September 5, 2010

betas? aren't those fish?

i am officially a beta reader. i'm going to be reading stories out loud to Siamese fighting fish.

Ha. sorry. it's a joke from Facebook.

actually, a writing friend has asked me to be a beta reader for one of her upcoming novels. i won't say who, but the idea thrills me, mostly because i was dying to find out what happened and now i get to read it ahead of time. i also love editing. (i can hear K.S. laughing out loud.) i was going to say i love editing stories that aren't mine. i can find the stuff that needs tweaking and not have to figure out how to tweak it.

technically, i've done this before for my crit partners, but i've never seen the finished product in book form before and now i will. when i started this writing journey 5 years ago, i never would have expected to be where i am now, helping other writers and having them help me. wow.

7 comments:

Dawn Embers said...

I never thought of getting beta readers until recently. I think I have 2-3 at this point through people on twitter and blogs. But I'm not a beta at this point. Instead I'm just a little intern, that's where I get my story reading in. lol :-)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I like my beta readers! They are a big help.

Unknown said...

I've just landed my first gig as a beta reader too! I'm as excited as you say you are. In addition to being a "first" reader, I also feel so very inspired by my author friend's accomplishment that I want to get to work on finishing my first MS.

Best of luck with it, and thanks for the shout-out on your last post!! Happy Labor Day :D

Unknown said...

Beta readers are some of the most valuable people in any writer's life. I'd be in serious trouble without that handful of people willing to devote their time to wading through my early drafts. I'm sure your friend is very grateful to you!

MTeacress said...

Nice to meet you! I'm here from the blog BBQ. I look forward to your upcoming posts.
Can you tell me the difference between a beta reader and a critique partner?
Cheers. :)

dolorah said...

I like beta reading. I've been doing it consistently for about a year now. Not only do I get to help a fellow author edit their work, I'm also learning about my own writing techniques by critiquing others.

Several times I've come across phrases or concepts that don't work and I'll be like "ooh, I think I did that in my own WIP, I better go check."

It is an awesome experience, both to beta read for another author, and to have your entire novel read by someone else. I had two readers for my first novel, and the feedback was amazingly helpful. So many things I just didn't think about b/c I know the story too well and have long since stopped reading what is there, and filled in what should be there.

I hope it is a fulfilling experience for both of you. Good luck.

......dhole

Karen Jones Gowen said...

You had so many blogs listed I didn't know where to go, but here I am on Beautiful Chaos, because that describes my writing life, and looks like I chose right because there's GIRAFFES at your header! We're soul mates!