I Thank God for My Beta Readers

 

I am currently revising a middle-grade historical novel to incorporate my beta readers’ comments, and I just received the evaluations back on another one. The responses highlight how important beta readers are to the writing process.

It’s been a while since I was my readers’ age, and when I write for boys I have the further disadvantage of never having been one. So it’s extremely helpful to get feedback from members of my intended audience. Fortunately, a local school has been responsive to my request for beta readers from the third through sixth grades.

One of the questions on my evaluation form asks if the beginning of the story makes the evaluator want to keep reading. Most of the time the answer is “yes,” although the reason might be fairly vague. Each of the last two times I asked for feedback, however, I got a couple of “no”s, and I am taking them to heart.

The book I am currently revising begins in Oklahoma during the dust bowl and started with fears of losing the farm to foreclosure. One of the “no”s said it didn’t grab her attention, but the other was more explicit, stating that “it sounded like a very old boring story that grandparents would tell you.” I hadn’t thought of it that way at the time, but now I have images of the old silent films where a villain with a handlebar mustache is attempting to foreclose and ends up tying the farmer’s pretty daughter to a railroad track. Or maybe she is referring to the type of story where the grandparents walked five miles to school every day and it was uphill in both directions.

Based on those beta reader comments, I revised the first chapter so that the book now starts with a dust storm. The foreclosure subplot still exists but is less dominant, with more emphasis on the physical dangers from the dust storms.

That book has a female protagonist and, therefore, less appeal to boys, so I didn’t have any male beta readers. I did ask for them on the one I just got back, however, since it has a male protagonist and is intended to attract boys.

That story has Matthew and his family traveling to the California gold fields in 1850 using a route that takes them over the Isthmus of Panama. It begins on a farm in New York and, although Matthew is restless from the start, the first chapter is used primarily to set the scene. One of my male beta readers said the beginning did not make him want to keep reading “because it sounded boring to me, like more actionpacked themes.” I assume that he meant he wants more action packed into it, and I will try to do that when I revise the manuscript.

Not that I can accommodate every beta reader comment, however. The other boy who answered “no” to wanting to keep reading gave “it was sad” as the reason. Matthew’s mother and dog die before the story begins, and the farm constantly reminds him of them. That’s part of the reason he is restless, and I think the story will be weakened if I get rid of that motivation. Still, maybe I can tone the references down a bit.

One of my major concerns with that book is whether 14-year-old Matthew’s selfishness will turn off readers, and male readers in particular. I didn’t ask that specific question because I didn’t want to put it in their minds if it wasn’t already there, but I hoped that several of the questions I routinely ask would clue me in. One of those questions asks if the beta reader would want Matthew as a friend. The majority of comments said he seems nice, although one boy described him as “disloyal but nice.”

Two other routine questions can also help me discover the readers’ feelings about the protagonist’s selfishness. One asks if Matthew acted like a 14-year-old boy. One male beta reader said he acted too young, while the other readers classified him as “just right.” More telling is the question whether Matthew sounds like a real 14-year-old boy and asks for reasons. The beta reader who said he acted too young also said he didn’t act like a real 14-year-old boy, but the reader must not have felt Matthew was too far off the mark. As the comment put it, “He sounds 13 so not that big of a difference if he sounded a little more mature he’d make the cut.”

I’ll go through the next draft with an eye to making sure I’m not overdoing Matthew’s selfishness, but I was encouraged by the evaluations.

Beta readers provide valuable feedback that helps me improve my stories, so I literally thank God for them.

__________

The image at the top of this post is from the 1925 edition of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott. The illustrator was Clara Miller Burd, and the illustration is in the public domain because of its age.

Beta Reader Riches

 

My middle-grade historical fiction is aimed at children in the 3^rd to 6^th grades, so I use students from a local school as beta readers. I ask the school for eight volunteers—preferably two from each of those four grades—and rely on the principal and the teachers to select them. They usually manage to come up with all eight, but occasionally it is seven and once it was only six. So I was surprised and pleased when the principal called a week ago and said he had given out all eight copies of my most recent manuscript and had an additional three (later four) students who wanted to be beta readers.

I said that was fine and made more copies. Making those extra copies cost me time and money, and I also give each beta reader a $10 Amazon gift card. This means that too many beta readers could get expensive. On the other hand, beta readers are essential for insuring the quality of the final product, especially because it has been decades since I was the same age as my audience. The questionnaire I ask them to fill out gives me many insights into how well the story works for children that age, including the vocabulary. If there were words they didn’t understand even in context, I strengthen the context, find replacement words, or even discover that I don’t need the passage at all.

Since I write historical fiction, I ask my readers to give me the page numbers of any passages that sound like a boring history lesson. Over the years I’ve gotten much better at avoiding that, and these days the answer is often “none.” But when they do list page numbers, I look at each of those passages to see if it advances the story. If it does, I try to find a better way to say it, which often involves shortening a description or summarizing a quote. If it doesn’t advance the story, I leave it out. I write historical fiction because I want my readers to learn about their country’s past, but telling a good story is always more important than any lesson I want to teach.

Every comment I receive from my beta readers is seriously considered. No, I don’t take all of their suggestions, but I do take many of them—possibly even the majority. When my first group of beta readers said they wanted to know what happened to my main character after she left an internment camp and moved to Chicago, I added an epilogue. A more recent story began with a house fire that kills the protagonist’s parents. She is taken in by a missionary family preparing to travel around Cape Horn to the gold fields in California. After that, the story mostly forgot about the fire. That wasn’t intentional, but it was an oversight. One beta reader suggested I add a small fire on the ship that shows the protagonist’s fears even if nobody gets hurt. I not only did that, but I added other references to show the effect the fire had on her, and the book is much better for it.

Those are just two examples. Over and over, I have incorporated beta reader comments that strengthened the story and made the book better.

Beta readers are invaluable, and I’m grateful for every one.

__________

The image at the top of this post is from the 1925 edition of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott. The illustrator was Clara Miller Burd, and the illustration is in the public domain because of its age.

Searching for Beta Readers

 

I am looking for volunteer beta readers for a murder mystery that is a blend of police procedural and women’s fiction. Although I don’t plan on paying for the service, I will include my beta readers in the acknowledgements if the book is published, and I would be happy to return the favor for beta readers who are also writers.

The ideal beta reader would be:

·       An avid reader

·       Who enjoys police procedurals and women’s fiction, or at least one of the two genres;

·       Someone who is honest and won’t worry about hurting my feelings,

·       And, conversely, someone who understands that every reader is different and won’t feel hurt if I don’t take all their suggestions.

I don’t expect to find the ideal beta reader, but one trait is above all others. If you can’t be honest, don’t volunteer. If you don’t tell me what’s wrong, I won’t know what to fix.

Beta readers will have a month the read the manuscript and give me comments. I will email the manuscript and a set of instructions as Word documents unless a particular volunteer asks for a different format or a hard copy.

If you would like to be a beta reader, use the contact tab at the top of this page or message me on Facebook. If you learned of this request through the Chicago Writers Association email group, you can respond to me there. Or, if you know my personal email address, that works, too.

I’ve worked with middle-grade beta readers many times, but now I’m excited to work with adults.

Thank you for considering this request.

The Pandemic Kidnapped my Beta Readers

 

My middle-grade historical fiction is aimed at girls in the 4^th to 6^th grades and at 3^rd grade girls who read above their grade level, so I use students from a local school as beta readers. I ask the school for volunteers—preferably two girls from each of those four grades—and rely on the principal and the teachers to select the right individuals. I was almost ready to send out the manuscript for my Erie Canal novel when everything stopped. With schools scrambling to change their format from in-person to online, it was clearly the wrong time to ask for their help finding beta readers.

So I put the book on hold waiting for a better time. Originally, I assumed that things would be back to normal by September and I could return to my customary practice.

Wrong.

Schools are still adjusting to new ways of doing things. Although the one I use is holding in-person classes now, the staff is facing different challenges trying to implement the protections that come with that system. I’m just not sure this is the right time to ask for their help identifying the next group of beta readers.

Even when I do, the process may change. In the past, I have dropped off hardcopy manuscripts, questionnaires, and parent permission letters and the school has distributed them for me. That way, the girls didn’t have to use their own printers and supplies to make a copy or to use the less effective method of reading the book on a computer screen. But now they may prefer PDF copies sent by email. That’s actually easier—and cheaper—for me but harder on them. And they would still have to print out the questionnaire and the parent consent letter to complete and return to me.

The principal has told me that the girls enjoy being beta readers, and I’ve gotten that comment from several of them, as well. So they may welcome the oppoutunity. But more importantly, their feedback is extremely valuable and has resulted in significant changes to each of my manuscripts. Beta readers are crucial to the quality of the completed book, and I don’t want to continue without them.

But I’ll have to let the principal tell me when the timing is right.

Agent or Reader: Whose Opinion Counts Most?

After several rewrites of the opening scene of my Civil War manuscript, Learning to Surrender, I decided to begin with action: my protagonist and her family ran for shelter as Union shells fell around them. Then I paid for an agent critique of the first two pages, and she didn’t like the scene. She told me that action isn’t always the best place to start and she wanted to know more about the characters and the situation first. So I revised the opening paragraphs to do that and started the action a page and a half into the book.

Then I gave the manuscript to my middle-grade beta readers. My first question was, “Did the beginning of the story make you want to continue reading?” Six beta readers answered “yes.” However, it was clear from their comments that they were referring to the entire chapter (which included the action scene) and not just the first page and a half. But a fourth-grade beta reader answered the question with a “no,” stating that “It was boring and too random.”

Yes, I realize that we are talking about one agent and one reader, and everybody has different tastes. Still, what am I supposed to do? Do I listen to an agent who comes from the group of people who can get my book published or a fourth-grade reader from my target audience?

I’m going to try to find a middle ground where I begin with the action but weave in more information about my characters and the situation while the action is going on. And hopefully it will be a better opening than either of the two previous attempts. But the underlying question remains. Should I write for potential agents/publishers or for my readers? And I’m not alone. Most writers face the same dilemma.

I want to sell my books but not my soul. I need agents and publishers to accomplish the first, so I can’t ignore their criticisms and suggestions. But I won’t put my readers second, either.

It’s a quandary.

The Importance of Beta Readers

Beta readers are essential when the writer isn’t part of the audience.

I read a lot of middle grade fiction, but I read it with adult eyes. And I was a middle grader once, but that was a long time ago.

So after I did an initial polish to the manuscript for my middle grade novel, I went looking for beta readers. Within the past few weeks, I gave out eight copies. Sunday I got my first two responses.

These two evaluations came from sisters—one in 4^th grade and the other in 6^th grade. Both told me that my main character acted too young for her age (which I had been unsure about) and that the chapters were too short (contrary to what the “experts” said chapter lengths should be). The 4^th grader really took the assignment to heart, telling me that I should show more of my protagonist’s routine before Pearl Harbor, help the reader know Emi’s father better, and make the chapters flow more smoothly. (Her actual comment was that the book “kind of jumped around.”) She even pointed out that I used “choked back a sob” and “gulped back a sob” a lot. Pretty perceptive for a 4^th grader.

On the other hand, I had worried about the vocabulary level. I wanted it to be challenging but not frustrating. Both comments indicated that I had succeeded in keeping the vocabulary understandable.

I already have some ideas on how to make changes, although I will wait on most until I get the other responses back.

These two evaluations also confirmed something I already knew—when writing for an audience the writer doesn’t belong to, beta readers from that group are a must.

And I can’t wait to read the rest of the comments.