Let’s face it. Beta Reading is equivalent to having teeth pulled at the dentists. Sure, it may be necessary, but it hurts like hell and is bound to leave a few bruises. The Beta Reading phase of writing a novel is one of the most important, and also one of the most torturous. In this phase, you gather public opinion on your story from the eyes of your target audience. On the rare occasion, the feedback is good. A great majority of the time, feedback is not-so-good and sometimes terrible. Not everyone will love your novel, and a few will even rip you a new one. So how do you find the constructive in the constructive criticism you will get back? How do you find the strength to carry on?

Don’t Send Garbage

If you send out a few chapters in a rough state, full of bad grammar, no punctuation, and terrible sentence structure, prepare to get your rear-end handed back to you. Beta readers don’t have time to wade through something you threw together. They’re expecting an excerpt of a publishable novel.

Even if you’re looking for feedback on only a few chapters, you must make sure those chapters are polished. Most Beta Readers prefer everything you’d like read in one document, and not several. If you want serious feedback, you must prove you’re serious by giving out your best work in a concise format.

Don’t Expect a Timely Response

Reading for the purpose of catching continuity errors is a lengthy process. If you’d like feedback chapter by chapter, make that point known before you submit your work to a beta reader. Otherwise, you may be waiting until the reader is done with the entire submission to receive feedback. As well, your work may not be the only work the beta is reading. Holidays, weekends, and the beta’s own work and social life will also trump your reading. So be patient. Sometimes the beta reader may take a month to get back to you.

Don’t Expect Line Editing

A Beta Reader’s job is just that: to read. Most will not point out every grammatical error or spelling mistake. Some make make overall suggestions such as issues with verb tense, continuity, or writing style. Line editing or copy editing is a separate task and comes at a cost. The job of a beta reader is to give you feedback on how they liked the novel, not to correct it’s issues.

Don’t Take it Personally

When you finally get that response from the beta, it’s an exciting time! You open that email only to find the feedback is less-than-favourable and you feel like the world has crumbled around you. This is the wrong way to take feedback. Criticism is not an attack, but a means to tell you where your writing needs work.

Different readers give feedback in different ways. Some may use the sandwich technique (by telling you what they liked followed by what they didn’t like), others may just list the points you need to work on. The important thing is to figure out what the beta reader is telling you and not take the comments personally.

Don’t Forget to Thank Your Beta!

Most importantly, if you want to develop a rapport with the beta reading community, always thank your Beta Reader, even if you’d like to shove her face in a vat of boiling oil. Read over their feedback and craft your thanks in a form that proves you’ve taken what they’ve said to heart. “Wow, I never noticed my dialogue was so forced. Thanks for pointing that out!” Don’t try to defend the topic’s they pointed out; if a Beta Reader can’t figure out your plot, then an agent, publisher, or the average reader will not either. Trying to defend bad writing only shows you’re not mature enough for the task.

Take that, beta reader!

Don’t Give Up!

Your novel doesn’t suck just because the Beta Reader pointed out that you have flaws. Issues, even major ones such as narration voice or tone, can all be fixed. As long as the underlying story bones are strong, you still have hope.

If you have issues with self esteem or criticism, you can always point this out when you submit your work. Most Beta Readers will try their best to work with you with feedback. We want to help!

– Rissa

Rissa offers Beta Reading services for Young Adult fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal. You can contact her via social media through her Facebook page or Twitter.