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An Indie Author Guide to Saving Money on Editing—Part 3: Using Readerssaving money on editing

An Indie Author Guide to Saving Money on Editing—Part 3: Using Readers

Published by Janell E. Robisch on January 16, 2017

Welcome! In this series so far, I’ve covered patience and self-editing. This week, I’ll cover how you can use readers to save money on editing and give a few tips on how to find them.

Why You Need Readers

If you are a career-track author, your editor should be a professional. She should be trained to help you with certain aspects of your manuscript. However, she is still only one person. It would be cool to be able to hire a team of editors, but most of us can’t afford that. If an editor is given a first draft and asked turn it into a structurally sound, grammatically clean, marketable manuscript, there are many more stages for her to go through to get to the end product than if she starts with a third or fourth draft.

So, instead of giving your editor your first draft, let your readers help you suss out as many problems as you can before you hand it over. When your manuscript is in better condition, your editor can take it further, and a cleaner initial manuscript means lower rates.

What Kinds of Readers Do I Need?

There are many names for the people who help authors as they turn their ideas into fully fledged books. Professional editors are among the last in line. Before them are the readers.

I am not going to tell you which kinds of readers to use and in what order. You can choose just one type or all of them. Each writer has a different process that works well for him. Some authors crave the reinforcement of reader feedback as they build a manuscript (alpha readers), while others prefer not to have that outside influence until their manuscript is solid and complete (beta readers).

However, I do recommend that you get feedback from at least one reader on your complete manuscript before you show it your editor. For my own writing, I sometimes show chapters to my critique group as I write. However, I prefer a round of self-editing before I get outside feedback on the manuscript as a whole. In any case, my work will have seen at least two rounds of revisions and usually two rounds of reader feedback before I send it to my editor.

Please note: It may be a bit of a process to find readers that are dependable that can give you the kind of feedback that you need. If you find good readers, cherish them, pay them in chocolate, and use them whenever they are willing to help you.

Alpha Readers

Alpha readers are your first readers. They read the manuscript as it is created or once the first draft is complete. If your alpha readers agree, you can send them your manuscript in pieces as it is finished and modify your work as you go on the basis of their feedback.

Beta Readers

Beta readers see the manuscript after it is complete and usually after at least one round of self-editing. Beta readers are people who read books. They are your test audience and can be anyone from your grandma to your friends from work to online group members.

Because beta readers are like a pilot audience, make sure that at least some of your readers are readers in your genre. They will be less impressed by the newness of your subject matter and will be more likely to give you feedback that you can use in the competitive marketplace that is book publishing.

Most beta readers are free, but you can find paid beta readers or get paid “manuscript critiques” or “manuscript evaluations” from editors as well. This may not save you a ton of money, but it should guarantee that your readers finish your manuscript and get it back to you in a timely fashion (which many beta readers fail to do).

Critique Partners

Critique partners are other writers with whom you exchange pieces of writing regularly. It’s a tit-for-tat system of “if you read mine, I’ll read yours.” Unlike alpha and beta readers, your critique partner has a vested interested in helping you out because he wants you to read and comment on his manuscript as well. He has also had the experience of writing and hopefully even studying the craft more than your average alpha or beta reader.

Critique Groups

Online or in-person critique groups can be a great place to not only get feedback but also learn to give it. A great critique group can carry you through various stages in your writing career, but with any group, online or in person, take your time to get to know the group and make sure that it fits your style and your goals before submitting your own work.

Where to Find Readers

Critique Groups and Partners

To find writing groups, check your local newspaper, do online searches (“writers’ groups near me”), or start your own. I found my critique group through a statewide writers’ club that has chapters throughout my state.

While not exhaustive, Writers and Editors lists many groups on its website.

Even if your local or online writing group doesn’t do critiques, once you get to know people, you might be able to find others in the group willing to exchange writing with you on an individual basis, and thus, a critique partnership will be born!

Kudos aren’t critical feedback, and they won’t make your book better.

Alpha and Beta Readers

Use friends, family, and coworkers, but choose carefully. Your readers should be the kind of people who aren’t afraid to tell you what they really think. Kudos aren’t critical feedback, and they won’t make your book better.

You can find alpha and beta readers through online or in-person writing groups (see Critique Groups and Partners).

A couple of simple searches will show that there are many beta reader groups on both Goodreads and Facebook. Also, K. M. Weiland at Helping Writers Become Authors put together this handy list of places to find beta readers.

Resources

Because the subject of getting feedback from beta readers and others could be a whole series in itself, here are a few other blog articles to help you out:

“How and Why I Use Online Alpha-Readers While Writing Novels,” Mary Robinette Kowal

“How to Find and Work with Beta Readers to Improve Your Book,” Kristen Kieffer, JaneFriedman.com

“How to Find the Right Critique Partner: The 6-Step Checklist,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors

“Should You Have an Alpha Reader?” Janice Hardy, Fiction University

“To Help Get Your Novel Published—Use Reader Feedback Wisely,” the balance

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An Indie Author Guide to Saving Money on Editing—Part 2: Self-EditingIndie-Author-Guide-to-Saving-Money-on-Editing-Self-Editing

An Indie Author Guide to Saving Money on Editing—Part 2: Self-Editing

Published by Janell E. Robisch on January 9, 2017

Welcome to the second part of my weekly series on methods that indie authors can use to save money on editing.

Last week, I covered patience and the ways in which slowing down can save you, the indie author, money on editing.

Self-editing can also save you money, and it definitely requires some of that patience. When you complete the first draft of a book, especially your first book, you might be tempted to dive right into formatting and publishing your new book with Amazon KDP, Amazon CreateSpace, IngramSpark, Kobo Writing Life, or one of the many other avenues for self-publishing.

By doing so, however, you are taking a dangerous gamble. Not only is your book likely to be full of typos because even editor/writers make typos, but your book may also contain plot holes, character and plot discrepancies, overly convenient endings, and other sales killers.

You already know that as an editor, I am in favor of editing before publishing, but I am also in favor of at least two rounds of author self-editing before that professional editing takes place.

So, before you start looking for that stellar editor with just the right price, let your book sit. Fill your mind with something else, perhaps another project, for two to three months so that when you pick it up again, you are no longer seeing what you think should be on the page (a.k.a., experiencing author blindness) but instead are seeing what is actually on the page.

Your process might look something like this:

1. Finish the first draft.

2. Wait three months. (Maybe write a first draft of a new book during this time.)

3. Self-edit.

4. Send the next draft of the manuscript to volunteer readers and get feedback.

5. Self-edit according to the feedback. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with alpha and beta readers until you believe that you have done as much for the manuscript as you personally can or are willing to do without an editor’s help.

6. Send the next draft to an editor or editors for an evaluation to see how far you’ve come.

If the editor recommends developmental editing (i.e., structural editing), you can work with him or her on this step if you’re not sure what to do, or you can do another round of self-edits yourself, focusing on structural issues.

If the editor recommends copyediting, you’re hopefully good to go on structural and big-picture issues and are ready to move forward.

My point here about self-editing is that by taking your time and fixing as many errors as you can with the help of readers, you can get a price on the lower end of your editor’s rates and maybe even skip developmental editing altogether.

How to Make the Most of Self-Editing

Establishing a process that works well for you will take time, and it’s one you’ll get better at the more you write and the more you see which steps help and which ones are a waste of time for you and your style of writing.

Some writers make many passes on their novel, each time looking for one specific item (e.g., overly used adverbs, too much telling vs showing, or point-of-view problems). If this works for you, great, but I warn you: the more you read your own manuscript, the less you’ll be able to really see it. That’s author blindness kicking in again. Editors get it, too, and that is why I recommend a separate proofreader once copyediting is finished. Unless you want it to take a year or more to finish every novel, take advantage of alpha and beta readers to help you see the things that author blindness will, well, blind you to.

Tips for Self-Editing

Here are some tips to help you make the most of your self-editing process followed by some resources with even more:

1. Apply rules only when they actually improve the story that you want to create. It’s easy to take the many writing “rules” out there and apply them universally, but thoughtlessly slashing your manuscript may cause even bigger problems.

For example, sometimes you need to tell, or summarize, less essential narrative to let the reader know what is happening so that you can get to the good stuff and really paint a vivid picture of important scenes. If you overly show a less important scene and extend it to several pages, you might lose your readers’ interest as they ask themselves what the point of the passage is and where the story went.

Many authors and even some editors focus on little details that will not matter to a reader as long as the story is tight and compelling. So when you are thinking about applying a rule to your book, ask yourself, “If I saw this in a book I was reading, would it bother me?” before you jump in with the red pencil. Alternatively, you can save the original passage, make the edits you are thinking about, and then compare both and see which is really better.

I know a lot of rules, but when I am editing, especially for big-picture issues, I read like a reader first. When my brain tells me that something doesn’t feel right or is just awkward or boring, it is only then that I get down to the nitty-gritty details and dissect the manuscript to see why it doesn’t work. Don’t waste time worrying that you overused a certain word or type of word until your alpha or beta readers point it out or you yourself are bothered by it when reviewing your manuscript after a break.

2. Start with the big-picture items first and then move to the smaller details. By big-picture items, I mean plot, characterization, structure, consistency, timelines and chronologies, tone, theme, and flow. By smaller details, I mean spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, word choice, and consistency.  (Yes, there are different types of consistency, but consistency is always key in editing.)

Don’t get bogged down in the little details until the overarching structure has been addressed.”

As you’re editing, if you see a spelling mistake, sure, you can fix it, but don’t get bogged down in the little details until the overarching structure has been addressed. You might end up deleting that sentence or passage anyway. So address the big picture first: How is your structure? Does it compel the reader ever forward, ever faster in a race to an intense, surprising-but-inevitable climax? Are the arcs of your main characters complete? Does your timeline make sense, or are your flashbacks confusing your readers? Does your dialog sound natural for each character, or is it stilted? Are your characters’ accents pulling your reader out of the story?

Only when you and your volunteer readers are sure that the story is in good shape should you start to worry about the rest.

3. Take advantage of free and low-cost resources. Any Google search will tell you that there are many, many free blog posts and articles out there to help you with self-editing. There will be a vast number of opinions on the best way to go about self-editing. I recommend that you find a few writing experts online that gel with your own ideas about writing and use them to help you figure out what to look for and what to focus on during your editing process. Some of my favorite resources are Writing Excuses, Helping Writers Become Authors, Writer Unboxed, Fiction University, Writer’s Digest, and This Itch of Writing.

Another source of inexpensive guidance is Amazon.com’s Kindle Unlimited. I have found a ton of books on the writing craft available to borrow with my subscription.

I’ll cover some more extended tips for self-editing in a future post in this series.

Other Resources for Self-Editing

Here are some resources that I have found particularly helpful:

1. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print, Renni Browne and Dave King

2. “Checklist for Editors,” The Editor’s Blog, Beth Hill

3. “The Fiction Editor’s Pharmacopoeia; Diagnosing Symptoms & Treating the Disease,” This Itch of Writing, Emma Darwin

4. “How Do You Eat an Elephant?” This Itch of Writing, Emma Darwin

5. “How I Self-Edit My Novels: 15 Steps From First Draft to Publication,” Helping Writers Become Authors, K. M. Weiland

6. “How to Be Your Own Book Doctor,” Fiction University, Janice Hardy

In next week’s post, I’ll cover alpha and beta readers and critique partners in more depth with a little more information on how to find them and use them to your advantage in getting your book ready for professional editing.

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What Is a Beta Reader? (Updated November 2017)beta reader

What Is a Beta Reader? (Updated November 2017)

Published by Janell E. Robisch on December 7, 2015

“What is a beta reader?” As a writer and editor, I am a member of many writing groups, both online and off, and I hear this question with surprising frequency.

For simplicity, you can head over to Wikipedia and get this definition:

“[A] beta reader…is a non-professional reader who reads a written work, generally fiction, with the intent of looking over the material to find and improve elements such as grammar and spelling…[and give] suggestions to improve the story, its characters, or its setting.”

Beta readers usually, but not always, provide this service free of charge.

Why Do I Need a Beta Reader?

In most cases, a novel will require several drafts before it is ready for publishing. Unless you’ve got plenty of money to spare, you might not want to pay for a professional editor at every stage. Optimally, your novel should be read and critiqued by a small group of people in addition to yourself. A small pool of beta readers will give you a variety of opinions on what can be done to improve your novel, from small details, such as spelling and punctuation mistakes, to big issues, such as flaws in plot and characterization.

What Should I Look for in a Beta Reader?

Having beta readers is like having a small focus group for your novel. Look at them like a small sample of your potential audience. With that in mind, look for beta readers that like to read in the genre or niche where your novel falls. Asking a person who reads only business texts to read your suspense novel will probably not get you feedback that will be relevant to your audience. In addition, dependability and attention to detail are also important.

Where Can I Find Beta Readers?

A few resources include:

1. Writers Groups: Your fellow writers may be more than willing to read your work and give you feedback, especially in exchange for the same favor from you. These groups can be in-person or online. For example, there are many fiction writing groups on Facebook, some of which provide a forum for critiques.

2. Friends and Family: The people that you are close to may be chomping at the bit to get a first look at your story, and even if they are not, they will often be willing to do you the favor of giving you a bit of advice on it. Don’t forget to ask your Facebook friends! This is a time when those overly critical relatives might come in handy, as you don’t want your beta readers to ignore flaws in the manuscript in order to save your feelings.

3. Online Forums: There are many online sources for beta readers. These include Wattpad, Goodreads, and many others.

If you have patience and an open mind to accept their feedback, beta readers can be a great boon to your writing process and can help you improve your novel and perhaps even your future writing.

Be sure to click on my Resource Editors for Fiction Writers for more info on finding beta readers and dealing with beta reader feedback.

What is the best thing a beta reader has done for you? Have you had a bad experience with beta readers? Finally, where did you find your beta readers? Help other writers out by leaving a comment below!

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Editors versus Beta Readerseditors vs beta readers

Editors versus Beta Readers

Published by Janell E. Robisch on November 9, 2015

I recently listened to a podcast about beta readers on The Journeyman Writer at Storywonk. It got me thinking about the differences between beta readers and editors and why a lot of writers think that they don’t need an editor when they have beta readers.

Certainly, there will be writers that make use of neither before self-publishing. For traditional publishing, it is rare (or should be!) that a book will be published without at least being copyedited. There will also be some overlap between the services provided by beta readers and editors. However, here are some differences that stand out.

Differences between Beta Readers and Editors

  1. Cost: Beta readers generally provide their services for free or as a quid pro quo. As trained professionals, editors charge a fee, depending on the work and their experience.
  2. Perspective: A beta reader sees things from the perspective of a book consumer. This is an essential viewpoint to be sure. Consumers/readers are your audience! Editors, on the other hand, can also be consumers. However, they are also part of the production team. They are more likely to have a handle on what isn’t working, why it isn’t working, and/or why it won’t work for your particular audience. They can also provide some hand-holding through the publishing process. Most beta readers would be out of their depth when it comes to the ins and outs of publishing.
  3. Experience: A beta reader’s experience will vary widely. However, any good editor will have spent years working with words day in and day out. They have probably taken courses to update their existing skills and learn new ones. They go out of their way to keep up with the profession and current books and trends in their sector of the publishing industry.
  4. Professionalism: When you hand your manuscript off to a beta reader, you usually just have to sit back, wait, and hope that they get it back to you and that they do so within a reasonable amount of time (believe me, I know). Maybe you’ll start writing your next book while you wait. Then, they may or may not hit on the points where you need feedback. With a good editor, you will get a schedule and a systematic point-by-point review of your manuscript, depending on which kind of editing (developmental editing, substantive editing, or copyediting) that you choose.

beta readers

Editor or beta reader? My advice? Once your manuscript is finished, start with a few beta readers. Then, polish up your manuscript on the basis of their feedback. Once that is done, seek out an editor. You will likely find that he or she has a lot to offer in bringing your manuscript up to a professional level. In this day and age of self-publishing, that edge is essential in giving your story the attention it deserves. If you are going the traditional publishing route, you can be sure that editors and agents will appreciate a well-developed, edited manuscript more than a rough first draft.

 

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