The Writer's Information for Beta Readers: Coping with Beta Reader Suggestions
In this final post in our guide for writers to beta readers, we're going to talk about how to deal with all of the great feedback you've gotten from your beta readers!
If you don't know what a beta reader is, return to the first post in this series to find out. The previous post also had answers to burning questions of whether you pay beta readers, what kind of beta readers you want to find, and more.
The second post explained how to work with beta readers, how to prepare your manuscript, how to ask someone to beta read, and how to keep your beta readers focused on the big problems.
Now we come to the big project: Implementation of the beta reader feedback!
Tips for dealing with Beta Reader feedback
You have spent some excruciating weeks waiting for feedback from your beta readers. You've probably worked your way into an anxiety attack with all that waiting. What if they don't like it? What if you need to do a major paraphrase? Its scary!
Waiting. Seriously.
It will be tempting to look at your feedback as soon as one of your beta readers lets you know it's done. Do not do it!
It's a bad idea to look at feedback from one reader at a time. Why? Because you don't see the whole picture. And for the full picture, you sent your manuscript to beta readers first.
So wait for the deadline to pass (you gave your beta readers a deadline, right?) Before watching anything.
Combine documents
Back to the full picture idea, you want to combine all of the documents from each and every one of your beta readers into one master document. You can easily do this using MS Word, or there are software programs (like BetaBooks) to help you.
But now you have a huge document with possibly hundreds of comments. That excitement that you felt when you saw how much your beta readers loved your book subsides and quickly turns into fear. It's time to freak out!
Take a deep breath
All of these comments look daunting so go ahead and get your freakout behind you. I don't know if this is a necessary step in the process for every writer, but it is for me. I can't help but feel like every comment is bad and I want to throw the book away.
The fact is, every point in the review process is a point at which an author wants to give up. Not. Especially not now. You came too far for that.
Take a deep breath and remember that you are trying to make your book the best you can.
You don't have to accept all feedback
The fact that you can ignore some of the feedback should put your mind at ease.
I'm not saying all you can do is make fun of yourself and think that your betas don't get it and toss all of their feedback out the window.
I'm saying some of those hundreds of comments are probably things like, "Oh, I love that description!" or "Wow, that's crazy!" While beta readers are just trying to help (and I love reading those kind of comments), they can just go through and delete them. They're not really helpful at this point, except for an ego boost.
There are a few other things that you could ignore. If someone comments that they are confused and may have missed something, but no one else is saying that they are confused at this point, that person most likely actually missed something while reading. Make sure you haven't forgotten anything important, then delete it.
But you have to listen
That sentence that three said was weird? Be sure to. The character that nobody likes? You might want to look at this person again (unless you don't want anyone to like them!).
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The key to getting feedback from beta readers is understanding the commonalities of your beta comments. If more than one beta reader is commenting on something, you'd better be careful.
Read every feedback and comment and think twice before deciding whether to take it seriously or whether to ignore it.
Next Steps
Hopefully your manuscript was in pretty good shape and you don't need to change a lot. In that case you can go ahead and send your MS to a reviewer.
Some people do another round of beta readers after tweaking their manuscript to make sure they haven't messed up anything. I don't, but when you do make sure you are using a new set of beta readers, not just to avoid asking the same people a favor, but to make sure you get a fresh look at the Get history.
Don't forget to say thank you!
I told you in the previous post that your beta readers are doing you a favor and you should always remember that. Never treat them disrespectfully and thank them for the hard work they have done. I thanked you extensively in a personal email (not a bulk email!) And will send my readers a free e-copy of my finished book.
If you missed the previous posts in this series, be sure to read them through! In this post, I am going to provide an overview of beta readers and the process, and in this post, I will tell you how to find them.
Are you having a hard time accepting feedback from beta readers? Let me know in the comments.
WORK OUT
For today's practice, write for free about how to deal with criticism. Write for fifteen minutes. I promise this is a good practice to learn how to take feedback better!
If you are, feel free to post your free writing in the comments!
Sarah Gribble
Follow her @sarah Typos or subscribe to her free email list at https://sarah-gribble.com.