If You Beta For Me...

What's it about?

Sounds like fun! Should I PM you my email address?

Why 16 font?

OP, I'd suggest that you spend some time in the Share Your Work forum, critiquing others' work. You'll not only help other people, you will learn a lot about writing and editing your own work, and others will then be more willing to critique yours.

You might say you have no editing skills, but you can certainly give feedback on what worked for you, or what didn't, or where you got confused or bored.

Beta reading is a separate skill from editing. I wouldn't ask your betas to "be your editor" -- it puts a lot of pressure on them. Editing is a lot of work and requires a lot of skill... that's why it's a paid profession.

Beta reading is also a skilled profession, and really should be a paid one because a good beta is worth their weight in gold. While "payment" isn't required here it should always be considered for a job well-done: the usual payment is a beta read of their work, but my friends and I also like to say thanks with affordable small gifts like loose leaf tea or book gift vouchers. You could also buy and review your beta's novels, if they have some available, and help signal boost their new releases social media promotions.

Even if you can't swap, there's a ton of ways you can repay a beta reader.

Unimportant's advice and Eqb's advice about visiting SYW is also excellent.

Unimportant said:

One last bit of advice: first chapters generally change dramatically by the time the entire book has been written and is being revised. You can only know if the first chapter works when you read it as part of the whole. So DON'T STOP WRITING! FINISH THE BOOK! I can appreciate that ongoing feedback is nice, but a scrappy first chapter can always be altered. A scrappy first chapter in the first draft is not a reason to not write the book!

But, as eqb said, if you hop down to Share Your Work and help out some other authors -- read their opening scenes and let them know "I liked it!" or "I didn't understand what was happening in the tavern" or "That character seems like a real prat" -- you'll be up to 50 posts in no time, and then you can put your opening scene up and get heaps of feedback in return.

Click to expand...

Just a cheerful second to this, and I wanted to add an example. My first chapter in my first draft was awesome. It rocked. It was the bomb.

Then I finished the draft, and realized how bad my first chapter was. Sigh.

So I tore it apart, and replaced it with Draft 2's first chapter, which was kick-ass. And blew the water away from the first draft.

Then I finished Draft 2. And it's not that my first chapter is bad... it's just not quite right.

So I'm rewriting it again. And this time, it's going to rock. Then, with any luck, the draft will be done.

But I remember the hours I spent agonizing over my word choices in my first 200 words, twice. It's not that I wouldn't do it all again.. it's that I'd be a little more relaxed about it, knowing it's okay to come back and tear it apart again, and that it'll probably need to be torn apart once you get to the end and really truly know your characters and your story through and through by then.

That's how I got my post count up to 50 lol, mostly in SYW, helping as much as I am able. I haven't shared anything myself yet, but I plan on doing so when I have something I consider done to the best of my ability.

On that note, why get beta readers and critiques before going to SYW? The only understood prerequisite in SYW is that it's as good as *you* can make it(often that implies waiting six weeks or so, then going back over it, you can't really objectively edit without the wait). You might as well just share once you get 50 posts. Just put some stuff up there at an appropriate frequency(one few k word piece every few days).

When it seems like your writing style is ok/readable and some key story bits(opening, for example) are passable, that's when recruiting beta readers would benefit you most.

One cheat by the way, go into the SYW genre's and look for "Hook me in 200 words" or the first three sentence threads and you can get an idea what people will think of your style. Though it wont be completely fair since it's only the opening bit.

I did that a few times and got some awesome criticism that almost made me want to fold up shop and go home lol. That's why I come here