Finding beta readers can seem daunting.
Of course your first reaction to finishing your WIP is to share it with your friends and family. You've worked so hard on it and now it's done!
...well, not exactly done.
And that's why you shouldn't share your first draft with them. Let's take this idea out of writing and put it into something everyone can understand - cooking.
Imagine you are trying to make a dish for the first time. You experiment with ingredients, temperatures, plating, and when it's finally done do you want to give that experimental dish to someone you are trying to impress or some random person?
My advice, give it to the random person. Wait until your recipe is perfect before giving it to someone you love. Imagine making something for the first time and it tastes absolutely horrible. You give it to someone you want to impress and the next time you try to cook for them they are going to be wary of it or not want to eat it at all because of that terrible first experience.
That's a lot like writing. When you ask for someone to beta read your WIP, you are asking them to test out this recipe and to let you know what they think it needs. You aren't trying to pan it off like it's this refined and finished piece of work. And if you are - well you need a reality check.
So if you can't turn to your friends and family, where can you turn?
Honestly, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to find beta readers these days. People love reading stories before they're published and if you thank them or shout out their social media, they are even more happy to help.
But in order to begin finding beta readers, you need to make sure you have a strong social platform. And when I say strong I don't mean thousands of followers, but you'll definitely need more than double digits if you want your voice heard.
Along with the social platform, you need to know the communities on it. If you are on Instagram, pander your requests to bookstagramers. If you are Twitter lean more towards the Writing Community. Facebook has book and author groups. These are the places you want to look because these are the people who will be the most willing to help in a way that will benefit your writing the most.
What I always do is put out a call post asking for beta readers about two weeks out from when I plan on open requests. Post the callout post a few times during the following two weeks and then open a google doc form for people to fill out. You'll get a small handful of requests and you just need to short through them and find the people that you think will help you the most.
Now it's important to remember that with beta readers you want no more than five but no less than three. This is because too many opinions can be just as harmful as too little. You also want to make sure that these people are different. Different in race, religion, age, genre preference, etc. - The more diverse you can make your beta readers, the better feedback you'll get.
But the most important thing to remember about beta readers is that they are doing this FOR FREE. You should never have to pay your beta readers, but you should remember to treat them with kindness and respect because after all - they are taking the time out of their busy schedules to help you.
Love always,
Plotbunny
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