Finding Your Perfect Beta Reader

By Nancy Merritt Bell

The Publishing Toolkit

First of all, hurrah for finishing your book! Crack out the champers. And cheers again for wanting your new work to have an objective, general-public, possibly non-adoring reading. It might even be worth it.

Next, round up the readers — but bypass the family and BFF reads. I actually gave Mom something of mine to read once. Her report was far less than the worship I'd expected. Mom, being a therapist, actually 'shrank' the book and its 'inappropriately aggressive' heroine. The wisdom here is a true home brew, with a view from both sides of the book jacket.

Which goes to say: your reader must be someone you trust. If you are lucky enough to belong to a writers' group, you are very lucky indeed. Such groups are built to give feedback and support. If this sounds too much like a team sport or group therapy for the ultra-private writer, let me assure you that any good group which stays together will have matured out of any big ego bite-backs.

Among my dear ones, I've found the best readers to be my mentors — including my one-time boss, an old professor, even my librarian. For one new kids' book I was editing, my librarian read it and shared it at Cozy Corner Reading Time, and while the youngsters' reports were filled with 'really really wow', my librarian could translate tot-speak into youthful and useful wisdom for the next draft.

Next stop, and not a favourite, is the professional reader. I say that having been one myself. Many colleagues crack open a new manuscript, pen in hand, ready to pour bloody-red ink. And the online beta readers you find on Fiverr and elsewhere — some for as little as $10 — can be deeply generic. My wariness grows exponentially with their almost always positive reports.

Should you still find yourself in real need of a beta reader, take yourself to your library or bookstore. Your librarian and your bookseller were born to bring good books into the world. And the final stop on the road: offer to read for another writer. Nothing will make you a better writer — both the person and the talent — than being another writer's thoughtful, caring, trusted reader.

Write on! — Nancy