In my last blog post, we looked at what beta readers are and some of the pros and cons of having them. In this week’s blog post, we will be staying on this topic, but instead focusing on how to find a reliable beta reader that suits your book. There are quite a few different things to consider here to ensure your beta reader is a good match for your writing and will give feedback that you can use to improve your book.
However, before we start, we will briefly review how beta readers can help you once you have got a completed manuscript. Beta readers will go through your book and offer a reader’s opinion on it. They will also provide you with comments on your writing. These may be added as comments to the text, in an overall review document, or both. They will highlight any problems they noticed in your work, as well as what they thought worked well or particularly liked.
A key advantage of beta readers is the fact that they give you a reader’s opinion. It is essentially like having a test audience for a film and can be of great benefit to you. It gives you an insight into how readers will feel about your book before you have actually published it, which leaves time to make any changes or deletions you decide are necessary after going through the feedback. You may also be able to add to some parts if beta readers enjoyed these.
Beta readers need to be objective, meaning that they will look at your work for itself, rather than anything they know about you. This helps you to get a reliable picture of your work and is why using family or friends as beta readers doesn’t really work – they might not be entirely honest in their feedback or unbiased.
Having a beta reader can also help to keep you motivated. This is partly due to the fact that you can set yourself deadlines of when to send work to your beta reader, so this can often give you the push you need to keep writing. In addition, beta readers are often authors themselves and can offer friendly encouragement.
Where to Find Beta Readers
There are quite a few different sources of beta readers that you can potentially turn to. Some of these might not work for you, but you should be able to find some reliable beta readers through one of these methods. You do not need to find that many; in fact, too many beta readers can be unhelpful or actually make your book worse. The more beta readers you have, the more likely you are to get conflicting advice which you will then have to sift through before you can apply it.
Of course, this works both ways – you also do not want to have too few beta readers. For example, only having one would mean that you are getting a single opinion on your book, which is unlikely to represent your entire target audience. They may also make suggestions that are wrong, but without a second opinion, it can be hard to know this. Ideally, you would have two or three beta readers – enough that you are not reliant on one opinion, but not so many that it becomes confusing.
One way to look for beta readers is in community groups that focus on beta reading. It is best to choose one that is dedicated to your particular niche, as this gives you the best chance of finding a good match for your book. Try to build relationships and establish yourself in the community before putting out a call for beta readers. This gives you more chance of knowing something about potential beta readers before you choose some.
Another way you can find beta readers is to reach out to your mailing list. These are people that you already know are interested in your niche, which means that they are genuinely enthusiastic about the topic and have some knowledge of it. They will have read other books in the same area, so they have something to compare your book to and can offer feedback based on this. In addition, you know from the fact that your mailing list signed up that they are interested in you and your writing, so there is a reasonable chance they might want to beta read for you.
Alternatively, you can focus on communities that reflect your niche, rather than ones specifically for beta reading. Within these groups, you may well be able to find people willing to become beta readers, especially if there are other authors you could do the same for.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this helps you to find some great beta readers for your nonfiction book. In my next blog post, we will be looking at the stages in self-publishing your nonfiction book, so come back in two weeks for that!
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