Life is Good with Beta Readers

As I wrote in my previous post, I am now using Beta Readers. It is great. I got lucky and found several readers who read my book quickly, and gave me valuable feedback. It also helps that they liked my book.

I did a lot of research on how to find them. Go to my post on finding beta readers. Despite all this research and efforts, I had a hard time scraping up some readers. I was successful through the World Lit Cafe  and Ladies Who Critique. Even though I posted several posts on many sites, I only had a few people to be Beta Readers. Three of them were through swaps. (Although I love reading, I liked their writing. I would rather have spent that time writing.) It was nice to help them out, too.

I got connected to five Beta Readers. In two weeks, four of them gave me pages of feedback. One of them is a friend of mine, three were unsure and unfamiliar with the lesbian romance genre, and one was an avid reader of lesbian romance.

What was great about this process?

• They were very pleasant to work with.
• Three of them are writers, so they know some of the things to look for.
• They were fast readers.
• I gave them parameters of what to look for and concentrate on, and they gave me feedback on it.
• They gave me very specific feedback.
• They liked my book!
• Many of them were excited about the book.
• Two people read the book in less than 24 hours. (I like to chalk that up to them really liking the book, but they just might be fast readers.)

My goal going forward is to gather more Beta Readers, and maintain the readers I have.