First of let me put in a disclaimer: as a writer and an aspiring author
who dreams of getting published, I want you to read my book. And I want her to
read my book. And him. And those five people over there.I want my friends, family, coworkers, and strangers to read my book. I want you to read my
book if you love sci-fi. I want you to read my book if you hate sci-fi. I want
positive feedback. Negative feedback. Questions. Concerns. I write, not just
for myself, but for you all…my audience.
That being said, one of the most disheartening things you
can do to an unpublished writer is promise you’ll read their WIP and then
never do it. It is crushing.
There. I said it.
Recently, (and for most of my adult life) I have been struggling to get beta readers to
actually read my finalized, author-edited manuscript and provide feedback. In
April 2019, I put out a post on Facebook saying “Hey, I am looking for 3-5 beta
readers who want to read my YA, near-future dystopian manuscript.” I made a
point to note that I had a few specific questions and I only wanted interested
people who would be able to deliver feedback by August. I was blown away by the number of responses I
got - all told, it was around 20 email addresses. So I thought, “Hell, why not?”
And I sent them all the manuscript along with some questions that I wanted them
to look for as they read.
To date (November 1, 2019) I have gotten ONE response, which
includes all the “Thank you, I’m looking forward to reading it” emails (which,
in all honesty, was 0). That one response was feedback and a request to meet
and discuss it (yay!). However, think about this for a second. One response out
of over 20. Frankly, that super sucks. (Later on, I did get one apology of life
being crazy and the person not being able to get to it. That’s fine. I understand stuff gets insane in
life and some people will have life intervene. And yes, I also understand that
I was not offering to pay people. Still though, I would expect more people to communicate…).
Here is why this 1 of 20 response thing sucks:
1.
Between April and August, I was sitting on my
hands…waiting. I had stopped submitting Anamnesis to publishers. I had stopped
looking for beta readers or editors. I
stopped trying to figure out how I’d pay a beta-reader. I essentially wasted a
quarter year of potential progress waiting for people to come through on their
word.
2.
Now, I had just given my novel out for free to a
bunch of people. Maybe somewhere down the line, they’ll read it. But if I get
published, would they buy it? This goes along the lines of asking an artist for
free artwork. Or a physical therapist for free adjustments. Yes, some freebies
are expected when you want to go into business for yourself, but if you want
this to be a career or at least a profitable side-gig, you can’t be giving
stuff away for free all the time.
3.
You offer to read it the novel because you want
to get into my good graces…or my pants. I absolutely hate it when the following
scenario occurs: Person A: “Oh you’re a writer?” Me: “Yeah I’m working on
wrapping up a novel.” A: “OH! I’d love to read it sometime.” I mean, Person A
doesn’t even know what I write or what my story is about. How can you, in good
conscience, volunteer to read something you know nothing about? This type of
enthusiasm is the carrot-dangling behavior that really crushes my spirit
because the moment we break up or Person A gets busy with something else, all
that promise goes out the window. And I am left, yet again, with no feedback,
sitting on my hands, wondering what I’m going to do with the manuscript now.
4.
It causes me to think the worst and then descend
into a spiral of self-doubt and loathing. Did my betas start my novel and find
it just. That. Bad? So bad that they
couldn’t get through it, but were too embarrassed to tell me? Was it offensive?
Or awkward? How can it be improved? This has caused me to put a novel away for
good before. And yet, I still don’t know if that novel was garbage or not…..
I’m sure right now some of you are thinking, “wow, she
sounds so ungrateful to her friends. These people are volunteering their time
and their energy to help.” Except they aren’t. They wrote words to me stating
their intention, but that was it.* They provided me with hope, that was then
let down. As writers, it’s already hard enough to get noticed. Your work falls
into piles and piles of similar projects – filled with all the hope, fear, triumph
and regret of their authors. When you submit something to a publisher or Agent,
you’re lucky to get an auto-generated confirmation of receipt and better yet, a
rejection. However, I don’t want to feel that same let down with friends.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong in my search for betas. Do
need to pay them? Find strangers on websites (though this has never worked for
me either)? Create an application process? Make them pay me? :P Join a writers’
group? What do other broke non-career authors do when they need a second set of
eyes on their work?
So…What did I do? I jumped in for one more try of 3 beta
readers. One, I promised a bottle of scotch. One, I read his novella so now have
guilting powers. And one read my first draft and knows I have no qualms
hounding him until he completes it. So
we’ll see…
I will now conclude this post with a PSA: Please, please,
please…don’t feel like you *have* to read my stuff if we’re friends. If it’s not your genre, or if you just
don’t have time, that’s OK! I will still love you. However, if you do
volunteer, make sure you can reasonably predict having the time and energy to
follow through. And if you have questions, or problems, or can’t finish it,
please…just let me know! Don’t make me turn a post about beta-readers into a
post about communication…
(And for those who have helped me out in the past and who
are currently putting in effort for me, I am grateful [and hopeful] for the
feedback you will deliver).
Lyndsie
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