Good morning, Readers!
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You've finished your manuscript. It's all shiny and new, and after months of feeling like crap about it, you finally feel accomplished. It's your baby. Now it's ready to be published!
No. No, it's not. It's not even close.
You need beta readers.
Luckily for you, beta reading is done for free. But it does take time and patience and some toughening up. Here are some things that I try to keep in mind when I send stuff off to beta readers.
The first is to find beta readers that you trust to do the job well. You'll want honest, helpful people. As tempting as it is, you don't want people who will just gush meaningless praise all over your manuscript. I know I always get extremely suspicious. The point of beta reading is to improve. You can't do that if you consistently surround yourself with hapless sycophants. By the same token, you don't have to put up with people who offer nothing more than, "this is crap." Beta readers don't exist to take you down a peg. Their job is to take your writing and point out things that do and don't work.
It may take some shopping around. You might have a bad experience or two. The hunt is worth it. A good crew of beta readers will really help forge you into a better writer. I know I owe mine everything. So, do the work, find your crew.
Once you've found your beta readers, there are some courtesy things that I feel are important. Try to ensure that your manuscript is as clean as possible. I'm terrible at self-editing, so I struggle with this one. I still try to make sure that there are as few spelling and punctuation errors as I can before sending it off to my beta readers. There are two reasons for this.
One, readers can often be distracted if the errors are too many or too egregious and they stop concentrating on the things they're supposed to be concentrating on and focus on the things that don't matter at this stage of the manuscript's life. I would much prefer they concentrate on ensuring the story/characters/timeline/whatever.
The other reason is that I think it's just good manners.
To achieve this I do three editing passes myself before I feel the manuscript is decent enough to be sent off to others. I put the thing away for a couple of weeks and work on something else. Then I edit it, put it away again, and edit it again. Somewhere in those three edits, I take the time to have the computer read the text back to me. It is so helpful to me to hear the thing out loud. It's not fool-proof, but it helps.
Once you've edited your manuscript, it's time to send it off into the world for criticism. Gulp.
This is not easy. I struggled with it a lot my first few times. There are some things you will have to practice if you're going to get through this stage with any grace whatsoever.
The first thing to practice is patience.
Patience.
I'm terrible at it. However, you have to remember that your beta readers have lives and projects of their own. And their doing you a huge favour by agreeing to take on your book. Don't expect to receive word of their thoughts on your manuscript any time soon. You might be anxious to send the book out to agents and publishers, but rushing the beta process will almost always guarantee failure at the submission stage. Give your beta readers the space to work.
If you have a deadline, let them know before you send the book to them, and don't get upset if it's too tight for them and they have to decline. A month is usually a reasonable deadline, but be prepared to give them more. These are volunteers, not your slaves.
I know it's tough. My first few times, I had to fight hard to resist the urge to send follow-up emails every week after sending of a manuscript.
The worst part is, that's not even the worst part. That comes when the feedback arrives in your inbox.
Criticism is hard, even if it's done gently and with the most tact in the world. It can feel deeply personal, whether it is or not, especially since you've poured so much time and effort and soul into your manuscript. It took me longer than it should have to be able to separate self from work when accepting criticism on my manuscripts. Sometimes I still get a little wounded when reading criticism, but I've developed the ability to pull back and get a grip when I feel that coming on.
You will have to find that same distance. Your manuscript is not you, and criticisms of that manuscript are not criticisms of you. It's easier said than done, but if you want to improve your craft, you're going to have to find a way.
To that end, flipping out at a beta reader for any of their notes is an enormous no-no. Don't do it. Lashing out because you're feeling wounded over a criticism is a quick way to lose a beta reader... or many, if your readers know one another. You might vehemently disagree with their notes, and that disagreement may even be free of ego, but emailing or calling a beta reader to tell them they're wrong is a really stupid idea. Don't do it.
That doesn't mean you absolutely must agree with them, either. You can disagree with a beta readers note/s. If that's that case, all you have to do is ignore it. Do take the time to think on it thoroughly. If you still feel the note has little merit, you can absolutely ignore it. It's your manuscript. You may do whatever you wish with it.
A good rule of thumb for ignoring or accepting notes is this: if multiple readers have the same or similar notes, it's a problem and you really should change it. That happened recently with my Soldier manuscript. All three readers made the same note at the same spot. I definitely needed to change it up.
Your manuscript is something you should be proud of. You've written a book. Not everyone can say the same. Not even everyone who has tried can say they've succeeded. It's a huge accomplishment, and you should be proud.
Now you must set aside your pride, and ask for help to make this manuscript the best it possibly can be. You must accept that help, and try to do so with grace.
And once you've received that help, make sure you thank those who have helped you. They've gone out of their way to try and help you succeed. They didn't have to.
This is the end of my beta reading serial. Is there anything else you want me to write about? Let me know in the comments below. Until then, I have work to do.
Ciao!
No. No, it's not. It's not even close.
You need beta readers.
Luckily for you, beta reading is done for free. But it does take time and patience and some toughening up. Here are some things that I try to keep in mind when I send stuff off to beta readers.
The first is to find beta readers that you trust to do the job well. You'll want honest, helpful people. As tempting as it is, you don't want people who will just gush meaningless praise all over your manuscript. I know I always get extremely suspicious. The point of beta reading is to improve. You can't do that if you consistently surround yourself with hapless sycophants. By the same token, you don't have to put up with people who offer nothing more than, "this is crap." Beta readers don't exist to take you down a peg. Their job is to take your writing and point out things that do and don't work.
It may take some shopping around. You might have a bad experience or two. The hunt is worth it. A good crew of beta readers will really help forge you into a better writer. I know I owe mine everything. So, do the work, find your crew.
Once you've found your beta readers, there are some courtesy things that I feel are important. Try to ensure that your manuscript is as clean as possible. I'm terrible at self-editing, so I struggle with this one. I still try to make sure that there are as few spelling and punctuation errors as I can before sending it off to my beta readers. There are two reasons for this.
One, readers can often be distracted if the errors are too many or too egregious and they stop concentrating on the things they're supposed to be concentrating on and focus on the things that don't matter at this stage of the manuscript's life. I would much prefer they concentrate on ensuring the story/characters/timeline/whatever.
The other reason is that I think it's just good manners.
To achieve this I do three editing passes myself before I feel the manuscript is decent enough to be sent off to others. I put the thing away for a couple of weeks and work on something else. Then I edit it, put it away again, and edit it again. Somewhere in those three edits, I take the time to have the computer read the text back to me. It is so helpful to me to hear the thing out loud. It's not fool-proof, but it helps.
Once you've edited your manuscript, it's time to send it off into the world for criticism. Gulp.
This is not easy. I struggled with it a lot my first few times. There are some things you will have to practice if you're going to get through this stage with any grace whatsoever.
The first thing to practice is patience.
Patience.
I'm terrible at it. However, you have to remember that your beta readers have lives and projects of their own. And their doing you a huge favour by agreeing to take on your book. Don't expect to receive word of their thoughts on your manuscript any time soon. You might be anxious to send the book out to agents and publishers, but rushing the beta process will almost always guarantee failure at the submission stage. Give your beta readers the space to work.
If you have a deadline, let them know before you send the book to them, and don't get upset if it's too tight for them and they have to decline. A month is usually a reasonable deadline, but be prepared to give them more. These are volunteers, not your slaves.
I know it's tough. My first few times, I had to fight hard to resist the urge to send follow-up emails every week after sending of a manuscript.
The worst part is, that's not even the worst part. That comes when the feedback arrives in your inbox.
Criticism is hard, even if it's done gently and with the most tact in the world. It can feel deeply personal, whether it is or not, especially since you've poured so much time and effort and soul into your manuscript. It took me longer than it should have to be able to separate self from work when accepting criticism on my manuscripts. Sometimes I still get a little wounded when reading criticism, but I've developed the ability to pull back and get a grip when I feel that coming on.
You will have to find that same distance. Your manuscript is not you, and criticisms of that manuscript are not criticisms of you. It's easier said than done, but if you want to improve your craft, you're going to have to find a way.
To that end, flipping out at a beta reader for any of their notes is an enormous no-no. Don't do it. Lashing out because you're feeling wounded over a criticism is a quick way to lose a beta reader... or many, if your readers know one another. You might vehemently disagree with their notes, and that disagreement may even be free of ego, but emailing or calling a beta reader to tell them they're wrong is a really stupid idea. Don't do it.
That doesn't mean you absolutely must agree with them, either. You can disagree with a beta readers note/s. If that's that case, all you have to do is ignore it. Do take the time to think on it thoroughly. If you still feel the note has little merit, you can absolutely ignore it. It's your manuscript. You may do whatever you wish with it.
A good rule of thumb for ignoring or accepting notes is this: if multiple readers have the same or similar notes, it's a problem and you really should change it. That happened recently with my Soldier manuscript. All three readers made the same note at the same spot. I definitely needed to change it up.
Your manuscript is something you should be proud of. You've written a book. Not everyone can say the same. Not even everyone who has tried can say they've succeeded. It's a huge accomplishment, and you should be proud.
Now you must set aside your pride, and ask for help to make this manuscript the best it possibly can be. You must accept that help, and try to do so with grace.
And once you've received that help, make sure you thank those who have helped you. They've gone out of their way to try and help you succeed. They didn't have to.
This is the end of my beta reading serial. Is there anything else you want me to write about? Let me know in the comments below. Until then, I have work to do.
Ciao!
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