Preparing for Beta-Readers
Greetings and salutations Scribblers!
Today we’re going to discuss how to prepare for beta reader feedback. Asking someone to read your manuscript and provide feedback on what’s working and what isn’t can feel like a daunting task. We’re giving our work, our creation to someone and asking them to pick it apart.
But, it’s a crucial part of the writing process and something you don’t want to skip! Beta readers will help you iron out plot inconsistencies or character voices and help you make sure your reader is actually picking up what you’re putting down. To get the most out of your beta reading experience, you’ll want to take some steps to prepare.
First, I encourage you to sit down and clearly identify what you’re looking for as far as feedback. If you just send your manuscript out and say “Tell me whatever!” you don’t know what you’re going to get and you may get feedback that doesn’t help. Telling your betas that you’re worried about character arcs or worldbuilding will get you better feedback because they’ll be specifically looking at those elements. Likewise you might want to tell them what not to give feedback on. Oftentimes, I will ask my beta readers to ignore grammar or spelling because that’s something I do as final pass once I get the story sorted out. Either way, you will receive more useful feedback if you’re specific about what you’re hoping for.
You’ll also want to make sure you understand the style you want that feedback provided in. Do you need gentle feedback or do you want them to be direct. This is something you absolutely need to discuss with your beta readers. Being clear about your expectations is going to make the experience better for you and them!
The last bit of prep work is to assess when you’ll be ready to ask for feedback and when you want that feedback returned. In general, you’ll want to approach your beta readers one to two months before your expecting your manuscript to be ready for them. This will allow them to get you onto their schedule because beta-reading is a big commitment! Knowing your timeline of when you want feedback returned is also important. If you tell your beta readers to just get to it when they can, you might not see feedback for a year if you ever see it. And that doesn’t have anything to do with your writing, it has to do with life and schedules and other things taking a front row in their brains. Setting up these parameters early though will make the entire process smoother and mean you’re getting useful feedback within the timeframe you need.
When it is time to send your manuscript out, remind your betas of all of this in your email. If the beta reader isn’t familiar to you or your writing, it can also help to let them know where you are in the writing process. Is this your first draft or third? Is this the first project you’ve finished or your fifth? This can help your beta reader offer more specific feedback. I know that my early drafts always need a bit gentler feedback than my later drafts as I’m usually still working out some major kinks early on.
Our final preparation tip is to consider who you want to beta read for you and how many beta readers you want. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself by having too many people providing ideas. I would suggest keeping it between three and five. I usually like asking five people to beta read for me because, inevitably, at least two of those people will probably not finish reading because life will get in the way.
You also have to consider if you want someone you’ve been chatting with about your story or someone who’s coming in without any prior knowledge. Both are valuable. The beta reader who’s brainstormed with you or reads excerpts knows your vision and can let you know if you’re getting that message across.The unsullied beta reader will be a pair of fresh eyes and give you some great objective insight.
Alright, that’s the list of prep work to do before you send your work out to beta readers. Finding reliable betas that mesh with you and writing takes time, so keep at it!
As always, your mileage may vary! Take what helps and leave what doesn't! Comment below and tell us how many beta-readers you like to have on a project!
