McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Beta readers?

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KWPech:
Ok, next question.... Do you send out your first drafts to have them go over the same time your going through and doing your own clean up edits, or do you wait and send out the second, cleaner draft?

Blaze:
Depends on what you want them to beta for.  If you are worried about a plot element escaping, then bring them along in drips and drabs.  If you are looking for editors who will deal with typos, translations and the odd missing word?  Send a cleaner copy.

Nothing worse that foisting your own sloppy first draft on your free help if you won't allow tem to call you on plot elements.

Snowleopard:
You have to be willing to listen to what they have to say and then kinda evaluate it
in regards to your writing.  I would think some comments have to do with whether a person
likes your style or not whilst other, more important ones, can point out plot holes or inconsistencies.
But you have to be able to listen and take criticism.

Blaze:
A good editor/beta reader will focus on the writers style and make suggestions that do not change that style but hone it.

JMThomas:
I usually ask close friends whom I usually trade books with.  I know they have a similar aesthetic, are essentially my target audience, and I email the current draft to them with instructions to take a hatchet to it if necessary.  If you're very specific with what you want, that helps.  I have one friend that I tell to ignore the spelling and grammatical mistakes, and to alert me to odd jumps in plot where they feel jerked around too much, to discrepancies in minute details (names, places, colors, etc), and to overall feeling:  Did this answer your questions about x?  Was that how you expected the situation to resolve?  Did anything seem out of character with what you've read so far? Etc.

I have another friend who is my grammar man.  He corrects spelling and flags jumpy and choppy language.

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