Finding Beta Readers

I’d been writing Circus Mesmer for a while, trying to find the right way of telling the story. How to get the characters’ voices/plot/story right? Going back and forth, thinking, writing, and editing, then writing and editing some more. Writing is lonely work, even though you are in the company of the characters and the world you’ve created. I had been thinking for a while that I wanted somebody to read what I’d written, to get some feedback from somebody who wasn’t in my head. What I needed was Beta readers! But who? And how?

What I wanted most of all was to have teenagers reading my manuscript, since Circus Mesmer is YA, Contemporary Fantasy. I’m a teacher at a secondary school in the south of Norway, and I asked my students if any of them would like to be Beta readers, and several of them did, which was fantastic. I felt so privileged that they wanted to read! I wasn’t looking for somebody to edit my manuscript, but to get some honest reactions to the reader experience. A couple of my friends also read, and my kids and my husband, too. The next time I need Beta readers, I’ll probably narrow it down a little so that I don’t have too many people reading, but this time it was perfect.

You can also ask other writers to be beta readers, perhaps you can swap beta reading each other’s work? If you are part of an online writing community, you could post a notice asking for beta readers. The point is to find someone who will read your work as a «normal reader», not as an editor. What you want is someone who can give you some feedback on the reading experience, and if there are sections of the text where they become bored, confused, irritated, frustrated and so on. Impressions without a lot of explanation are fine, too. You don’t necessarily need someone to tell you that X doesn’t work, because… You just need the feedback that it doesn’t, so you can fix it.

Instructions for Beta Readers

I had the book printed at a local print shop—I tried doing it myself first and made a complete mess of it. I asked them for the cheapest print, spiral bound in A4 format (US ≈ Letter). I wrote out a list on the front page of the book detailing what I wanted the Beta readers to look for, to make it easier for them and me.

Look for:

Sections where you «stumble» (your attention is lagging, you are confused, etc.), for whatever reason.

• Find something you don’t understand? Make a question mark in the margin.
• Find something boring, to long, not believable? Make a line in the margin.
• You can comment on what you want, for course, but I am foremost interested in your immediate reaction to what doesn’t work—and please don’t worry about the author’s feelings. The point of this exercise is to clean up the book!
• You don’t have to worry about spelling errors, grammar etc., unless it makes you happy to do so!
• Feel free to write anywhere in the book. This is a working document.

I didn’t give any time restraints on reading the book, firstly because most of my Beta readers were students, with homework and tests and exams coming up, and secondly since I was preparing, teaching, and grading the work they had coming up. I also had my own exams to worry about, I was studying part time at the University so I didn’t have time to work on the book at that time anyway. That meant that I had responses coming back to me in a period of between two weeks and three months, which suited me fine.

Beta Readers’ Comments

I received so much incredibly useful feedback from the Beta readers! Some of my students who’d wanted to read the book didn’t get around to it for various reasons, and that’s completely fine—but those who did were so helpful. The feedback that has affected the book the most, came from my students, both regarding plot, characters, and pacing.

Some of my students are big readers, some not, and their comments about sections of the book where they were confused, bored etc. helped immensely. It was interesting to compare comments from experienced readers with those who hadn’t read that many books. Often they viewed the text from completely different angles. They often commented on different elements of the story, the first group focusing on overarching elements of the story, internal logic, the development of characters, and so on. The second group focused more on the details of the action, where the story bored them or confused them, as well as some interesting insight into what made characters believable or not.

My daughter also gave me some generous (like her), insightful, and funny comments, which helped me discover some blind spots. She knows me well, and her perspective was certainly useful. The Beta readers also had so many interesting things to say about the things they liked, too—which was incredibly helpful (and encouraging). 

Conversations with Beta Readers

I had a conversation with each of the Beta readers after they’d returned the manuscript, and what a fantastic feeling it was to talk about my own creation! It made me so happy, no matter if they’d found something they didn’t understand or like, or if they were excited about what they’d read. One afternoon, I listened to two of my friends discussing my book, both beta readers, they were completely engrossed in discussing a plot point; the best feeling in the world. I felt so privileged that both students, friends and family were willing to give their time to read and comment on my text. Going throught their comments in this way was very helpful, and enabled me to ask quesitons and to take additional notes as we were discussing their marks and comments in the margins of the manuscript.

What I Learned from Beta Readers

Funnily enough, both student and adult beta readers agree on some key points. Almost all of them comment on a couple of sections that need improvement. These parts of the story are those where where I had struggled the most. Typical! It’s like I always tell my students: If you are unsure about your text, your teacher will notice; your uncertainty is a sign for you to clean up your writing. I guess I should have listened to myself. Oh well, I am in the process of doing that now, and Circus Mesmer is getting better, thanks to the Beta readers.

The conversations and discussions with the beta readers were invaluable to me. I had epiphanies galore from listening to their thoughts, as well as the comments they made in the manuscript. One of the boys who read it, was incredibly insightful and detailed in his comments, and pointed out some breaks in the internal logic. Another boy wrote his reactions at the end of sections of the book, with comments on how interesting/exciting/boring he’d found it, and why. He also gave some predictions and wishes on what was to come in the next chapters, which taught me a lot in terms of keeping the reader’s engagement throughout the text.

I had written in the instructions that the beta readers didn’t have to comment on grammar or language, but several of them did anyway, and lucky me that they did! They found the silliest mistakes, which I’d been over several times without seeing. The funniest comment was from one of the student beta readers, who commented that too many of the sentences in a section began in a similar fashion, perhaps I’d like to change that? I had been trying to teach exactly that for three years, and I suppose he had gotten the message. My turn.

Have you had any experience with Beta readers that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you!