I've been working on a set of instructions for my non-writer friends who want to beta-read my book. What do you think?
On one hand, I might be asking to much. On the other, a little direction can go a long way.
(I'm not sure if this is in the right forum as it's not a request or offer for beta reading)
So, I’ve asked you to “beta read” this novel, and you might not know what that means.
A novel is in “beta” after the author has revised it as much as they can on their own, but before it goes to professional readers like proofreaders, copyeditors, or editors.
Unlike them, as a beta reader, you’re not poring over the text hunting for grammar and syntax issues. Just read the story normally and make a note whenever a problem calls itself out.
Although you can leave a note for any reason, most will revolve around things you find boring, confusing, wrong, off-putting, or cringeworthy.
Other common notes include: expert advice or knowledge, plot suggestions, opinions on characters, and when you think you’ve figured something out ahead of time.
Praise is tricky. I do want you to identify what works well, particularly any time something elicits emotion, but this tends to come at times you won’t want to stop to write a note.
I will only have a few beta readers for each draft, so every note you leave will be carefully considered, and it wouldn’t be unusual for me to rewrite several chapters based on feedback I receive from a beta.
While you can wait and write up observations at the end, when I beta read I find it’s easier to leave notes as I go, and it’s helpful for me, as the writer, to know where the issues came up.
So, how do you leave these notes? There are a few methods: Two of the best are either with review comments[a1] , which you can see to the right of the text if your word processor supports them. Or by adding a hash note to the text itself. (#like this). Use hash signs ‘#’, or some other unique symbol, so they’re easy to search for. Look in the appendices at the end for examples of beta reading.
The number of notes you leave during a read-through should drop dramatically as it goes on. For example, if you’ve already told me I don’t use enough dialog tags, there’s no sense in pointing that out again and again. When I beta read, I’ll leave four or five notes per page in the opening chapters, and by the halfway mark, it might be down to less than one per chapter.
My advice is to make leaving feedback as fun for yourself as possible. Keep the notes short, don’t worry about proofreading them, and don’t get bogged down. If you’re spending more than a third of your time writing notes, you’re writing too many.
Finally, your sanity means more to me than this book. One of the most valuable things you can tell me is, “I stopped reading here because…” Knowing when and why a reader puts a book down is critical for writers, so if you need to bail, this is preferable to a note at the end that says, “I loved it!”
The target audience for this is[describe audience here]
Thanks for making it this far. Now, let me tell you a story…
On one hand, I might be asking to much. On the other, a little direction can go a long way.
(I'm not sure if this is in the right forum as it's not a request or offer for beta reading)
So, I’ve asked you to “beta read” this novel, and you might not know what that means.
A novel is in “beta” after the author has revised it as much as they can on their own, but before it goes to professional readers like proofreaders, copyeditors, or editors.
Unlike them, as a beta reader, you’re not poring over the text hunting for grammar and syntax issues. Just read the story normally and make a note whenever a problem calls itself out.
Although you can leave a note for any reason, most will revolve around things you find boring, confusing, wrong, off-putting, or cringeworthy.
Other common notes include: expert advice or knowledge, plot suggestions, opinions on characters, and when you think you’ve figured something out ahead of time.
Praise is tricky. I do want you to identify what works well, particularly any time something elicits emotion, but this tends to come at times you won’t want to stop to write a note.
I will only have a few beta readers for each draft, so every note you leave will be carefully considered, and it wouldn’t be unusual for me to rewrite several chapters based on feedback I receive from a beta.
While you can wait and write up observations at the end, when I beta read I find it’s easier to leave notes as I go, and it’s helpful for me, as the writer, to know where the issues came up.
So, how do you leave these notes? There are a few methods: Two of the best are either with review comments[a1] , which you can see to the right of the text if your word processor supports them. Or by adding a hash note to the text itself. (#like this). Use hash signs ‘#’, or some other unique symbol, so they’re easy to search for. Look in the appendices at the end for examples of beta reading.
The number of notes you leave during a read-through should drop dramatically as it goes on. For example, if you’ve already told me I don’t use enough dialog tags, there’s no sense in pointing that out again and again. When I beta read, I’ll leave four or five notes per page in the opening chapters, and by the halfway mark, it might be down to less than one per chapter.
My advice is to make leaving feedback as fun for yourself as possible. Keep the notes short, don’t worry about proofreading them, and don’t get bogged down. If you’re spending more than a third of your time writing notes, you’re writing too many.
Finally, your sanity means more to me than this book. One of the most valuable things you can tell me is, “I stopped reading here because…” Knowing when and why a reader puts a book down is critical for writers, so if you need to bail, this is preferable to a note at the end that says, “I loved it!”
The target audience for this is[describe audience here]
Thanks for making it this far. Now, let me tell you a story…