular tale type. Certain types of changes that would be routine in fiction can't be done in nonfiction. So, if it's really bad, tell me to throw out the entire legend!
I'm looking for a beta reader for my collection of folklore about human/animal transformation for young readers (I'm not sure whether it qualifies as middle grade or young adult, but I'm leaning toward YA). You can look at an outline of the book here.
I am willing to beta read your manuscript in return, or I can "pay it forward" by putting myself on the beta reader volunteer list at the top of this forum (your choice). I can send a print copy of the manuscript or a file (your choice). You can beta read according to your own style. If you want to mark up the manuscript with red pens, tell me, I can send red pens and return postage for the marked-up manuscript. If you want to just write a few paragraphs about what's wrong with my book, that's fine too. I think I'll get the best critique in whatever style you prefer to use.
If interested, reply in this thread or PM me with your questions or with any preferences. If you want to see a sample legend, or a sample chapter, before deciding whether to ask for the whole thing, that's okay too. I'll try to wait until Friday (Nov. 30th) to settle on a beta reader in case I get more than one request and need to make a decision (or, of course, even longer if I don't get any volunteers). If you have a kid between the ages of about 12-18 and if you're pretty sure you can get the kid to look at it and say whether they like it or not, that's a plus because I believe that's my target audience.
I am willing to take brutally honest critique. Go ahead and tell me everything bad, so that I can fix it before an agent sees it. However, since I'm writing nonfiction (if you don't know why folklore collections get classified as nonfiction, see this blog post of mine) there are some types of suggestions I can't take. I'm retelling my folklore, not adapting it ( the difference is explained here). This means that if you want me to change events, and I don't have any source versions of that legend with the event you desire, then I need to either keep it as-is or throw out the entire tale and replace it with another. The way I tell the stories can be changed, but what is actually in the stories can only be changed within confines that are usually fairly narrow unless I've got a bazillion variations of a particular tale type. Certain types of changes that would be routine in fiction can't be done in nonfiction. So, if it's really bad, tell me to throw out the entire legend!
I'd be happy to beta for you. I read a lot of YA, and that's the genre I write in as well. Let me know!