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Copied 07:03, 6 February 2013 (UTC) from


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?