User:Thnidu/sandbox/Absolute write
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Copied 07:03, 6 February 2013 (UTC) from
- forum Absolute Write Water Cooler > Discussion > Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies
- thread "What is a beta reader?"
- 07-01-2007, 07:04 AM
- birdfeeder
- Join Date: Nov 2006
- Posts: 205
- What is a beta reader?
- Showing my newbie-ness here, but what is a beta reader?
- #2
- Death Wizard
- Join Date: Mar 2007
- Location: South Carolina
- Posts: 5,032
- A beta reader is someone who reads your work with the aim of helping you to improve it (content, grammar, punctuation, what works/what doesn't) before your work is published. At least, that would be my definition.
- #3
- Thrillride
- Join Date: Feb 2007
- Location: California
- Posts: 722
- To add to the definition - A critiquer/critique group (or critter) is most often used along the way to a finished piece, be it a novel or short-story or what-have-you.
- You might have a critter look at a slightly rough draft of a chapter or page(s). In most of the writer circles I come a cross, a beta-reader is usually a term saved for the person(s) that looks at the whole draft of a novel or a completed story or poem.
- Seems like it's easier to find critters as opposed to true beta-readers if only because often a beta is committing to reading and critting an entire piece of work that could very well be in a novel form. Big undertaking in some cases.
- This is not to say that someone who crits for you can't do exactly the same thing or vice-versa (tomato/tomahto in truth). It just seems to me that once a critter is asked to read the entire manuscript to prepare it to go out into the cold world, the critter gets promoted to beta-reader.
- #7
- ResearchGuy
- Posts: 4,780
- In software development, the term "beta tester" refers to a person who tries out a program to evaluate how well it works, identify bugs in actual use, and so on, before it is commercially released. That is a step beyond the "alpha tester," who is testing software at an earlier stage, not much past prototype.
- I would read "beta reader" as analogous to "beta tester." That is, the beta reader is evaluating a piece of writing after a couple of stages of development--not a rough draft. Not ready for the public, but already edited and polished by the author and perhaps subjected to earlier, more conceptual comments that the author has addressed.
- IMHO FWIW.
- --Ken
- #8
- katiemac
- SuperModerator
- Join Date: Feb 2005
- Location: Yesterday
- Posts: 10,528
- Although the main concept of a beta reader is the same, many people have different ideas about what they actually want in their beta readers. So, to eliminate confusion and stay on the same page, it's best for an author and a beta reader to discuss how the relationship is going to work
- #20
- Samantha's_Song
- Join Date: Aug 2008
- Location: Here
- Posts: 2,198
- I call myself a beta-reader:
- I will only accept whole MS's; no bit parts and no odd chapters here and there. I couldn't settle myself into something that isn't a whole; it wouldn't get my undivided attention.
- The author has to think that their work is ready for the querying stage for me to think it's worth my while taking it on.
- I drive a hard bargain and am quite brutal at times, but most of the recipients seem happy with what they get back from me.
- #22
- diGriz
- Join Date: Apr 2009
- Posts: 6
- Getting back to the topic at hand, Beta Readers are volunteers (most of the time), or who have the education but are looking to pick up experience as they launch into career paths such as copy editors, editors, associates, publishers, etc.
- At least that's what we qualified the term when I learned about beta readers back in the mid '80s.
- First rule: Be nice to your Beta Readers... they do it out of the love of reading. Doesn't hurt to throw a little compensation their way, either...
- Remember a good editor (or freelance editor) these days can run you between $35 to $90 / hr for about 6 - 10 pages. So if you're looking to have a beta reader look over a 400 page novel, understand the cost can run into the $1000s.
- Here's my question... Be honest, ladies and gents. How many beta readers have you used on 1 given project?