Sunday, March 5, 2017

editing - Where to find beta readers?



Since I left my writer's group out of personality issues, invariably somebody becomes a know-it-all, it's been a real struggle to find people willing to invest time.


The friends/acquaintances I have who are generously giving time for my last project are likely to be a bit burnt out since it is a 160,000-word epic (which probably has no chance of being published at that level, so I'm going to have a lot of follow-up questions).


Indeed, my current novel of 80,000 words, give or take, may be ready before the epic gets back into my hands leaving me bereft of a readers' group. So now I don't know where to turn.


Any ideas on "hiring" free labor for beta readers? I imagine I can offer trade, but one of my problems with the writer's club was the expectation of 4-6 books/year, and I'm not sure if I can commit to that.


Edit: There is an answer from 5 years ago listing two websites. However, considering the explosion of self-publishing and the growth of electronic media, could I leave this open for a few days to see if there are new ideas?



Answer



As a previous answer mentioned, fictionpress.com is one site that offers connection to beta readers. Outside of that side though, there are plenty of places that offer beta services.




With this, networking will be your best friend, even if it is just within your community. Social media sites can advertise your need for a free or low cost beta reader. Many places have local writing groups (who I find often meet in local libraries) that you can probably join and make a "mutual beta relationship" with another reader.


No comments:

Post a Comment

technique - How credible is wikipedia?

I understand that this question relates more to wikipedia than it does writing but... If I was going to use wikipedia for a source for a res...