New Author Series: How Do You Find Beta Readers?

I’ve received quite a few questions (more than two, I’m certain of it) from folks finishing up their first books and wondering about self-publishing. A year or two ago, the main one was “should I self-publish or seek an agent/publisher?” but there seem to be more authors these days who know they’re going to jump straight into the independent route. Given some of the impressive success stories out there (here’s a new one by an author who was losing money traditionally publishing, but who may hit seven figures in 2013 after two years of self-publishing) it’s not surprising.

So, I’m doing a series of blog posts answering basic questions for those just getting started. I hope these will be of some use to the writers in the crowd.

First up, a question I’ve  been asked to blog about by a couple of different people, where do you find beta readers?

If nobody except a couple of friends and family members have read your work, it’s a good idea to get outside feedback before assuming you’re ready to find an editor and publish that bad boy. This is especially true if we’re talking about the first novel you’ve ever written and you don’t have a track record of short story sales or any other sort of outside validation to suggest, “You’re ready, kid.”

Technically anybody can be a beta reader, but it’s wise to solicit other writers/editors who are very familiar with your genre/niche (i.e. they can spot a clunky sentence a mile away, and they’ve seen all the been-there-done-that plots, character archetypes, and cliches). Peers like these are going to be hard people to please, which is, believe it or not, a good thing. If you can get them to give your novel a thumb’s up, it might just be ready for the masses.

And where do you find these elusive souls?

If you take classes or join writing workshops, you’re going to have an opportunity to meet a lot of other writers, some of whom will specialize in your genre. Some will be serious about writing and some will already be published, independently or otherwise.

Classes and workshops will not only give you a chance to get your work critiqued, but you’ll have a chance to do the same for other people. Yes, that’s work, but it can be amazingly educational work. I’m sure I’ve learned as much from analyzing what works and what doesn’t in other people’s fiction as I have from having my stuff brutalized, erm, critiqued by others.

I have a fondness for online writing workshops myself (not only do you tend to get more honest feedback when people aren’t gazing into your hopeful eyes, but you’ll have a larger variety of folks from which to choose long-term beta readers). As a fantasy author, I’ve belonged to Critters and the Online Writing Workshop for SF, F, and H. I’m sure there are similar types of online workshops for other genres.

I’ve seen some authors pooh pooh peer-based writing workshops (blind leading the blind, grammar and sentence structure get focused on to the detriment of character/story, writing “rules” are emphasized too much, etc.), but they are, if nothing else, a good place to meet other writers. You won’t click with everybody, but you only need a couple of good beta readers to help you grow as an author and publish better stories, stories that are ready for broader audiences. I also think that if you can survive the workshop experience, you’ll feel more confident about the work you’re producing and less likely to make radical (perhaps unfounded) changes at the first sign of a negative review.

Thanks for reading, and let us know if you have any suggestions for places to find beta readers in the comments. If there are other “new author” topics you’d like to see discussed, feel free to mention those too.

 

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