[Athelstone]

When should you think about asking somebody to read your manuscript? Of course, there are no hard and fast rules. Some people have readers looking at what they write as soon as the ink is dry on the opening sentences. Here’s a rule. It may not be hard and it may not be fast, but it’s probably good advice: if you are part way through your work, or you want advice on a few paragraphs or a sentence, or even a whole chapter, then you’re probably in need of a bit of quick critique. We have a forum for that, handily named Critique.

We don’t tell people what to do here in the Den. If you want to use the Critique forum, or email your friends to pass on some text, or set up a group just for your book, or none of these—that’s fine. In fact, if you’re a writer who works by feeding out a chapter at a time and asking for feedback, a group of your own may be the best plan.

However, here, in this Beta Reading group, what is expected is a bit more formal. Not much, but a bit.

You will have finished your first draft and you will have edited it to the point where you feel it’s a decent story. Now you would quite like some feedback from a whole-story reading.

Let’s be clear, there are some prerequisites. You should be as thoughtful about and respectful of your potential readers as you would be if you were submitting to an agent. So, get your manuscript into as pristine and readable a state as you can. Not everybody can handle MS Word documents, so be prepared to convert to PDF or whatever is acceptable, and check that it converts successfully.

You probably want feedback on some areas in particular. Does it flow properly? Is the plot OK without mistakes? Does the Jack and Jill romance work? Is it scary/thrilling/funny where it should be? You won’t rule anything out—it would be terrible if you asked for feedback on the prologue but missed out on the flawed denouement—but if you have concerns then help your readers and yourself by pointing them that way.

Don’t ask for feedback on your 275,000-word epic of family life across 3 generations to be returned same time next week. Don’t say 6 months when you really want 6 weeks. Don’t say 4 weeks exactly, when you’d be perfectly happy with 8 weeks. Unless you are 100% certain that your book is a supreme page-turner, you must understand that Beta Reading will probably be slower than everyday reading for relaxation and entertainment. In addition, your Beta Readers are making notes and writing you a report. They have real lives and are doing this voluntarily as a favour to you. So be reasonable. Here’s a ballpark figure. For an 85,000 word novel, maybe 1 or 2 months would be good. If a reader reports back in 2 days, well that’s brilliant. If not, then a few weeks more is reasonable. Be flexible.

Practical Matters: to ask for readers here

• Start a new topic under the name of your book
• In the topic text, include an idea of the genre, and the word count. When you correspond with the reader, you may wish to provide a brief synopsis (very brief), Don’t get hung up on this, you’re asking people to read the whole thing anyway.
• If the book contains explicit adult themes include a warning
• Give guidance on what sort of feedback you’re after e.g. any particular areas or aspects to focus on
• Give a timescale—as generous as you can bear

You are going to want to send out your manuscript by email, but otherwise the whole topic is yours. Feel free to use the thread for discussion or any other aspect of the process as you go along, or not. Whatever feels appropriate.

 

 

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