Beta Readers?
Welcome to Mary's Garden. I am going to ask your opinion. But first, our garden tip of the week.
Garden Tip:
Now, I would like to hear your opinion. If you're traditionally published you are lucky, your publisher has a team of great (hopefully) editors. That being said, you still want your work to be as polished as possible when you send it in for submission, correct?
Garden Tip:
“Growing vegetables is a
fun introduction to gardening,” says Sullivan. They don’t take as long to grow,
so if you make a mistake you won’t have wasted months and months of your time.
Sunflowers are also a good option, since they grow quickly and tall, or try
easy-to-grow ferns—both of these can be grown all across the United States.
“Early success is inspiring,” he says. “It might make you want to move on to
more complicated plants.”
If you're Indie/Self published, if you want your work to shine you need to find an editor. Wait a minute... you have to pay for an editor. As an Indie can you afford $1 to $3 per page? It would be worth it, but I would not get a return on my money for say, three or four years. I personally rely on friends who have a degree in English and have careers doing something like editing grants, etc.
Even with that I have found Beta readers to valuable also. Recently I had a beta reader that found pages and pages of missing words and typo's and this was after my critique partners, my friend I had edit, and a couple of other beta readers.
Have you had any similar experiences? I'd love to hear your stories.
What do you use? Editors or beta readers or both? What do you recommend?
I have a new release coming up on February 14, 2018.
Abandoned (Book VI The Beckett Series)
In honor of that I have Disappear (Book I The Beckett Series) for free through 3/8/18.
You can find more information about Mary at MaryMartinez.com
Thank you for your input on Beta readers.
Comments
Yes, even with expert proofreaders and editors, things can get missed! I use a combination of critique partners, colleagues with editorial/English background, and beta readers who I know are avid and thoughtful readers to help get my manuscripts in shape either for publication or agent submissions.
Best wishes!
I agree. I believe my beta readers have been very valuable.
I have a beta reader that's a friend back east that is an avid reader. She's wonderful. I think it's important that a beta reader reads the genre that you're writing, or at least fictions. I had a beta reader once, that read only nonfiction and she kept trying to turn my fiction into something that it wasn't (not sure what she wanted to do!) including backing off on the romance part! Needless to say, that didn't work.