Beta reading etiquette question

I've done reads in a weekend. Usually if polished. Increasingly, I only read polished, or try to. Lazy I guess.

A week is my average for finishing a book. That's generally fast. ATM, I'm taking a week to do a chapter because I'm mostly writing myself.

There was some one in groups awhile back who claimed their betas kept finishing their 250k book in the span of a couple days and leaving loads of comments. I was dubious.

I've found most people get back to me within three weeks or so when they beta my novels (80k-ish words). As for me, I discovered Word has a feature that tells you how long you've worked in a document on your computer, so I know I spend around 12 hours on most beta reads.

Most people reply to me, and when they don't I assume they weren't ready for feedback. I've only commented to them once, when I saw someone I had beta'd for asking for betas for another project. I commented that he had never got back to me, and he apologised and said he'd forgotten.

I'm very new to this game but I can't imagine not responding at least with a quick thank you after receiving a crit and probably much more. I'm amazed that there as many Beta readers as there are willing to do this work. And it is work. Not acknowledging it seems very inconsiderate and disrespectful of other people's time.

I think it's very important to give some acknowledgement to a beta reader. Sometimes it's really hard when the beta reader is particularly vicious and malicious. As hurtful as that can be, I still try to swallow my emotions and say thank you, because that's a lot better than responding to them in kind. Still, when someone takes the time to critique your work honestly and with a genuine desire to help, saying 'thank you' or just 'I received your feedback and will be reviewing it soon...' is simple good manners.

Sarian said:

I think it's very important to give some acknowledgement to a beta reader. Sometimes it's really hard when the beta reader is particularly vicious and malicious. As hurtful as that can be, I still try to swallow my emotions and say thank you,.

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I see you're new, so I just wanted to mention that if a beta from AW was vicious or malicious, you should report it to a moderator. That sort of thing doesn't fly here: beta-reads are about helping, not hurting.

ETA: Oh - and welcome to AW

Thanks for the feedback! She replied a couple of days ago and her critique was very helpful.