038: All About Beta Reading
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All about beta reading
Hi, friends, thank you for listening. And for being here. I hope you're having a great week. Before we dive into the topic of this episode, and talk about beta reading, I want to invite you to a totally free brand new training that I'm hosting. It's going to happen Tuesday, July 26, at 12pm Central Time. And it's a free training on how to write a book without losing your mind, which is what we all want, right? So you're going to learn the biggest mistakes that new writers make, myths about writing that will prevent you from making progress on your book, mindset shifts to help you overcome self doubt and procrastination. A lot of good stuff, it's going to be really fun. So I would love to hang out with you Tuesday, July 26 at 12pm Central US time, you can find the link to register for this training in the description of this episode. There is going to be a replay that sent out. But the replay is only going to be available for a couple of days. Plus, I'm doing a giveaway live on this training. So I really recommend that you attend live if you can, I would love to see you.
Okay, let's dive into beta reading. My first introduction to beta reading this is sort of funny that I'm admitting this I I'm a fan fiction reader. I'm a big just a big fan of fanfiction. And I have been for years with different fandoms and I used to be so embarrassed of that fact. Like no one knew I read fanfiction. I kept it secret. I didn't talk about it with anyone. I was mortified. I mean, the idea of me sharing publicly about it, I would have just died. And now we talk about it. I don't care. I there's some incredible fanfiction writers out there who are doing really cool stuff. And it's just yeah, I love the fanfiction world. But that was how I was first exposed to beta reading. The I started noticing that a lot of fanfiction writers would thank their betas. And so I kind of had this idea that it was something to do with editing or I don't know, giving feedback in some way. But I wasn't totally sure. So if that's where you are, if maybe you've heard this term, but you don't know exactly what beta readers do, or how to find them how to use one, then hopefully this episode will be very illuminating for you. BETA readers are think of them as test readers as the name kind of implies, right? They step in when the book is done. And they give you feedback on it. They give you comments, they give you suggestions, they give you their opinion. There are alpha readers and alpha readers come in when you're still writing, when you're still in the process of drafting. They can give you feedback on how the story is going so far the direction that things are going in. And some alpha readers will also give you ideas you can kind of brainstorm with them. But BETA readers really come in at the end. And we'll talk later about my recommendations for using beta readers and getting the most out of it. But I definitely recommend finishing the manuscript and then going through a few rounds of revision yourself before you send it to betas. I think that's the way that's a way to get the most out of working with someone and getting their feedback. So yeah, that's that's definitely something I recommend.
Okay, let's talk first of all about where to find beta readers, because I think this is something that keeps people from using betas, they're kind of unsure about how it works and where to even find these people. The good news is that social media has completely changed the game. It changed the game for writing in a lot of ways, but it's really a fantastic place to connect with beta readers to find beta readers. So whatever platform you're on the most I recommend doing a search. I'm on. So I'm on Tik Tok. Probably most often I, tiktok and Instagram are my two platforms that I'm on but I think I'm just a little bit more active on Tik Tok. So I know for sure that there are hashtags on Tik Tok related to beta reading. There's #betareader, #betareaderswanted BETA readers read us reader search blah How many times am I gonna say beta reader in this episode? I'm already getting tripped up. But you can just do a search, look at the hashtags and then see what kinds of videos are being posted. You'll get an idea of how writers are using tiktok or whatever social media platform really to get beta readers.
So I've seen writers posting videos, some videos that have come have come across my FYP, where they're saying, like, Hey, this is my book, this is little bit about the description, here's the genre any ike trigger warnings that might apply. And then just, you know, asking for beta readers. And sometimes they'll ask for a swap, say, like, you know, we can, we can swap manuscripts, if you're also looking for feedback, I can give you feedback on your book, you can give me feedback on mine, or just, hey, I'm looking for beta readers. So you can kind of get a feel for how people are doing that on on social media.
There are also tons of writing related Facebook groups, there's a website called critique circle, critique circle is not something that I've used. But I believe the way that it works is you provide feedback first. And then once you've critiqued a few pieces, or some writing, then you have an opportunity to to, you know, upload your work and have people critique it. There's also the option of just connecting with people in person, if you have a writing center or a literary center in your town, that's something that you can check out, maybe they have like a critique group or a beta reader matching programs, but definitely something to check out too. That's actually where I first got used to other people reading my work. There's a great literary Center in Nashville called the porch. And I went through this period where I was taking so many writing classes through the porch, and one of them was this kind of critique meetup. So definitely check that out. If if that's something that's available in, you know, in wherever you live. And I know that not everyone has access to that if you live in a really small town, if you live in a rural area, like of course, that's not going to be an option for everyone. But the good news for you is that you can absolutely find beta readers on social media.
Okay, let's talk about how to use beta readers, I'm gonna give you some tips for how to make the most out of working with a beta reader. And actually, before I do that, let me just say, I want to encourage you to avoid asking your family and friends or non readers to beta read for you. Most of us have a relationship, that kind of dynamic with our family or friends where they're just not going to be able to be completely honest with us, they don't want to be you know, they don't want to hurt our feelings. They're just so happy and proud of us for writing something like, it's probably not a good idea to solicit feedback from them, because they're so close to you. And it's also not a good idea to ask for feedback from people who just don't read. If you ask someone to beta for you, and they haven't read a book since high school, they're probably not going to know how to give you feedback in a way that's helpful beyond just like, I liked it. Or I didn't like this part, but I liked this. You know, and that's, that's not helpful for you.
So okay, tips for how to get the most out of working with beta readers. Tip number one is to set a deadline, make sure that you chat with the beta reader beforehand and decide on a deadline of when they're going to have the book back to you. And because I mean, this is this is true in a swap as well. But if you were just getting beta feedback from someone, and they're not asking you to read their manuscript, that's it, that's a very nice thing that they're doing, right? That's a big ask. So you want to be respectful of their time and don't ask for the beta feedback in like, you know, 48 hours, that's just not realistic for someone to do that. So make sure that you set a deadline. And that way, the benefit of that is you don't have to have this awkward, like check in where you're like, Did they forget about it? Are they still reading what's going on? And you reach out and you're like, hey, so how's it? How's it? How's it going? Are you still reading, you don't have to, you don't have to do any of that you can avoid that completely. So, set a deadline. And obviously, you know, if you need to push it back, if something comes up, of course, be flexible, but I think it's just it's helpful for both people to know when you're expecting to get their notes back.
My second tip is to ask for specifics. If you don't do this, you run the risk of getting feedback. That's very vague, like I liked this, and I didn't like this. So don't be afraid to ask them about specifics. You can say, Hey, what did you think about this plot twist that happened in chapter 22? Did this character's decision here feel believable? What did you think of the dialogue? Was it realistic in this important scene between these two characters halfway through the book, like, don't be afraid to give them specific things to look at. That's going to be helpful for them to have a list of things to keep in mind questions to answer as they're reading, and it's also going to help you get specific feedback that's going to help you in the revision process.
My third tip for beta feedback this is, it's kind of a decision to make before you decide to use a beta is to decide if you would prefer to have someone in your genre or outside of your genre. There are two different approaches. You know, writers do this differently. Some writers like to have beta readers who read a lot in their genre. Some writers like to have beta readers who are outside of their genre just to kind of get an outsider perspective. So consider which approach you want to take. And if you are working with a beta reader, and you're doing a swap, don't be afraid to send a few sample chapters to them. And they can send you a few sample chapters, and that way you can see if it's a good fit, to know if you'd be good to work together and to get feedback from this person.
The last thing I'll say about BETA readers is, I sometimes get a question about privacy and confidentiality and making sure that someone doesn't steal, you know, your your work, which I guess is a good thing to keep in mind. So one way that you can protect yourself, if you're really serious about this, and you really want to have something in place is you can have them sign a confidentiality agreement, you can just, you know, get a contract or something. Most writers don't do that. There's sort of this understanding that if you are working with another writer who's showing you their work as well, that that you're just not, it's not something you have to worry about, really, that's not something that's ever been a concern of mine, when I've shared work with other people. It's just not, you know, it'd be so easy to prove that this was my idea, like the intellectual property, I have documents on my computer files of this manuscript going back months and years, maybe. So it'd be so easy to prove that this was my idea.
But yeah, I just, I just don't think it's something you really need to worry about. If you want to set up like a meeting or do something ahead of time to kind of feel the other person out. Make sure that you're getting like trustworthy vibes from them. You can do that. But yeah, I, it's not something I really worry about very much. Okay, so hopefully that was helpful if you are thinking about getting a beta reader, if you're new to this process, give you some things to think about some actionable steps as far as like finding them. But I think using beta readers is really helpful. It helps to get feedback on our work, even though it can be hard, it can be hard to receive that feedback. But it can also really help us to get comfortable analyzing other people's work, and providing feedback to them as well.
Alright, see you next week. Thank you so much for tuning in.