Pros and Cons of Having a Beta Reader for Your Nonfiction Book

When you think of beta readers, you typically think of fiction books. However, you can also use them for your nonfiction book, and the key here is to find ones that suit your particular niche. They need to be interested in your subject and have a reasonable amount of knowledge about it. While they don’t need to be fact-checking your book, if they have read other books in your niche, they can judge how well your book holds up to these standards. There are both advantages and disadvantages to having beta readers, which we will look at now.

Advantages

Feedback

Naturally, one of the main advantages is getting feedback on what you have written. This will help you to make some necessary changes and improve your writing. Having beta readers essentially gives you a test audience for your book before you release it to the general public. You will receive comments from them, either as a separate document, annotations on the document you sent them, or both.

You can then read through these to get an outsider’s impression of your work. The problem with reading your own work is that you know it too well and can find it difficult to imagine what could be changed and how. A beta reader should be more impartial and have the necessary distance from your writing to identify problems and areas that could be improved. In addition, beta readers can also help by saying what they liked about your book – what worked well and what they would like to see more of. You can then build on this for the rest of the book, as well as in any future books you write.

Motivation

Writing is a lonely job. It can be hard to stay motivated to keep writing every day until you have finished – and then it is often time to start the next book. Beta readers help with this in two ways. Firstly, they act as a fixed deadline that you must meet, so you have to persevere with regular writing to reach this. If you have said that you will send your manuscript to them by a certain date, this may help to keep you on track.

Secondly, beta readers are often writers themselves and the camaraderie this brings can help encourage you to keep writing. You may find that you become friends with your beta readers, and they become some of your greatest supporters. This is especially true if you will be getting beta readers on an exchange basis, i.e., you will be reading their work in return for them reading yours. This means that you can identify with each other and know the challenges that you face.

Disadvantages

Biased

Unfortunately, the relationships you build (or already have) with beta readers is what makes them unreliable. If they are a family member or close friend, then they are obviously going to be biased towards you! Asking for an honest opinion probably won’t help, as they may be unable to view your work objectively or reluctant to give their opinion anyway. Even if you get a beta reader you don’t know, you might find yourself building camaraderie with them, which can again make it harder for them to be unbiased.

Your beta readers will also be biased in the sense of who they are. Unless you are very careful and have a large pool of beta readers, they are only going to represent a very narrow section of the population. However, your book will ideally appeal to as diverse a range of readers as possible. In addition, make sure your book is suitable for the audience you are aiming for. If it is supposed to be accessible to everyone, other nonfiction writers would not be the best choice for beta readers.

Lack of Expertise

Another problem with beta readers is that they are not trained or qualified in any way. This is especially problematic with a nonfiction book, where they do not have any knowledge of the subject matter. While they don’t need to know enough to be fact-checking your work, as this is a different job, they still need to understand the basics to know whether what you have written makes sense. Unfortunately, most beta readers do not have the necessary expertise for this, so not all of their feedback will be useful or even relevant.

Beta readers are also not professional editors. They can certainly offer suggestions, and may well be writers themselves, but they still don’t know what an editor, publisher or agent is looking for. It is therefore worth being cautious of any advice they offer and acknowledging that it might not be correct.

Wrapping Up

I hope that this helps you if you are considering having a beta reader for your nonfiction book. In my next blog post, we will be looking at how to find a beta reader, so come back in two weeks for that!

Want help proofreading your work? Contact Carmine Proofreading for a friendly, professional service from a qualified proofreader.

Email: CarmineProofreading@gmail.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarmineProofed