Edit-Beta-Review

A Beta Reader is someone who reads an author’s semi-edited book and provides feedback on the book to the author to assist the author in improving their book.

A Beta Reader can be:

• A friend or family member of the author,
• Another author,
• A fan of the author,
• An amateur who loves reading and giving feedback to authors,
• An Alpha Reader
• A professional Beta Reader (or Editor, etc. who also provides Beta Reading services),
• An ARC Reader (Advanced Review Copy Reader).

Each Beta Reader provides different levels/types of feedback, however, the general vibe is to give constructive feedback to the author on ways the story could be improved – this could be at a high-level (overall vibe), or to a nitty-gritty level (grammar fixes, etc). This type of feedback could include (one, some or all):

• Simply if they did or did not like the book.
• What specifically they did or did not like within the book.
• Any areas where they felt things were missing in the story, character development, plot, pacing, etc.
• Constructive feedback on how the above areas could be fixed.
• Corrections to spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc.
• The feedback from a Beta Read is not intended for public viewing, like an ARC Review is.

A Beta Read occurs:

• The Author writes the first draft of the book.
• The author self-edits the book.
• An Alpha Reader reviews the book (if engaged by the Author) and the Author updates their feedback.
• A Beta Reader will read NOW.
• The Author will then update the feedback from the Beta Reader (or multiple Beta Readers).
• The Author may send the book out to more Beta Readers to provide feedback.
• Once the Author is happy with the story, they will either send it to their Professional Review Team (such as Proof Readers, Editors, Publishers, etc) for final feedback and will make changes as needed.
• Just before the book is to be published, they will send finalised copies to their ARC Readers.