By
Lorilyn Roberts
You have finished your manuscript – the first draft,
which is more than a first rough draft. It is your edited first draft. I
interpret that to be my first draft that I have edited as much as I can. That
means I don’t know what I need to fix and/or I can’t find any more errors. In
other words, I have no more objectivity. If this sounds confusing, I don’t mean
it to be. I want to emphasize you don’t want to give your manuscript to beta
readers until you have made it the best you can.
Does that mean your book is a masterpiece and ready
to be published? Hardly. It means your manuscript is as good as it will be without
input from others. Good beta readers will find the weaknesses, flaws, and
issues that need to be fixed.
One of the hardest things for me to do is to take
that first-draft manuscript and give it to someone to read when I am the only
one who has yet to read it. Part of me wants to share it and part of me
doesn’t—I want the feedback, but I also fear what others will say—suppose my
book is horrible? Even if it’s not horrible, the process is humbling.
This is the most critical stage in writing a book.
Anybody can write a first draft, but not everyone can take the risk of
submitting it to someone and then evaluate the feedback objectively—what’s
good, what’s worth considering, and what is totally “screwed up”? And yes, some
will be way off base, but I can almost guarantee you, for every ten beta
readers who read your book, you will get one or two gem readers that will amaze
you with their insight—and that’s what makes the process of beta readers
invaluable.
I offer some tips from my own experience, having
used beta readers for two books—one fiction and one nonfiction. How can you get
the most out of beta readers?
1. Have a list of specific questions you want the
reader to answer.
On my recent fiction book, Seventh Dimension – The Door, a Young Adult Christian Fantasy, an
example of a question and helpful response was the following from Hannah
Bombardier:
Did you stay
interested throughout the story until the end? If not, where did your interest
wane?
At the very beginning I had a hard time staying focused,
but I became interested when I got a couple chapters in, and my attention was
caught by the time Shale was transported to the Seventh Dimension. However, I
think that was partly because I was confused at the beginning, and I tend to be
bored when I’m confused, but your revision should help with that a lot.
Consider your
target audience and who is providing the feedback. Hannah is a teenager so I
took her feedback seriously. Obviously, I have some work to do on my beginning,
and that’s what I need to know BEFORE I publish my book.
2. Give a deadline on when you want your beta
readers to finish reading your manuscript. Some readers will give you feedback
quickly; others won’t. It will help if you give them a timeline.
3. Don’t expect beta readers to “edit your book.”
They are reading your manuscript for flaws of story. You will still need a
professional editor to fix grammar, typos, English, diction, et cetera; i.e., a
copy editor.
4. When you receive your feedback, thank the person
for his input regardless of whether you like his comments. The reader took his
precious time to give you feedback and that is a gift.
5. If you have offered something in return for the reader’s
comments, follow through quickly. In my case, I offered a $5 Amazon gift
certificate—not much, I’m a poor author, but each person will also be recognized
in my book on the acknowledgment page when published and will receive a free
Kindle copy of the book.
6. Go through each comment and evaluate what the reader
wrote. Weigh what he said and consider his feedback against the comments you
receive from others. Some comments will be contradictory; others will be
consistent. This is the value of beta readers. If one comment is consistent,
that is definitely something you need to consider.
7. Recognize that not everybody will like your book.
Those who don’t, consider why not and if there is a way to fix the issue or
issues.
8. Remember, the book is yours—you know your story
better than anyone else. Take all the feedback to heart and get busy editing,
tossing out those comments that are not useful and incorporating those that
are.
9. Where do I find beta readers? With my first book Children of Dreams, I approached the
leader of the readers’ group at my church. I had never attended any of the
meetings, so I did not know many of the readers (don’t include your mother as a
beta reader; she will love your book no matter what). Some of my best feedback
came from those readers. For my fiction book, I used the readers for the John
3:16 Marketing Network, almost all of whom I did not know. Sometimes friends
can find it hard to be objective.
10. While implementing the process of beta readers
takes more time, costs money, and requires extra work, in the end, your book
will be better because of it. Beta readers as a whole can provide valuable
feedback for authors, especially those who self-publish and do not have the
benefit of a high-fluting editor at a prominent publishing house. If you have “problems”
with the content, the readers will find them and give you the input you need
before publishing, increasing your odds of getting those five-star reviews on
Amazon.
