Beta readers are some of the most useful and incredible people available for a writer to have on their side. These readers give incredible insight and help an author perfect the story they’ve been working on – so when do you start looking to bring beta readers in on your writing process? 

What I’ve Done

For me, I’ve gotten beta readers once I felt like the story was completely finished. I’ve written the first drafter, re-written, and revised over and over until I felt like it was the most solid I could make it on my own. After this, I open up a call for beta readers. You can either bring in trusted friends to read your work, you can open up a public call, or you can hire professionals. (If you hire a professional, note that I’m open to take clients for beta reading, as is my friend, Kristen! Kristen has beta read for both my books so far, and her feedback has been immeasurably helpful.) 

It’s important to note that you truly need to think about when you might hire your beta readers – if you bring them on too soon and you end up changing huge aspects of your story, or the story doesn’t represent what you want it to be in the end, then their feedback may largely be discarded as you take the story in a different direction.
Of course, if you bring them on too late, say, after you hired an editor, then you may find that as you make changes based off beta reader feedback, you’ll need to hire an editor a second time to catch the new mistakes.

Okay, But… Where Do I Find Beta Readers?

I’d recommend joining Twitter (I know, it’s a hellscape, but it has a really nice writing community) and making connections. People are offering to beta read all the time, and many people may read for free – but note that those you don’t hire are only compensated by knowing they helped you and got to read a book before release. For me, I always try to send my beta readers a gift – such as a sweatshirt of the book’s cover, to show them my gratitude for all their help. 

If you hire someone, you can (hopefully) expect increased quality and dedication (and even potentially a quicker turn-around time) to getting your book read and critiqued. 

Starting out, you only need a solid few. You can bring on more, but Caerule had three – three people who all gave me great feedback, that helped immensely in bringing my vision into the forefront. 

How To Manage Beta Readers

Make sure your betas are on a schedule – have set days for when things are due. For me, I did a two or three week deadline after they got the new chapters to read. This meant that some betas had a due date earlier or later than the others, depending on when they got their work done. This made it so a few people finished early, but it can also be tricky managing everyone’s different due dates.

Other authors do a set day for when chapters are due, with it being up to you if you finished sooner. This means everyone has the same due dates, with those going quicker having due dates further out. 

Work with your betas and get a time schedule that fits everyone’s schedules, and get that first round out! 

What To Ask For From Betas

Ask for notes throughout (extremely helpful) and also final thoughts at the end. This is something I’m going to do more often for my betas going forward – making sure everyone gives finishing thoughts at the end of each chapter and / or round of chapters to give me overall thoughts and feelings. This will help you get a better idea of what you’re doing right, and what needs to be improved. A rough outline of a questionnaire sheet is below – feel free to take it and use it as you need!

I’d recommend also including specific questions, such as “Did you expect the ambush?” or “How did you feel about [Character Name]’s betrayal?” Asking specific questions on scenes you’re concerned about will help you determine if you need to work on those moments more, or if you managed to get your intentions across.

Betas are an incredible source of reader insight for authors, and definitely a step I wouldn’t recommend skipping in the novel-making process. Because of my betas, Caerule is better than it was before, and I’m looking forward to learning more from them and making my craft better.

That’s all for now! Stay safe! <3