8 Feedback Questions For Non-Fiction Manuscripts

This week, I sent my latest project off to beta readers for feedback. While I’ve done this multiple times now, this is the first time I’ve sent out an MS that is a work of non-fiction and it made me wonder about the type of feedback I’ll get and how I’ll use it to approach my edits.

With fictional books, you get told what characters are good, if the plot twist worked, if the action scenes were confusing, and a multitude of other feedback that’ll further shape that story when you edit.

For non-fiction, I didn’t need to know any of that because none of those writing elements feature in the book.

This got me thinking about feedback questions for non-fiction manuscripts, and how good ones can help a beta nail their feedback, while also giving the writer what they need to finish their MS to the best of their ability. With that in mind, here are some suggested questions for anyone working on a non-fiction MS.

8 Feedback Questions For Non-Fiction Manuscripts

Whether you’ve worked with the beta readers giving you the feedback before, or you’ll be giving your MS to someone totally new, having some prompts helps everyone.

It guides even the most experienced or new beta readers about what to keep an eye out for when reading your work, and should help them focus on what they’ve just read.

You don’t want to complicate or overwhelm anyone, so stick to a set amount of questions, keep them simple, and keep them relevant for the feedback that will be most important to you as the writer.

1. What Did You Think Overall?

This question obviously works for the end of a read, but giving it to your betas before they start their feedback will help them keep the question in mind. Then, when they’ve read the entire manuscript and this is the first feedback question they have to think about, it should be an easy answer.

Asking them to give their overall thoughts should also help them sort what they’ve just read in their mind, opening their feedback flow up for the other questions that follow.

Let them know that this question can also be answered as detailed as they like, or with a few summary sentences.

2. What Was Confusing?

Even non-fiction info can be confusing if there’s just too much of it at once, or if you’ve done a poor job of explaining said info. It may make sense to you as the writer, but if a beta flags any section of your non-fiction MS as confusing, take a closer look and make sure you have everything written as clearly as it can be.

3. When Did You Stop Reading?

Asking a beta to let you know when they stopped reading is a good way to pick up on any pacing issues, which can still occur in non-fiction books.

If betas let you know that they stopped in natural places, such as the end of a section, or when a specific topic covered in the book came to a close, that should be a sign that things are fine.

If they tell you they stopped halfway through a section because it wasn’t holding their interest, or that the last 6 chapters had become too repetitive with the info, you know to use your next round of edits to address those issues and see where things can be improved/trimmed.

4. What Piqued Your Interest?

If everyone points out the same sections, you know what’s working. If sections you thought were the most interesting aren’t being mentioned, it’s an invitation to explore if you’ve kept them because they work for the good of the MS, or if you like the topic too much and it should be edited down or cut.

5. What Did You Like?

This is where you’ll ask your betas to let you know which section of the book they liked the best—such as the way you gave them tips, the graphics, or a summary section at the end of every chapter.

Knowing what worked well can help you further highlight those features in your next edit.

6. What Did You Dislike?

Now is the time to be brave and ask your betas if there was any of your MS that they disliked. This could be a section that read as if it was out of place with the other text, or could be a section in your work where the tone of your MS comes across as too preachy.

Knowing what doesn’t work means you can fix any issues before submission or publication.

7. What Did You Expect?

If you’re handing your MS over to betas, they should already have an idea about what the content is about.

After they’ve read it, it’s feedback gold to ask them if the book meets their expectations.

Ask if it covered the topics they were expecting, if they wanted/expected more info on any topic, and if the book could benefit from including a topic that wasn’t covered.

Knowing what readers expect from your book and delivering it is the result that you want. If feedback is saying readers thought your book on Writing Routines didn’t give them any useful Writing Routines to follow, you need a serious rewrite.

8. What Would You Cut?

The last question to ask your beta readers is entirely optional, but one that can help you edit out any author blind spots. After writing and editing countless drafts to get your book to a beta reader level, there are bound to be sections that should have been cut, but you never did.

It happens to us all. We cling onto what we think is the right info, not seeing that we’ve covered it better in other chapters, or that it’s no longer as relevant in the fifth draft of the MS as it was in the first.

Luckily for you, beta readers don’t have those rose-colored glasses we authors develop about our own work and can tell you what needs to be cut, so ask away, and consider their answers (if any) thoroughly before doing what needs to be done and making the cuts.

With these feedback questions, you’ll provide your beta readers with the right prompts to cover their thoughts and opinions on your manuscript. This in turn should help you take that feedback into edits and create the non-fiction book you set out to achieve!

— K.M. Allan

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