Beta Readers Group Request

[barrett1987]

Hey all,

So i'm looking for a selection of up to five people to read my first act. 44k words and provide feedback.

Essentially im looking to start or join a beta reading online group. If someone is willing to do mine ill do theirs

Anyone either interested in starting or has a spot open in theirs? Would be a chapter a week type deal or faster if the readers want.

Feel free to pm me your email if interested.

 

[hopewrites]

once a week sounds rather fast to me, IDK it might not be, I dont have any work ready for an exchange so if those are hard and fast conditions of your group I'd be out. I still concider myself more reader than writer.

 

[Montero]

Just so you know, what you've asked for is a big ask. Have you posted in critiques? Have you critiqued work for other people online here?

Incidentally, perhaps being a bit picky - but your post with its lack of capitalisation and missing punctuation for things like "I'm" doesn't inspire confidence.

 

[sknox]

Montero, you aren't being picky. An author should approach beta readers and critiquers (people sometimes mean different things by the different terms) with the same respect they would an agent. While it's possible a good novel lies behind a sloppy request, that's not the way most agents bet.

Asking for a reader is asking for another human being's time, the most expensive commodity on the planet. In that light, every bit of punctuation counts.

 

[Colbey Frost]

I see what Montero and 'S'knox are saying, but it's not the end of the world! I'll send you my email in the spirit of the Chrons!

 

[barrett1987]

Hey all,
I never meant any offence. If my request was not of sufficient quality then i apologise.

As i say, i don't really know what a beta reading requires beyond people reading each others work. I said a chapter a week because i feel thats what i could do for others. I assumed it would be a case of one persons chapter per week then each person gets one chapter read per month/5weeks. Again, i've very little experience about it so maybe its done elsewhere differently, if so please educate

As to the critique forum, i use it far too much

Again, no offence meant to anyone regarding this. I just don't have real life contacts that would feel comfortable trashing *cough, critiquing* my work.

As to the quality of the grammar in this post....no comment!

Oh, about taking someone's time. I know reading other work isn't the greatest of fun but i was more looking for people who want to work together and read each others work. I'd run out of stuff to critique way too quickly if it was just mine being read. I learn from seeing others mistakes just as much as i learn from my own.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think it's great that you're thinking about it - I have learned so much from a small critique circle. But:

It is a big commitment and life is different for everyone.

Clear ideas are needed about what you want - just a crit? Crit and discussion? Grammar only or plot?

In terms of abusing the crits board - no one offends more than I used to and, at the end of the day, when fed up people don't have to crit, so don't worry. But try to do more crits than you put up, maybe? You'll make contacts, develop your writing and give something important back.

Sorry I can't help - I'm snowed under with writing at the moment - but I'll try to respond to your crits.

Jo

 

[hopewrites]

I would be tempted if I didnt feel obligated to produce something of my own.

 

[barrett1987]

Hope, no one would ever force you to write more than you would want to. Atleast i hope not

PM me your email and once we've got enough we can hash out some guidelines as to how we are going to do this.

I was thinking 4 people, each person submits something once a month. (If someone doesn't want to submit i'm sure another would gladly double up.) That way everyone is reading 3 other pieces per month and getting one of theirs done.

Can be done via email easily. It's a shame the critique section is hard capped to 1500 but i understand why.

Anyone else interested please feel free to pm me your email address.

 

[Montero]

One of the types of feedback that can be useful is what I call "reader reaction" - so not necessarily picking up on grammar (though can if want to), but someone sitting reading the book, and if they struggle with a bit, then make a note that on page 3 they couldn't work out what was going on, or they found the reactions of the character out of character. Equally for good things - like "wow, didn't see that coming".

On grammar on posts - not bothered on most posts (do actually notice it but not bothered). However with a pitch for critiques, then I expect more. Not offended, but telling you so that you are aware of something else that impacts on how people react to you as an author. As SKnox said - its a pitch. I'd add, you can't start too soon getting pitches right.

 

[tinkerdan]

See now this is why such a thing as this works better with people you can talk to across the room or table; face to face.

In this nameless faceless format it's too easy for people to go for the jugular.

If everyone spoke and corresponded with message and email in the same style and voice they write in, then the world would be a sad boring place.

Not that someone who can do all that is sad and boring-I'm just saying.

 

[SevenStars]

I see what Montero and 'S'knox are saying, but it's not the end of the world! I'll send you my email in the spirit of the Chrons!

I'm with Christian and will send you my email.

 

[sknox]

FTR, I took no offense. I was callin' 'em as I saw 'em. Others have covered the other bases pretty well. Read and heed!

 

[RcGrant]

I'd be interested in joining. I've had a lot of beta reading experience in the past -- I used to provide it as an exclusive service. I would prefer to be involved in mostly developmental beta reading to start with because I find it more beneficial, but I'm okay with line editing too.

I wouldn't want to have to write new pieces for submission each time as I am working on novels. I am happy to submit as I work on my new draft for one novel/first draft of the other but with the understanding I am not currently in a place where these are polished (hence preference for developmental at this point).

Once a week is okay with me but I'd suggest one member submits each week on a rotating basis: looking at five pieces per week would be far too much.

If that suits, send me a pm.

 

[Mr Orange]

i could be interested in this. definitely need to get my stuff read by more people. was going to wait and see what happened when i hit the magical 300, but this could be helpful as well! of course it'll kind of depend on the type or critiques we're all after.

and seeing as i've already seen you and interacted with you in the critiques section, i have no problem with the language or grammar in your post. as you can probably tell, my forum etiquette is pretty relaxed

 

[barrett1987]

Going to leave this open a few more days. Got a few people interested. If you want in, please send a pm with your email address.

Will work out the rules and how we are doing it once everyone is set. It'll be something along the lines of one submit from one person per week. Then the next week someone else submits and so on. So a chapter to read and critique a week i think. This could change though as i'm inexperienced with this and will bow to the others suggestions.

 

[Hex]

It sounds like a good basis for a reading group.

One thing I'd wonder about would be the length of the chapters; some people (like me!) write mainly 2-3,000 word chapters but I've heard of chapters of 10,000 words and more.

It depends what people's other commitments are/ how fast they crit, but (a) 10,000 words is quite a lot for some people (again, like me) to crit in a week, (b) it might feel a little uneven if some people are getting 3-4 times more critted than others.

Good luck!

 

[RcGrant]

I'm really excited about it! I think it will be really beneficial all round. I assume the members will hash out the rules, so to speak, before we get started.

 

[tinkerdan]

My chapters can run from 5k to 10k easily. But those are full of scenes splits, which give me the opportunity to truncate the length of most. And I'm assuming one reason to do this is because of the 1.5k limit we have here which can for many people mean splitting even their scenes in half. which means that 3k plus is probably a good average for those people so I would almost expect a group such as this to be at least looking to challenge that to the tune of 5k. But that's just my screwy math.

The point is that if everyone were to shoot the average of 3k there should be some tolerance beyond that and maybe 5k is too health a tolerance but I would expect that the only reason anyone might stretch too far beyond a reasonable norm would be if they have a scene that actually last that long. I'm not sure I could ever claim be having a scene that ran 10k so I'd not expect to ever go there.

I have various beta readers-some like things in small chunks and as I work on them, which is handy for more immediate feedback and reality checks. Some prefer the lions share, which also is fine but they get theirs well after the chunk checkers have achieved a lions share of the work.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

I could be interested in this, as I too have stuff that needs to be read by people who know how to critique.
Putting up a chapter a week does sound rather like Critique Circle, and they already have a successful system.
Critique Circle can yield a weekly stream of useful critiques, but paying them back is a lot of work - as well as being useful critiquing experience.