What Are Beta Readers?

(And Why Should All Novelists Use Them?)

Find out what Beta Readers do, how much they cost, and where to find them!

What is a Beta Reader?

Put simply, a beta reader is someone who will read your book before it is published and give you their opinion. Generally, they will read the whole book – so it’s best to finish your book before you start working with a beta reader. If you are interested in working with someone on a chapter-by-chapter basis – and want someone more involved as the book develops, rather than when it’s written – you might be better off with a Critique Partner. Critique partners are generally other writers, and the idea is that you will work together, critique each other’s work and keep each other accountable.

A beta reader is not a substitute for an editor or a proofreader. However, they do provide another pair of eyes that might catch any final minor trips.

Why bother?

Firstly, it may give you (the author) more confidence to push forward to the next step. Having five different people all read your book and give you a generally positive response can be an incredible boost.

Secondly, if all five of your beta readers say that a particular element of your manuscript needs work, this should alert you to the fact that you need to revise that section. If they all say you need an editor, then chances are you should employ one.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, they can be used as a final safety net to potentially catch any spelling or punctuation mistakes that may have been missed in the editing/proofreading stages. (Don’t forget, the industry standard for errors spotted in the editing/proofreading process sits at around 90% – see Is Perfection Achievable? )

However, beta reading is entirely subjective – remember that you will never please everybody!

How many beta readers to use?

There are some authors who believe you should use as many beta readers as possible. The more the merrier. This provides a bigger spread of feedback and gives you a bigger picture.

However, there is such a thing as too many opinions! Picking through the comments of five or six readers is one thing. But looking at twenty or thirty different opinions can tie an author up in knots.

You also have to be a pretty confident author to lay yourself bare to so many pairs of critical eyes.

Some authors I’ve worked with don’t use beta readers at all. They write for themselves, not to please others. They are confident in their stories. Confident in their editors. And don’t feel the need for more opinions.

Generally, it’s accepted that having between two and five beta readers seems to suit most authors.

Where to find a beta reader?

Friends and family is often a good place to start (although they might find it hard to be objective).
Writers groups on social networks like Facebook can also provide volunteers. Even better, if you attend an in-person writers group, you may find someone there who is willing to provide you with feedback.

It might be useful to try and find beta readers from the right demographic – by which I mean your target audience. If your book is aimed at young adults, maybe try to find some young adults to read it for you. That said, editors and prolific readers can often put themselves in the shoes of your target reader, and feed back accordingly.

It’s also important to find a beta reader who reads your genre. Quite frequently – particularly with romance novels – a beta reader who doesn’t read in your genre will not understand what makes a good story in that genre. What makes a science fiction book work, for example, is very different from what makes a romance book work.

What makes a good beta reader?

The most important quality you are after is honesty. You want someone who will give you honest feedback. You also want constructive feedback, not someone who will tell you that they liked the book and leave it at that. Ideally, you want someone who is an avid reader of the genre of book you have written. Someone who can compare your book with other books of a similar style.

It might sound obvious, but a beta reader also needs to provide feedback from a reader’s point of view (not from a writer’s perspective).

It’s also important to remember that most beta readers are doing an author a favour – so it’s worth being patient and kind. However, if you don’t feel like your beta reader is providing you with feedback that is constructive or useful, or if you are finding their comments too damaging, then you are perfectly within your rights to walk away and gently terminate the relationship. As with finding the right editor, it’s important to find someone whose comments you find empowering and uplifting. Of course you want their criticism, but it doesn’t need to be framed insensitively.

How to instruct a beta reader?

It’s useful to let your beta reader know what stage you are at with your book. Have you effectively finished it, and are just wanting some final confirmation that it’s worth pushing on to the next stage? Or have you literally just put the pen down on the first draft? If the ink is still wet, you will be looking for a more detailed critique – how does the plot work, are the characters believable, are there gaps, can the story be developed more slowly/more quickly?

You might want to send just a few chapters of your novel to begin with, and get a feel for how your beta reader responds, before sending them the entire manuscript.

It might be useful to give each of your beta readers a set of instructions – what are they looking for?

Do you want your grammar and punctuation critiqued, or do you know that you will be employing an editor, so want your beta readers to ignore this aspect?

Is there a part of the book that you are not sure about?

Do you want to know whether a particular character is believable?

How to be a beta reader?

If you have put your hand up to read and critique someone’s novel, there are a few things to bear in mind:

• Be sensitive. It’s likely that this novel has taken some time to write. Weeks, months, possibly even years. The writer may well have invested a lot of themselves in it. Maybe the chapters about a cancer patient were based on a relative who passed away. Maybe the sex scenes are based on their own intimate knowledge. It’s hard for an author to hand over their manuscript and ask for criticism. For this reason, although beta readers need to be honest, they also need to present their feedback in a sensitive, constructive way.
• Be constructive. It’s no good simply saying, “Yep, it was great!” or “No, I didn’t like this bit.” But adding the reasons why you liked it or didn’t like it makes a big difference.
  For example:
  – I’m not sure that the character would have behaved like this – maybe add an explanatory back story?
  – This part of the story came as a real surprise – maybe you need to build up to it a bit more?
  – Who is this person? Where have they come from? You are writing like we know them, but I have no idea who they are?
  – I loved the part where…
  – I really believed in this character, and love the way you created such a warm and caring individual.
• Be honest. There is absolutely no point putting your hand up to be a paid or voluntary beta reader if you simply tell the author what they want to hear.
• Format your feedback. The best beta readers will add comments to the actual manuscript (for example, using MS Word comments feature) to indicate specific sections that they liked or didn’t like. And they will also provide a summary outline in an email of what they liked and didn’t like, and why.

Finally, beta reading doesn’t happen over night! The readers need to have time to read the book properly, think about it and compose their feedback.