Until recently I’ve been something of a “lone wolf writer”… if not a secretive one. Very people knew how much I wrote, or that I even wrote at all. It was a private passion, one that I was content to keep all my own.
As I’ve slowly tried to transform myself from writer, to author, to published author, I’ve looked to the greater writing community for guidance and support. This past week, WriteOnCon was held – kind of a digital YA writer’s conference. I don’t write YA, but it’s a great idea anyway – as I followed various blog posts, Tweets, and lurked a bit on their forums, I saw the rallying cry of requests for critiques and beta readers.
I think a good beta reader is a crucial step for turning a pretty good book into a really good one, but a bad beta reader can even be more detrimental. It’s important that those individuals who take your book under their wing are versed in (and really enjoy) the genre that you write. They need to be able to provide objective informed criticism, and subjective opinions that reasonably model a mainstream reader. It’s important that a beta reader actually, well, read your book – and that their questions and comments and critiques reflect that. Trying to assimilate and weigh lots of opinions on a WIP is already a tricky business – it’s hitting a fast-moving and at times ill-defined target. That becomes a helluva lot harder when the opinions are suspect to begin with.
Finding a beta is kind of like dating; it’s finding someone you know and respect, and most importantly, trust.
The flip side? A beta reader is being generous with their time and energy. Always be gracious of their efforts.
One of my goals this year is to actually attend a writer’s conference. I’m not sure whether I’ll succeed, but from a quick scan of WriteOnCon’s articles, there was a lot of great information shared by a lot of authors. More humorous than informative, I liked this from Gretchen McNeil: A Day in the Life of a Writer. This is from Carlie Webber: 60 Queries in 60 Minutes.
On my way out, one last thing from Carlie Webber: 99 Problems (in my submission pile)
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