Alright ladies and gentlemen! This is it! It’s time for the massive post I’ve been promising for months that details (what I hope to be) my very successful beta reading process. The reason I’m providing this detailed and relatively formal setup is because: 1) I want this to be as smooth as possible for my own sake in analyzing the best course forward for the book, and 2) I’m a very organized type of person and I like having a plan.
Buckle up, because this is probably going to be a tad long.
First off, a quick little intro to the book in question. The title of the novel is Soulformer: The Serpent Isles. For an official synopsis of the book, you can read about that here. Also, as a little treat I’ve posted the Prologue to the book here for those who want a sneak peek at the story and my writing style.
As it currently stands, this fantasy novel sits at 44 chapters (including the prologue) and is just short of 400 pages long. I would classify it as adult or young adult (YA) fiction meant for those who enjoy magic, dragons, fun twists and turns, and likeable, relatable characters. (I also feel I need to mention this is my copyrighted work, so don’t steal it, ok? I don’t want to have to come after you. I am a lawyer after all.)
APPLICATION
With that out of the way, let’s go over how you can apply to be a beta reader. I would just like to give a big thank you for your interest! I really am flattered that you want to read this early draft of my very first novel. I expect (hope) I’ll have several people who are interested in the beta process, so I may end up doing a couple rounds depending on interest and how much work needs to be done before the book is ready.
If you are interested in applying, please email chase.gluch@gmail.com the following information:
- Name
- Age
- Gender
- Preferred email (to send you the chapters and for submitting the various questions at the end of each section)
- Facebook (if you would prefer a more back-and-forth discussion for said questions rather than a questionnaire to be filled out and emailed)
- Preferred genres of books, tv shows, and movies.
- Have you ever beta read for an author before? How was the experience and what did you learn from it?
- Do you reasonably believe you can provide the minimum feedback of one section (three chapters or 20-30 pages) per week?
- Would you prefer a PDF or Word doc version of the novel? Keep in mind, any specific suggested edits and the questionnaire may be harder to do in PDF format.
- Why do you want to be a beta reader for Soulformer: The Serpent Isles?
- Any additional questions you may have about the process, the book, me, or anything.
Once I’ve received your submission, I will let you know within several days if you’ve made it in for the first round and provide the first section to start you off.
BETA READING PROCESS
Now, on to my expectations and a little bit about how the process should (theoretically) work.
On average, each chapter of this book is around 8-10 pages long. I plan to send 3 chapters per section along with various questions regarding that section in the form of a questionnaire (which will be posted within the PDF/Word doc for that section at the very end). These questions should be answered as soon as you’re done reading so that your opinions are fresh in your mind and you can give your most honest feedback. After you have finished with the entire book, I will provide a final overall questionnaire with questions about the book as a whole.
Some questions will be the same with every section (i.e. What is your overall initial opinion of these chapters? Did you find anything confusing? What was your favorite part of each chapter in this section? etc.). There may also be some specific questions relating to that section depending on questions I personally may have about it. My hope is that these will be filled out not as one-word answers, but that you will provide a decent length answer and give me as much of your opinion as you feel comfortable giving. With that said, if your answer to ‘Are you confused about anything so far?’ is ‘This is chapter 1, I can honestly say there isn’t much I’m confused by at this point,” I’m sure that will be fine.
It’s important to me that each beta reader is as honest with me as possible. If something with the plot doesn’t work, tell me why. If you found a particular chapter boring, tell me why. I promise you I won’t be offended. The purpose behind this beta process is to let me know what works and what doesn’t with my book and I can’t do that if I’m told it is perfect when I definitely know its not. (I also wouldn’t mind knowing which parts you enjoyed so that I don’t inadvertently change it during the revision process.)
As I’m sure many of you know, I am a huge fan of Brandon Sanderson. In one of his BYU creative writing lectures, he gave some important guidelines for giving feedback. He applied them to writing groups, but I figure it’s just as easily applicable to beta readers. In it, he explains the importance of being descriptive and not proscriptive. Essentially, good feedback is describing your feelings and not offering advice for how you would write it. For example, “I was bored, and here’s why” is great feedback, while “I was bored, so you should add a fight scene” isn’t quite as helpful. If you have an extra six minutes, please check it out (or even three minutes, as the first half or so is more applicable to the giver of the feedback rather than the recipient). Brandon knows how to describe it much better than I can in a single paragraph and I think it would be helpful for this feedback process.
On to the expected timeframe. I will send out at least one section per week. If you happen to read quickly and want to read more than 3 chapters in a week, that is fantastic and I will email you as many sections as you want after receiving feedback for the previous section. I’m hoping my beta readers will be able to do more than one section per week, but one is my minimum. If you feel like you can’t really handle 20-30 pages a week and writing several paragraphs in a small questionnaire at the end, I completely understand that life is crazy, especially in these times. However, that may mean you might not want to sign up, at least at first. Even at the minimum rate of one section per week, that will be a 14-15 week process just for one round of beta reading. If that doesn’t seem feasible, I don’t want to dump more on top of your plate.
With all that being said, don’t feel like this is some super formal, uptight process. Be casual. Use gifs and emojis in your answers if you’d like. As mentioned above, if you would prefer to have an actual live chat over Facebook messenger after a section, I would love that. It allows me to ask follow up questions and to get your honest answers. I can’t promise I will talk with every single beta reader after every single section but I will do my best, especially considering that a back-and-forth can often provide the most honest and helpful feedback.
It’s also important for you to know that you can quit at any time. If you suddenly find yourself overwhelmed with other more important things, just reach out and let me know that you can’t continue with the beta reading process. Again, I completely understand that life gets crazy. If you’re still interested when things settle down, I’ll see about putting you back in to a subsequent beta round.
Phew! That was a lot of information to give in one blog post. I hope I was able to provide a somewhat clear picture into my expectations for my beta readers and I really hope it didn’t scare you off! I look forward to getting this into the hands of people other than myself to find out what I can do to make it the best story I possibly can.
With all that said, let the beta process begin!
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