Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Betastic

It’s that time in my book’s life cycle where I have to send it out into the cold, cruel world (you’ll see what I mean in Saturday’s post) to be brutally slaughtered. I mean critiqued. Isn’t it weird how slaughter is laughter with an s at the beginning?

Anyway, I already have one really good beta reader (did you know I forget words all the time? Because I didn’t), and I’m not worried about losing her. I beta read for her and when she published, she sent me a copy of the book. I think that’s like getting married for beta readers. She was the first person who read COLLAPSE besides me and her notes gave me plenty of ideas to make things, in a word, better.

How I would love to believe that this one critique is all it needs to be mind-bendingly awesome. But it might be prudent to find other people willing to read it. I just hope I have the same luck as I did when Julie first asked me to beta read for her and promised to return the favor. My other interactions with betas has been…unfortunate. To sum up, one fell ill, one disappeared from the internet, and the third just hated my MC.

So. That’s where I am right now. If anyone is interested in beta reading/critiquing, let me know. So there are no surprises, it’s a YA dystopian and written in first person present tense. I know, how trendy. But it’s how I like to write. I’m always happy to return the favor, as long as you don’t disappear on me. Then I might have to hunt you down.

6 comments:

  1. Snap! I also have a YA dystopian out with a couple of CPs. It would be great to have it read by someone doing the same genre. (Mine's third person, BTW). It's still more at the stage of being critiqued rather than beta'ed, but if you're interested in swapping let me know: mcwilfo(at)gmail(dot)com. :)

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  2. I've had a lot of bad luck with betas in the past. A lot of disappearing. It's not a good feeling, so I don't do it to other people.

    I'm more than happy to help beta read if you need. I like first person present tense. I've used it myself in my YA urban fantasy.

    mjfifield(at)gmail(dot)com.

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  3. Man, you hit all three of my big "NO"s.
    1. dystopian
    2. 1st person
    3. present tense

    And I don't want to hear anything about how House is 1st person, because it's not the same thing. :P

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  4. At the moment, where my mindset is with what's been going on, I don't think I'd do the task justice. I'd miss things.

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  5. You know, my 11-year-old niece (who will be 12 in about a month) is mad for YA dystopian. She tore through Hunger Games and right now is passionate about Divergent. I could ask her if she's interested (if you think she would be helpful).

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  6. Hey JEF,
    I haven't commented for a while but I've been a steady reader of the blog. I'd be interested in being hooked up as a beta reader. Of course, I may ask you to do the same in the near future. :)

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