Beta Readers

How to make the most of this invaluable resource

After a few drafts (at least 2 or 3), when you think your novel is almost there, but you're not quite sure if everything is working how you want it to, it's time to find some beta readers.

Beta readers are able to see your novel in a way you aren't - with fresh eyes, wholly unaware of all the edits, the shifting around of chapters and scenes, the deleting and reinstating of characters that you have been busy with for months (or years). They are able to read it as you want all your readers to read it - as an entirely new story.

We all know how impossible it is to edit our own work. We're too involved. We can't at all distinguish between different drafts. Have these characters already met? is one question I always ask myself after a serious edit or twelve. I chop and change and rewrite and then wonder, do these two people know each other yet or was that in draft 2 or draft 4?

Each beta reader (I think five is a good number) is there to give you honest feedback. But they are not editors. They are not there to check every line and character arc, to make sure all your clues (if it's a murder mystery) are well hidden or that your dialogue is formatted correctly. They are not checking your use of similes or whether you've overwritten a sub-plot or have changed tone half way through.

What they are there to do is see if generally your book works (do they like it?) and to answer a handful of specific questions - the things that you worry about when you type The End.

Don't bombard them with a great long list. If you have lots of questions, you're not ready for your beta readers yet. Write another draft first. And then send it out to them with just four or five questions to work with.

And remember, you're not writing by committee. You don't have to take each and every beta reader's comments on board. What you do have to do is listen out for the same comments. If everyone has doubts about the chemistry between two characters, then you need to do something about that. If only one does, you don't need to change it at all. Know your story and have confidence in your writing.