Beta Reader vs Developmental Editor

Here’s an interesting post at a blog called The Insecure Writer’s Support Group: Your Beta Reader Options

This post really starts off talking about what beta readers do and how a beta reader is different from a developmental editor.

Beta readers answer the question If I published today, what would my Amazon reviews look like?

Developmental editors answer the question What steps should I take to comprehensively improve this manuscript?

That’s a neat way of looking at it. I hadn’t thought of it that way. I’ve suggested pretty often that someone look for a beta reader or critique partner before even considering hiring a developmental editor. I still think that’s a very good idea. I think I was considering a beta reader pretty similar to an editor, but probably less focused on structure, more on personal reactions to the story. That’s the same general idea as the above, but the distinction offered by this post is more clear and pithy.

I’m willing to accept this other idea, that a beta reader isn’t an editor at all, but doing something different than an editor would do. That doesn’t change my advice, because I’ve seen a lot of self-published books that are dreadful. I hate to think of someone spending a lot of money to hire an editor when their book is basically unfixable. I think they should make sure the novel is basically a real novel that is fundamentally readable before they think of hiring an editor.

That still means a beta reader is a good first step when asking strangers to evaluate your novel, because asking, “If I published this book today, what would reader reviews look like?” is a really good idea. If reader reviews would be, basically, “Wow, I didn’t think it was possible for a book to be THIS BAD!” then that’s highly valuable information. Not that a beta reader would say that, surely. But they would hopeful communicate the information that the book should not be published.

When I say, “a lot of self-published novels are dreadful” or “a book should not be published,” I generally feel I should clarify what I mean. So, here is the description of a self-published fantasy novel currently available on Amazon:

Once just a dream, now turned into reality the young Master of the White Blades, must fight to save the world. There is always good and evil, and the struggle is just a part of that existence. Having only been a Warrior, (an ancient race born in the early years of recorded history) for a few years this young man, must deal with the responsibility of both his new found power, and life. He must learn to find a balance within the world, and himself.

Here’s how this book opens:

Before you proceed into the beginning chapter, I’d like to give a little insight to some of the places, Characters, and History found within the story. My work has many influences, personal, such as family and things I’ve experienced. It also has many references to Ancient Egypt, and other cultures. The story is meant to be a fictional account of a continuous dream, one that regularly occurred.

The Council as it is referred to many times in the book, is An Ancient foundation whose sole purpose is to protect the world from evil, in all forms. Early in their founding, (2000 BC) it was decided that they’d be led by one leader, called the Grand Master, who would have power in all the places in the Earth and any known places therein. Only the Master’s selected their predecessors, each had the sole purpose of protecting the world, and everyone in it. Each would live one-thousand years. Their power was given divinely, however that didn’t mean that no harm could befall them. In fact, only their spouses could aid them, as any blood from a human would kill them! …

And a bit more. Once we get past the author’s note, here is the first paragraph of the actual story:

The day now broke and I felt the warmth of the sun on my face, it was Sunday, Chillicothe is where I wanted to go but knew that I had to prepare for the first day of the new school year. The first year of high school! I Already had went shopping so I just grabbed one of the five outfits I had bought and lay it on top of my dresser. In doing so I ended up knocking off the one letter from the council about my training, which I had left up there some years earlier. The white wax seal shattered as it hit the floor, leaving only small traces of its self on the letter. With this clumsy event, I remembered that I still needed to find a mistress, well I guess high school is as good a place to start my search as any. I thought to myself as I picked up the bigger pieces of the wax, now littering my floor. I didn’t play sports or anything so I knew that my weekend was free, even though it was Sunday. I began to walk out the front door, when the phone rang, startling me. I darted to the phone, grabbing it up in frenzy, and clicked the power button. “Hello?” I said, in a dull voice.

So, this is what I mean when I say that a novel is dreadful or should not be published, and this is why I wince at the idea of hiring an editor before confirming in some other way that a book is worth publishing. However! Now we apparently have the option of paying a beta reader instead! Here’s how the linked post continues:

The emerging trend of paid beta reading as a service offered by professional editors strikes many writers as a smart option. Why not get a read-through from someone who knows all about how stories work, right?

Of course there’s a trend toward paid beta readers. That’s not surprising at all. The post then lists a bunch of reasons why it might be better to find a beta reader who isn’t charging a fee, although they don’t list “because your novel may not be worth publishing and so investing a lot of money into it is perhaps not the best idea. Or … they kind of do list that, like so:

Nonprofessional beta readers help you stave off premature editing. By offering you early feedback on high-level issues, they keep you outside the professional ecosystem until you’ve more thoroughly revised at the story level, allowing you to refine your book before paying for professional time and services.

That’s in the same ballpark.

Here’s a post that looks pretty good to me: Beta Readers: The Good, the Bad, and Where to Find Them

This is a solid post that suggests places to find beta readers, tips for thinking about advice from beta readers, and suggested questions to help guide beta readers to give you the feedback you’re looking for. That’s questions such as

Was the timeline clear? Did you always know roughly when you were?

Which is crucial for me in Silver Circle because the timing was so hard to work out, you may recall, that I added “dawn on the eighteenth” and “noon on the eighteenth” to the chapter headers during revision. I may or may not take those out, but I sure was asking beta readers about those headers and whether there was any problem keeping track of when they were.

Here’s another suggestion:

Did the end feel satisfying or unfinished?

And that’s certainly important. A lot of the time, I’m confident of my endings. Sometimes, less so. I’ve sometimes heavily revised endings multiple times until it felt right. I did about half a dozen iterations of the ending of Tasmakat — I mean the very last chapter. It’s a short chapter, but obviously very important. It took me some time to nail it. I was happy with it and confident about it before that book went out to early readers.

Another was the ending of Shines Now. Commenter EC was an early reader for that one and the only thing I specifically remember about her feedback was a suggestion that the ending didn’t feel quite finished, particularly with regard to a specific element. That was really useful feedback and I revised the ending and was significantly happier with the final version. That’s why I remember this so clearly — because endings are important and that feedback made a significant difference.

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