Top 5 Tips for Starting Your First Beta Read

So, you’ve finished your first book. Great job! Take a deep breath, have a celebratory cookie, and bask in your achievement. You’ve worked hard to get here, drafting and editing and making all the little pieces fit together. But that begs the question…what now?

The next step that normally comes is beta reading, letting a few trusted readers take a look at the book to hear what people think!

But slow down a minute before jumping right in! As exciting (and scary) as it can be to finally let people read your hard work, rushing right in without a plan can make things a whole lot harder than they need to be.

So before you unleash your work upon your privileged first few readers, here are a few things to keep in mind when holding your first beta read.

1. Know What You’re Looking For and Outline Your Expectations

I put this at the top, since it’s the biggest mistake I made with my first beta read, and I’ve found it the most helpful.

Your beta readers are not editors. Even if you’re hiring a professional beta reader, they are not working in an editorial capacity.

The purpose of beta readers is to get eyes on your project to see what the average reader is going to think. They find the big problems—plot holes, characters acting out of character, obvious tonal issues, that kind of thing. Their job isn’t to edit your book, it’s to provide reader feedback.

That being said, the average reader often doesn’t know how to give the feedback you want without being asked the right questions. The first time I held a beta read, I was swamped with a lot of feedback along the lines of “It was good,” or “I liked it.”

Kind and encouraging as the words were, they weren’t helpful. So, now I send a questionnaire to help readers give more guided feedback for the issues I’m looking for. The questionnaire has questions like: “When did the story feel like it really started?” “Were the characters likeable and relatable?” “Were there any plot holes?” That kind of thing. Now that I have this tool, I get the feedback that I need.

There are plenty of templates for this online, such as this one by Stacy Claflin, and they work great for giving an idea of what questions to ask a beta reader.

Along with the questionnaire, I send an author’s note outlining my expectations: the deadline, the general kind of feedback I’m looking for, and so on. Beta readers can’t help effectively if they don’t know what you need from them, so make sure they know in advance!

2. Don’t Use Your First Draft

Odds are, by the time you’ve finished your novel you’ve thought of a couple changes to make. If not, take some time away from it and come back with a fresh mind to give it a reread.

Some people do choose to use their first draft for their betas. I don’t. I always do a read through first on my own to catch errors and clean up the prose a bit, and I have an alpha reader look it over, the person who has true first dibs on reading my writing, to give me any of the first glaring issues.

Even though it’s an early look, I want to put my best foot forward. I personally try to get the book to the point where I can’t fix it anymore without external input, and because of that I have been able to refine my own editing skills and give a more complete manuscript to my beta readers, giving them the best reading experience I can and really narrowing in on the issues.

Whether it’s a read-through from a professional editor or the work of alpha readers, having a first-pass edit done before the beta readers get at it is something I highly recommend.

3. Know Your Demographic

Let’s say you wrote a middle grade book about a ten-year-old boy going on an adventure. Odds are, ten-year-olds are part of your audience.

If that’s the case, you should have some ten-year-olds in your beta group.

Even if you have a broad demographic, make sure you’re picking readers that fit it. I write epic fantasy, so I found readers of epic fantasy of all experience levels, from those new to the genre to those who had read it for decades. My youngest reader is in their late teens, my oldest ones are grandparents, and all of them fit the demographic. Therefore, all of them are important to hear the opinions of.

Have a wide range of readers from your demographic, and it will help you know if you’ve written properly for your intended audience.

4. Have a Deadline, But Be Reasonable

Storytime: my very first beta read (where I feel like I made every mistake possible), I didn’t give a deadline.

That was a mistake, as six months later I was still hunting down beta readers for any word of the book.

Now, my deadline is usually four-to-five weeks, depending on the length of the book. I check in around the halfway point and again about a week before the end of the read, but that’s it. And, for the most part, people get back to me within that time.

However, life happens. People don’t always have time to read. They have lives. One of the reasons I check in is to ask if they think they need more time, and they know I’ll give it to them. Usually it stays within a week or two. The most I’ve waited is about a month, but I was in contact with the reader the whole time, checking in on progress.

If they need longer than that and don’t respond, I stop asking, because though their time is valuable and I’m willing to give them leeway for it, I can’t edit my work further until I have the beta feedback, and I like to have everyone’s thoughts before diving into the next round of editing.

It sucks, because of course I want them all to read the book, but there’s still a need for boundaries. Not everyone is cut out or right for beta reading, and that’s okay.

5. Just Because Someone Has a Suggestion Doesn’t Mean You Have To Implement It

This goes for when you’re working with professional editors as well.

Nobody knows your work like you do. You’re the one who poured your blood, sweat, and tears into each word. You’re the one who had these characters in your head for uncountable hours and put in the work.

If someone gives feedback that doesn’t fit, it’s okay to ignore it.

That being said, don’t just throw it immediately by the wayside, either. If it’s an issue that’s coming up from a lot of readers, it’s for a reason. Try out suggestions, try out new ideas, but don’t hang everything on them.

At the end of the day, you are your first and most important audience member. Above anyone else, you should be the one who enjoys your work the most. Trust your gut. If an edit ultimately doesn’t feel right, don’t do it.

In Conclusion…

Beta reading isn’t as scary as it seems, and there are some simple ways to make the process as smooth and painless as possible for all parties involved. Give your readers the tools they need to help you, and they in turn will give you the feedback you need to make your story the best it can be.