Beta Readers Play a Crucial Role in Editorial Process

Beta readers do a lot of things for authors, but aside from pointing out confusion in a manuscript and revealing aspects that are lacking in a story, the most important task they perform is to bolster the writer’s self-confidence.
 
If you’re not using beta readers as part of your writing process, the reasons you should are many. I can’t imagine going through the editorial process without them.

What are beta readers? They are simply the first readers and responders to your manuscript. After you’ve toiled over your novel-in-progress for weeks or months or years, and you’ve deemed it ready for another’s eyes, betas step up to the plate.
 
A beta reader can be anybody: friend, relative, complete stranger. Anyone who likes to read and vows to be gently honest—emphasis on gently—about how they feel about your work.  
 
Betas are like developmental editors in that they concentrate their feedback on the story. The content, not the copy. They comment on plot, pacing, and character, letting you know what they like and what they don’t.
 
Why are they crucial to your process?
 
As writers, we all have blind spots—things we do in our writing that we think are just fine but that don’t for whatever reason work for readers. If no one points out these blunders for us, they remain in the story potentially rubbing readers the wrong way. These may be small things or large things.
 
The problem with self-editing is that our brain accepts most of what we’ve written because it understands what we’ve meant to say (even if what me mean to say doesn’t exactly appear on the page).

Our minds can visualize our characters and what they’re doing, so it doesn’t think to raise an alarm and shout, “Hey, this isn’t working,” or “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
 
Beta readers help us reconsider these parts of our books. We don’t want to publish and start marketing only to find that our readers are offended by our characters (in a way we didn’t mean for them to be) or confused by the story (which made perfect sense to us).

If we didn’t use beta readers (or editors, another crucial element of the editorial process), the first feedback we’d receive would come in the form of reviews.
 
And angry, frustrated readers don’t leave kind reviews.  
 
In addition—and perhaps most important—beta readers also point out the good parts of our novels. The lines that sing. The twists that blow them away. The delightful quirks you've given your character and how well they positively bring those characters to life.

It’s gratifying to learn that what you’ve written moved a beta reader or made them stop and highlight your painterly turn of phrase.
 
Betas are the first to let you know they’ve understood your jokes and humorous circumstances (which either made them LOL or grimace), your tragic love stories (which either made them cringe or cry), and your tender moments of reflection (which hit the nail on the head or missed the mark).
 
The compliments they provide are the gold that keeps you going through each manuscript revision, through every edit, through countless proofreads.
 
And the good thing is, there’s still plenty of time to turn the parts they've labeled “needs work” into something equally as wonderful.
 
Either way, a beta’s feedback can be invaluable as it will most likely be the light that shines a way to a better novel than the one you’ve written all by yourself.
 
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