What constitutes a review? (Versus a beta read)

[John]

I'm new here, and so before I post anything else I'd like to ask for clarification on one of the rules. One of the threads explaining the rules says that this place is not for reviews of published works, and I'm curious to what extent that applies. I can understand trying to focus on the group on earlier stages of the writing process, especially since other groups do focus on reviews. But does a work no longer qualify to be beta read once it is published in some form?

For example, one of the stories I want feedback on has been on Kindle for a while now. Does any feedback on that story become a review, since the work is published? If that's the case, I'd like to be aware so that I know not to request beta readers for that story.

I suspect the answer will be that published works aren't what this group is for, to avoid the potential for abuse later, but I just wanted to make sure before I posted anything. (Also, I'm not sure if this is the proper subforum, so I apologize if I mis-tagged the thread.)

[Keith]

Beta reading is to help the author _before_ the work is published, to trigger (or validate) rewrites. If you're thinking of making substantial changes and republishing (I believe some venues will allow you to replace what you initially put out there), then asking for beta readers might make sense. But if you're looking for people to write reviews, then beta reading is absolutely not what you're looking for.

[Danielle]

For me I would think that if you need a beta reader to look through your book because it isn't performing as well as you would like - it would be okay to have a beta reader on a published piece, but I would also believe you'd be taking the book down, making some edits and then republishing it in hopes that it would do better.

A review would be someone reading your published work and leaving their comments as to whether they liked/didn't like it and what aspects they liked/didn't like in one of the places that it's either available for sale, Goodreads, etc.

Hope that helps!
Danielle.

[Luralee]

What Danielle said.

I think the confusion comes when people us the word review when they mean critique. They are not necessarily the same thing. A beta read is a private critique for the author. A review, at least in this case, is public to help readers decide whether or not to read the book.