Writing Advice: Beta Readers

It occurred to me a lot of my advice comes down to “ask beta readers” However that advice isn’t good if you’re unsure of how to ask for help from beta readers so hopefully, this article should help you.

There are many different ways of asking beta readers for help. The most obvious one is by casting a large net and seeing who you get. There are writing groups and circles all over the internet where you can do this. I use Facebook and Discord as my main sources for beta readers. Whenever I cast my large net, I typically am just looking for what the average reader's opinion of my book is. I just want to see what others have to say. I’ll jot down anything that multiple readers stated and go from there. For instance, in my first book, it was very common to hear that my main character wasn’t well-liked, so I had to fix him. However, it was also common to hear one of my other characters was extremely well-liked, so I didn’t have to do anything to her.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to cast a large net, but only for your target audience. These readers will give you more details on your stories as they’re aware of the tropes, and the genre you're writing about. I would pay attention to these readers opinions a bit more as they’re your target audience. These people are the ones you want to read your final product and if they aren’t enjoying it now, you might need to figure out what’s going on. Personally, I would first cast an overall net, see who you get for your first couple rounds of editing, and then make your net smaller with each throw. After your non-target beta readers are done, recast, but for your target audience instead.

People often ask, how many beta readers do you need and the answer is as many as you think. Some people get hundreds of readers, while others only get twenty. It’s hard finding people to read your story for free, so I always try to offer swaps. If someone reads my story I’ll read theirs. Keep in mind if you give your story to one hundred people, only ten might finish it, and another ten might get halfway. That’s not to say your writing is bad as plenty of factors might make someone not finish your story. Factors such as, they have a busy life and forgot or your story wasn't interesting. I always keep a list of whom I gave my story and ask them in a couple months how was the story? I only do this once as I don’t want to pester them, but I understand life happens and they might’ve only read a couple of chapters.

The biggest fear when handing out your book to random people is “Are they stealing my story?” While the answer you’ll get online is “no” the truth of the matter is, you won’t know. Always keep every version of your story, even after completing it. If you can, keep the messages and details of the people you give your stories to. That way, after you release your story, if someone goes up to you and says “Your story sounds a lot like ___” you’ll have receipts of it not being the case. Also, make sure to date your versions as well. While the chances of someone stealing your unfinished story and finishing it themselves are small, it’s safer to protect yourself by doing the small things just in case. I also tend to talk to my beta readers beforehand, to get to know them. This seems like a weird thing, but I rather give my book to someone I was able to have twenty messages with instead of three.

Beta readers are also good just for small things instead of reading your entire story. If you really need help with a certain character, a trope, or anything else. You can ask beta readers who are good at helping you with that. Let’s go with this example, you struggle to write relationships and you really want to know if this relationship is good or not. You can ask beta readers who love romances and then give them the chapters you want that are about romance. Sometimes they might ask for a bit more chapters if you give too little and that’s fine. If you just need another pair of eyes, asking people to be your second pair of eyes is fine.

Those seconded pair of eyes don’t have to be your target audience either. Someone who doesn’t care for fantasy but likes romance can help you with the romance section of your story if that’s what you need help with. If you want to know how the first ten chapters go, just ask people if they’re willing to read the first ten chapters. This is what I mean by casting a smaller net with every cast. Do one or two big nets for the average opinion, then recast for your target audience, and then keep casting for individual sections of your story.

“What about professional beta readers?” Professional beta readers are great and you don’t have to find ones who are just your target audience. If they’re worth their weight, they’ll help you even if you give them a story they might typically not read. You’re paying them for a service and they’ll give you more advice than any normal beta reader. I understand people go with “You don’t have to pay beta readers” but sometimes it’s not a bad thing. If you pay for a professional beta reader, it’s more likely they’ll finish your story because if they don’t you can kind of ruin their name by going to other writers and being like “Don’t pay for this person's service, they’ll take your money and run.” So professional beta readers are way more likely to finish your story and give you better feedback so you can give their name to other writers who are also looking for beta readers.

For professional beta readers, always use them to their fullest. Ask them what their strengths are, and have them focus on that. If they’re good at visualising your world, ask them to focus on the imagery, world-building, and lore. If they love well-written characters, ask them to focus on your characters. Professional beta readers are often quicker to return your story, as well. My advice, ask these people for help after you’ve gone through a few rounds of normal beta readers. While they’re great, if your story is rough, and you know it’s rough then all they’ll tell you is that your story is rough. (That’s fine if you need help figuring out how to make your story smoother) but giving them a story that’s gone through the rounds a few times, will make them focus on more smaller aspects, aspects other readers missed.

Not all beta readers are good. Sometimes you might get a beta reader who really doesn’t like your story and tears it to shreds. It happens. I once had a beta reader who criticised me to hell and back saying the military in my dragon story wasn’t realistic...sir...it’s a story about talking dragons, of course, it wasn’t gonna be realistic. The guy went on to complain saying it’s clear the only thing I knew about the military was because I played Call of Duty and again...sir...I was in the military and this story was a response to me being in the military...huh? Safe to say, I didn’t take that guy’s advice. That might happen to you. Someone reads your story and really doesn’t like it, it sucks but it happens.

Jot down everything good and everything bad a beta reader gives you. You shouldn’t change everything based on everyone's feedback, but pay more attention if something is coming up multiple times. I saw this advice going around and I liked it. “Beta readers can’t tell you how to fix your book, they can only tell you how they feel about it” This rule doesn’t apply to paid beta readers as oftentimes you can hire them as editors later but I digress. If you have several beta readers who feel like something is off with your main character, you might want to look them over again, but if one person complains about the military in your dragon story, feel free to give that one a skip. The same advice goes if multiple beta readers enjoy a certain element in your story but one person doesn’t, listen to your masses.

Keep a record of beta readers who not only enjoyed your story but also ones you vibe with. Having the same person go over your story, or multiple stories is great because they can pick up on things others might’ve missed. After all, after reading a few of your stories they can start picking up on your writing style. I always try to offer something in return for anyone who’s been a multiple beta reader for me. I’ll try to keep these people for the last bunch of beta readers you need. After your story has gone through a few rounds of editing, and it’s a bit smoother, asking someone familiar with your works to help point out any boulders on your smooth road that others might’ve missed is great and these people are the only ones who can see those boulders because they’re familiar with your story and you.

If you’re writing a multiple-series story, should you only find people who read your first one to be your beta readers? If you can, that’ll be great, but let’s say, one hundred people read book one, tracking down all one hundred people isn’t possible, and you might only find sixty, then only ten of those people might complete book two in it’s beta forum. This is where returning beta readers come in handy but you can’t expect to have many of those. What I do is I create a small section at the beginning of my story explaining what happened in the previous book so that everyone who is helping me with book two and who might’ve not read book one can get an overall idea of what’s going on.

I think that’s about all of the advice about beta readers I can give for now. Beta readers are great. When it comes to writing, there’s no right or wrong way to write and there's no right or wrong way of how to read or enjoy a story. Beta readers are great at expressing their feelings and opinions but keep in mind, they aren’t editors. If all you need is someone to express their opinion on your story or go over a couple of things, beta readers are great, but if you need more detailed help, then you’ll need editors, mainly in the development side of things but that’s advice for another day.