Beta Readers, Part 2: How Authors Can Maximize Their Value

Authors understand (or should) the incredible value of good Beta readers. Getting early feedback on your characters, plot, and pacing can make any novel or story better. But how can an author maximize the value of your volunteer Beta readers? What can authors do to create great Beta readers?

My fellow authors, all the previous month's information will help your Beta readers do a great job for you, without you having to do any more work. If they do it, then you’re lucky and should shower them with swag and praise, but not every Beta reader will read that article, and not every Beta reader will take the time and effort to give you perfect feedback. So, what can you do to help them and make the process as productive and helpful as possible? Let’s count off a few:

By: Kevin G. Chapman

Develop a long list of readers. Easier said than done, of course, but try to cultivate as many Beta readers as you can. Don’t rely on three or four. If half of them fail to give you comments, or give you unhelpful comments, you have to either start over or go without. If you have 12 Beta readers, you need good comments from only half of them to be in good shape. You probably don’t want to send out Beta reader drafts to 40 people, since processing all the comments would drive you insane, but a dozen is a good number.

How do you get Beta readers? You get them by making connections with readers and by asking. Ask your social media followers, readers who reach out to you, fellow authors you know and respect, members of reading groups, etc. Find people who will give you honest feedback, but don’t make them do all the work, help them! Have proper expectations about what you want from them.

Let your Beta readers know when the manuscript will be ready. Your readers have lives of their own. Just because they volunteered to help, doesn’t mean they can drop everything on a moment’s notice and devote all their attention to your book. Let them know approximately when you think the manuscript will be ready for Beta, and try to stick to it.

If you need to push back the expected delivery time, give as much advance notice of that as you can. An email saying that you expect the Beta draft to be ready in about "X" weeks is great, it builds your Beta readers’ expectations and lets them plan for the time needed to read your book. It’s also a great time to post that same note on your social media platforms to recruit more Beta readers.

Give your Beta readers plenty of time to return their comments, but also set a deadline. You love your story and want to get it Sinished, but remember, it’s a good idea to step away from your story for a while so you can see it with fresher eyes when you go back to start revisions. It’s not a bad thing to put the draft on a shelf for a month or more while your Beta readers are preparing their feedback.

Don’t rush them. If you want good comments from many Beta readers, you need to be patient. Four-to- six weeks is a good time frame. Make sure to set a deadline. Most people work best if there is some end point. If you make it open-ended, you’ll never be Sinished. You are doing your Beta readers a favor by giving them a Sirm “due” date, as long as there is enough time.

Don’t be afraid to send out a reminder half-way through the review period, to nudge your readers and remind them of your deadline. If they’re working on it already, no harm done. If they haven’t started yet, they may welcome the reminder. They volunteered already, so they won’t be offended. If it turns out they can’t do it and have to decline, at least you’ll know now.

Send your manuscript in Word or other editable text format. You want comments? Make it easy for your Beta readers to write them. Don’t send a .pdf or EPUB Sile and expect your Beta readers to make notes in a separate document or (gasp!) on a pad of note paper. Allowing your Beta readers to write their notes directly in your text document will make their lives easier. It will also help you work on revisions, since the notes will be located near the text that has issues.

Tell your Beta readers what you want! Feel free to use last month's information about how to be a great Beta reader and send it along with your manuscript text. (Or send the link to the article!) Let them know what you want and don’t want. Make it easy for them. And be sure to let them know that you want brutally honest comments.

And, to help even more...

Embed questions in your text if you want your Beta readers to give you speciSic feedback about speciSic things, in addition to whatever other helpful observations they may make on their own. Ask whether the reader is satisSied with the pacing after chapter 10. Ask whether they are sufSiciently engaged, whether they have an opinion about who killed Aunt Mae, or whether they are bored with the description of the cruise ship.

If you have concerns, ask for speciSic feedback. Embed those questions in the text of the story you send to your Beta readers, and encourage them to give you feedback right there in the document. Here’s an example from the Beta reader draft of my most recent novel, "Dead Winner", about halfway through the story. (The number “5” indicates that this is the 5th embedded Beta reader question point in the text, which helps me keep the responses organized.)

5. We’re about at the halfway point:

A. How do you feel about the pacing of the story? Is it moving along well and you’re surprised that you’re already nearly halfway through? Or is it dragging and you wish you had more information about the main plot?

B. Do you care about Rory and Monica and what will happen to them?

C. Have you had changes in your guesses about what really happened?

D. Do you think you know what really happened and how it’s going to come out at the end?

E. Is there any information you wish you had, that you’re waiting for? Or are you satisIied with the amount of information you have and you are having fun trying to Iigure it out?

Provide a feedback questionnaire at the end. Again, if you want feedback about speciSic points or issues, ask for it. Create a questionnaire to plug in at the end of the text. By doing this, you’ll get feedback on speciSic questions (along with any embedded questions) from all your Beta readers. You can then compare and contrast the feedback to get an overall view of how your readers reacted to the story. Here’s a sample from the questionnaire I put at the end:

Chapter One

Hanging threads and missing connections -- is there anything that seems like a loose end? Anything that comes up during the story that is never connected back later? Any information that you wish you had, but never got? Any logical leaps that are not properly explained?

When you get back Beta reader comments, you can create a spreadsheet with the speciSic questions you asked and the answers/feedback provided by each Beta reader. When all your feedback is logged, you will see how your readers agreed or differed in their comments. This is hugely valuable as you decide whether (and how) to rewrite or revise your story. Interact with your Beta readers. If you have a question about something one of your Beta readers wrote, reach out to them and have a chat about it. Your Beta readers will be thrilled to have a real-time discussion about something they felt strongly enough about to put into their comments. Probe them a little bit to mine additional feedback, if you think it will be helpful.

But (and this is critical), don’t argue with your Beta readers or critique their critique. Don’t be defensive. You’ll never get them to be a Beta for you again if you make them feel that their hard work was not fully appreciated and taken in the constructive spirit in which it was intended. If you want to disregard their notes, that’s up to you. You’re the author, after all. But don’t argue or complain. Take it like an author.

Thank your Beta readers. First, acknowledge receipt of their comments, and after reviewing them, follow-up with a speciSic thank-you note in which you call out particularly helpful observations or comments. Make each Beta reader feel that they made a valuable contribution to your process (because they did!).

Call out anything you speciSically plan to revise in response to their comment (even if several readers had the same comment). Make them want to Beta read your next book by appreciating their efforts. Then, make sure to list them in the "Acknowledgements" section of your Sinal book. People love to see their name in print. (But ask Sirst, to make sure they want to have their name in your published book. Some people don’t.)

Send them a book!! Your Sinal “Thank You” to your Beta readers is to send them an autographed paperback of the Sinished book which they helped to develop. (Again, ask Sirst, since some people don’t want more paperbacks on their limited shelf space.)

Your readers will likely read the Sinal book to see how it changed from the Beta reader draft.

When they see something they helped Six, they will be very proud. They will also be very willing to post a review for you, so get them an early author copy with instructions on how to post a review. You can also send along extra swag, like bookmarks or stickers they can give out to their friends when they brag about how they were a Beta reader for your great book, and how they pointed out a Slaw in your plot that you Sixed in the Sinal version.

You just created a marketing partner and a social media stream. Nice job.

We love our Beta readers. We cultivate them and appreciate them. If we can all do better–as Beta readers and as authors–we’ll all end up with better books.

Now, that’s a happy ending.