A Guide to Beta Reading (for Beta Readers) | Part 1

“What are trying to say?” Probably the comment I got the most.

As I finish my first novel, I sent out the first few chapters to some friends – both writers and strictly readers. This is incredibly different than the experience I had when I was working in my university’s newspaper.

In the newsroom, it was: “Make the damn change or you’re not getting published!” (Which I was on either end of.) But now, I have differing opinions and different levels of feedback.

What is a beta reader?

A beta reader is someone who reads a story during the editing process (usually between the writer’s self-edit and before the professional edit). Trends in feedback:

1. help the writer understand what a reader’s perspective is on the story,
2. allow writers to get answers about their stories,
3. tell writers whether their vision has been understood and,
4. let the writer know what response (from readers) they should expect.

But more importantly, it helps the writer understand why readers feel the way they do about the story.

Expectations

I have offered to beta stories in the past just because I wanted a free book… if that’s what you are looking for, go to the library or Wattpad or Live Journal or AO3. Or! Check out my short stories!Stories that are at the beta reading stage are most likely riddled with typos, plot holes, perspective issues, etc. – especially if you are beta reading at the earlier stages. If you hate such issues and they take you out of the experience, then, this might not be for you.

Next: the guidelines. If a writer knows what they’re doing, they’ll ask you specific questions about their story. All they need is for you to answer. They don’t need a line edit or to be told that their writing is a hot mess they should give up on. Even I have made the mistake of line editing a book for someone in the Twitter writing community (though I asked her in advance whether she would mind receiving those comments before I sent them to her). If a writer has to delete a scene or rework a whole chapter, telling them they have grammatical errors is not going to help.

You might be thinking, “It’s not the same; I write stories!” Or, “I’m excellent in assignment writing!” Or, “I was the best in my English class.” I’m sorry to say that isn’t the crux of it. What writers need is for you to help them the way they asked to be helped. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t offer extra help but there’s a reason why they have asked you for the things they have. 

I have asked different things from my beta readers. To some, I specified clarity of the prose, to others plot structure. Some gave me more than I asked. Sadly, some of that (surprise) help I had to ignore because it became irrelevant or because I knew exactly what rules I was breaking and was doing it on purpose.

BTW if a writer asks you your age, gender, preferred genre, etc., they are not being weird. They just want to know your demographic to contextualize your feedback.

Beta reading steps

Everyone does it their own way and some things will work better for others. Just know yourself and what you can do. However, we can all agree that there are some crucial points to beta reading. You need to comprehend the text, give feedback and be able to explain your feedback. Easy right? I wish. *sighs*

Here are the next parts which will include a more in-depth step by step to beta reading, suggested question to round off your comments, don’ts, do’s, and what you can expect after you have given your feedback:

[A Guide to Beta Reading (for Readers) Part 2: a Step by Step]

[A Guide to Beta Reading (for Readers) Part 3: the Don’ts, Do’s and, What Happens After]