April 21 2023 | Anna Hawkins

As a writer, you’ve likely heard about beta readers and how they’re an important tool for writers to determine how future readers might react to their work. Beta readers can point out things an author hasn’t noticed, like missing necessary details or how the main character’s love interest is just insufferable, actually. But what exactly is a beta reader’s purpose? Are some beta readers better than others? And what can you, as the author, do to maximize the utility of beta readers for your own writing?

What is the purpose of a beta reader?

A beta reader is meant to be a “test reader” for your book. Just like how software companies go through a “beta testing” period for their new products, sending your book to beta readers is essentially “testing” it for any remaining errors or problems in the story that have made it through all your rounds of revisions. The purpose of a beta reader is not to copy edit for typos, but to provide higher-level feedback on the elements of your story. Are there any major plot holes? Do the characters and relationships between them feel real? Are there any missing details in the worldbuilding or anything that pulls the reader out of the story? These are the kinds of questions your beta readers should be answering.

Because beta readers are providing this kind of higher-level feedback, their answers to these kinds of questions are going to be subjective, based in their opinions rather than in strict, objective fact. So, who should you choose to beta read your book? And should you incorporate all of the opinions of all of your beta readers into your revisions?

When looking for beta readers, there are two important considerations: 1) does this person read a lot and 2) does this person read books in my genre? If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” that person probably isn’t the best choice for a beta reader. Someone who reads almost exclusively contemporary fiction, for example, probably isn’t suited to beta read for a fantasy novel, simply because they don’t have experience with fantasy’s genre conventions and tropes. Such a reader will have a harder time pointing out genre-specific clichés and might struggle to give advice on the detailed worldbuilding required in fantasy. Someone who reads a lot of books in the genre you’re writing will be familiar with common pitfalls and plot elements of the genre and will be able to offer better opinions on what you’re doing wrong (or right!).

So, now that you know a little more about the purpose of beta readers and how to choose good ones, let’s talk about what you as the author can do to make sure you’re getting the most out of each beta read.

Maximizing the Utility of Beta Readers

Your beta readers will likely be friends who love reading, fellow writers who you’ve exchanged beta reads with, or a freelance beta reader whom you’ve paid. So, “maximizing their utility” isn’t about haranguing them for details and squeezing them for every drop of labor they might be able to give for your work. After all, you may want them to beta read for you again in the future. Rather, maximizing a beta reader’s utility is about providing them with questions that help get them thinking about the aspects of your novel that you want the most feedback on. This way, you can make the process more pleasant for your beta readers, while also helping them tailor their feedback to you. Let’s break down several different story elements that you might want to ask beta readers about.

Opening Scene

The opening scene is one of the most important parts of your book. This is your chance to hook the reader’s interest and introduce them to your setting and characters. So, it’s important to ask your beta readers whether your opening scene lives up to its intended purpose.

Also, something that a lot of early-career writers struggle with is starting their story in the right place. A beta reader, after finishing the manuscript, will be able to tell you whether you started too early and left too much buildup between the opening scene and the plot’s inciting incident.

Characters and Goals

All writers want their characters to feel real and relatable. They should have goals that are compelling to readers and that help drive the story forward. If you’ve written a main character that readers find insufferable, that’s something you’ll probably want to fix. If your villain’s goals are more relatable than your protagonist’s, a beta reader can warn you before you send your book out into the wider world. Unless, of course, you wanted your audience to root for the villain, in which case take the win from your beta feedback and carry on.

There are many questions you can ask beta readers relating to your characters. Some of the most important points to hit are:

Characteristics: this extends to both personality and appearance. A beta reader can pick out personality traits in your characters that make them more or less likable, can tell you whether your characters are compelling and distinct, and can let you know if you’ve neglected to describe the appearance of important characters.
Relationships: this applies to both platonic and romantic relationships between your characters. A beta reader can point out if any of these relationships feel contrived and whether any romantic elements feel cheesy or out of place.
Goals: your characters’ goals should be clear to your reader and should help drive the plot. Motivations for goals should be believable. A beta reader can point out whether your characters’ goals are too passive or unclear.

Plot and Conflict

A compelling, original, and airtight plot driven by believable conflicts is essential to your story. A beta reader can help you determine whether you still have any glaring plot holes or dropped threads (those dropped threads might be good ideas for a sequel!) and whether conflicts are organic rather than feeling forced. A beta reader experienced in your genre can also point out the parts of your plot that are original and surprising and where you might be falling into tired clichés.

Pacing

Proper pacing is what holds a reader’s attention throughout the entirety of your book. A beta reader can point out to you where the plot slows down due to long, unnecessary infodumps or scenes that don’t do anything to advance the plot.

On the other hand, a beta reader can also point out whether you’re rushing through the plot. It’s easy to leave out details that a reader might need to understand the story when you’re trying to keep the pace up. A beta reader can point out where it’s ok to slow down a bit to include an extra detail or two.

Setting and Worldbuilding

Setting and worldbuilding are particularly important in secondary-world fantasy and science fiction, where the world is entirely separate from our own. As the author, it’s important to balance easing the reader into an unfamiliar world and pushing them into the deep end hoping they can figure out how to swim. A beta reader can tell you when that balance is off: where there isn’t enough explanation of the world or where you’re doing too much hand holding.

That’s not to say worldbuilding isn’t important in other genres, quite the opposite. A good setting and well-built world make your story come alive, no matter what genre you’re writing in. Without them, books would be nothing more than characters talking at each other in an empty room. A beta reader can help point out where your setting descriptions fall short: deviations from a previously established time and place or where there’s too much or too little description.

Dialogue

Dialogue is deceptively difficult to write. If you’re not careful, it’s easy for it to become stilted or info-dumpy. Well-written dialogue should reveal things about the characters and move the story forward, not trap it in a morass of monologue. From a pacing perspective, there should also be a good mix of dialogue and narrative in each scene. A beta reader can help point out where your dialogue falls short and where it really shines.

Writing Craft

An experienced beta reader, one who does a lot of reading or who may be a writer or editor themselves, can help point out shortcomings or strengths in your writing craft. Constructing sentences and paragraphs well is different from putting together a compelling plot, and poor craft can feel jarring or intrusive to readers. Shifts in style and tone can also break a reader’s immersion in the story, as can head-hopping within a scene. These kinds of issues may mean your book can benefit from professional editing. A good beta reader can help point them out.

Overall Impressions

Something else you can learn from your beta readers is whether your story delivers on the premise. If your story doesn’t do this, it will leave readers feeling disappointed and they won’t want to come back for any potential sequels. A beta reader can also help you determine whether your story needs any content warnings, things that potential readers should be aware of before they start the book.

The Most Important Question

Now, once you’ve chosen a few great beta readers and received their feedback, how do you go about incorporating their feedback into your work? The answer to this question is twofold. First, you should not try to incorporate everything all of your beta readers say into your work. This way lies folly. Have you ever heard the saying, “a camel is a horse designed by committee”? Your beta readers won’t have the same opinions as each other about every aspect of your story. And too many opinions can muddle things, obscuring your vision for the plot and characters. To say it again for those in the back: DO NOT try to incorporate every bit of feedback from your beta readers into your work. Instead, look at the feedback you’ve received, pick out the bits that make you think, “oh, that’s interesting,” and work on revising your story based on those suggestions. However, and this brings me to the second part of my answer: if all of your beta readers say the same thing about a particular aspect of your story, that is something you should pay special attention to trying to fix in your revision. If you’ve written a character you absolutely love, that you want your readers to love, and all of your beta readers say he’s terrible? Clearly something isn’t coming across the way you want it to and should be fixed in revisions.

No matter what questions you choose to ask your beta readers, there’s one that’s important above all others: why? Asking your beta readers to clarify why for any given piece of feedback they write will help you as the author determine 1) whether to pay special attention to that feedback or not and 2) how to go about fixing the issue.

For example, if a beta reader says they don’t like a character, and when asked “why” they say, “because he’s annoying,” that’s not helpful to you as the author and is probably safe to disregard. However, if they answer “why” with something more like, “because he manipulates everyone around him into doing what he wants and he’s relentless in his pursuit of the main female character to the point of stalking,” then you as the author should consider whether that’s the perception you want readers to have of your character and make revisions accordingly.

Are you in search of experienced beta readers who read widely in genre fiction? The Tomeworks editors are here to help! We offer beta reading services for $0.015 per word. Plus, we bring our own questionnaire, so you don’t have to put the effort into making one yourself! And we’re running a special promotion from now until Mothers’ Day: use code “weheartmoms” for 10 percent off beta reading and other services from Tomeworks.