How I Evaluate Your Fiction Book as a Beta Reader
Why it's worth it to hire a beta reader for your masterpiece
Being a beta reader is one of the side hustles that has regularly brought me extra income as a freelancer.
This is also a job that I tremendously enjoy. And why not? I’ve been a bookworm for as long as I can remember. Even when I was in elementary school, I always looked forward to the new books I would be reading for every school year.
In this article, I would like to share with you a little about how I evaluate fiction books. While I also do beta reading for non-fiction books, I think it would be better to have a separate discussion about that because of the unique way I handle each type of book.
Here, I would like to let you know the kind of feedback you can get from a beta reader like me for your fiction books. This includes genres like romance, fantasy, young adult, cozy mysteries, suspense, science fiction and even action adventure books.
Why hire a beta reader?
Some people may think twice about hiring the services of beta readers due to the additional cost involved. However, this is a very valuable step before final publication.
Beta readers allow the author to see the book through another person’s unbiased perspective.
Hiring beta readers is like getting a taste of what it would be like to publish your book and hear all of your reader’s feedback.
While you can always let your family and friends read your manuscript, you can never be sure how other people outside of your circle would react.
The people who know you understand where you’re coming from and may have even listened to you explaining what your book is about. They may even be afraid to offend your feelings and so they hold back their thoughts about your book.
This is where beta readers come in. They will tell you outright what they liked or did not like about your book. They will inform you of the loopholes you may have missed or even some of the errors you failed to see.
For a more thorough understanding of a beta reader’s work, here are some of the things you can learn from a Beta Reading Report:
1. Your story’s appeal from the beginning
You will get feedback on whether I felt interested in reading your story from the very start. You will also read about the reasons why I found it appealing or why it failed to capture my interest as a reader.
2. The basic information your story should have conveyed
I will let you know if I have been acquainted with the background of your story in the early pages or chapters of the book. This includes knowing who the story is about, what is taking place and when and where the story is set.
3. My opinion about your main character
You will find in the beta reading report whether I was able to relate to the main character of your story. This is very important because there is a greater chance for your readers to like your book and to continue reading the story if they are able to like or identify with the book’s main character.
4. The overall impact of your setting and descriptions
I will let you know whether the setting of the story is interesting to me. You will also find whether the descriptions were vivid and realistic enough to catch the interest of the reader.
5. My take about the other characters in the story
While it is very important to make the main character relatable, it is also vital that your other characters are written in such a way as to make them believable and interesting.
6. Feedback about the dialogues in your story
I will let you know whether the dialogue of the characters in the story sounded natural to me, or if they didn’t seem to have come from real people who are talking to each other.
7. Your story’s pacing
The beta reading report will describe whether the story lagged at some point. (I usually mention the particular chapter when this happened.)
As an author, this can help you adjust the story if you want it to be more exciting.
8. The discrepancies noted in your story
I will report any particular discrepancy or inconsistency that I have noted in the story. This includes those affecting character details, order of events, setting and other information that your readers can find confusing.
9. My impression of your story’s world-building
This is particularly important for science fiction as well as fantasy novels. Are you writing a story about a dystopian future? Or are you writing a high fantasy novel like The Lord of the Rings?
You can use a beta reader who can comment about the various elements in your story’s world-building.
10. Comments about the plot and overall impact of your story
I will let you know if there are any loopholes in your plot. I will also assess the overall impact of your story. This includes whether there is sufficient conflict or tension as well as enough interesting elements to keep your readers hooked to the very end.
11. Thoughts about your story’s ending
The beta reading report will have a comment about whether your story’s ending is satisfying or not for the reader. I often comment about whether the ending was believable enough. You will also get feedback if the story still leaves many questions unanswered by the end.
12. Obvious errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation
While this does not necessarily fall within the scope of a beta reader’s work, I often include the errors I notice as an additional favor for my clients.
Bonus point: Your story’s sensitivity to certain groups of people
While there are sensitivity readers who specialize in beta reading reports for a more specific group of people, I often include my personal reaction to the overall impact of the story.
As a woman, an Asian and also a deeply religious person, I mention whether these groups have somewhat been treated unfairly in the story or if there were stereotypes used that can be offensive to some people.
Final Thoughts
Writing your book is an achievement that shouldn’t be overlooked. It has certainly taken a lot of time and effort just to finish writing your masterpiece.
With that in mind, it is only fitting not to publish it without due editing and review.
Here, the work of beta readers would be very valuable in determining whether some revisions still need to be made before the book is brought out for everyone to see.
Jocelyn Soriano is a writer, beta reader and editorial book reviewer. She has published more than 15 books and is currently helping fellow authors by giving them constructive feedback before they publish their masterpiece.
If you want to avail of her beta reading services (fiction and non-fiction), you may contact her through her website: Joysoriano.com.
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