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But beta readers can be an elusive topic for the aspiring author, especially one who doesn’t belong to a formal critique group or otherwise have a circle of writerly friends. So, I’ve compiled this guide to help direct you toward forming a good relationship with your readers. I’ve had a total of four manuscripts read by beta readers (two partials through an online writing site, and two fulls through personal contacts), and so far I’ve had a very positive and productive experience with beta readers.

When to Use Beta Readers

Figuring out when to use beta readers can be tricky. There are two basic times when you should consider betas. First, when you’re just starting out writing. Betas at this point can point out the major flaws in your writing. Things like overuse of common words or repetitive sentence structure. I was guilty of the first offense when I started writing. I overused the word “that” to the point it was incredibly distracting once it was pointed out. I was lucky to have readers who mentioned it without disparaging the overall manuscript. Now that I’m aware of it, I can figure out when it’s appropriate to use “that” and when it’s not.

The other time you want to use beta readers is before submitting to agents, publishers, or literary magazines, especially for your first few manuscripts. At this stage, you want betas who can point out any major structural issues with your manuscript, as well as any underlying issues with your writing. You want to present the strongest manuscript possible when submitting to agents or publishers, and having an extra set of eyes helps ensure there aren’t any major problems.

When NOT to Use Beta Readers

While beta readers are invaluable when you’re first starting out and right before submission, there are times when using betas can be detrimental to your writing. The main time this is relevant is when you’re finding your own voice. It’s time like these when you’re still unsure of your own writing, but are getting better every day. You’ve ironed out the major technical issues and are working on forming your own style. This is an important time for a writer, and unless you have very, very gentle beta readers, hearing a bunch of negative feedback can have a huge impact on your confidence levels.

Feedback I’ve received right before submission could have crushed me when I was still unsure of my voice. It could have made me question everything I thought I knew about my own writing. At this point, though, I’m pretty comfortable with my style and the way in which I write, so I can easily pick through the feedback I get and figure out what’s valid and what’s simply a difference in style and voice between my betas and me.

If you’re sure you’ve worked out the technical issues in your writing but are still nervous about your own style and voice, be wary of beta readers. While good betas can help you refine your voice, they can also destroy it. If you want outside feedback, find writers who have a style similar to what you’re trying to create and ask them if something works or not. Tell them you’re still trying to figure out your own style and see if they can point you in the right direction.

How to Find Beta Readers

There are two main sources for beta readers: other writers, and readers. You probably already know readers. Look for people who read in your genre and who won’t be afraid to tell you if they didn’t like something. Also reassure them that you’re open to criticism and you want their honest feedback.

If you don’t know any writers, join some online forums. There are plenty of sites online that have critique groups. Authonomy, Absolute Write, YouWriteOn and WEBook are just a few. Specific genre sites are also out there. You can also use sites like Meetup.com to find local writers’ groups if you’re not comfortable sharing your work online.

It’s best to find other writers for early beta readers, as they’re more likely to be able to pick out specific flaws in your writing. Both writers and readers work well for pre-submission beta sessions.

How to Handle Feedback

What you do with the feedback you received is just as important as the feedback itself. Some writers get a document back up with a ton of comments and immediately start going through and changing everything the beta pointed out. That’s not the best way to perfect your manuscript. You have to remember that your betas are people, too. They’re not always right (but they’re not always wrong, either).

Look at the big-picture stuff. If your betas were confused by a certain passage or storyline, then that’s something you’ll need to deal with. It’s your job as a writer to make sure your readers understand what you’re saying. If your betas didn’t understand something, that’s your fault, not theirs.

If they found inconsistencies, plot holes, or loose ends, those are other important things to deal with. Characterization is a bit more subjective, but consider what your betas say about your characters, and adjust accordingly if needed.

The tricky thing to deal with from betas is comments on smaller things. Sentence structure. Word choice. Chapter breaks. Things like that. If you’re comfortable with your voice and style, you can likely figure out what’s actually an issue and what’s simply a difference in style between you and another writer.

Make sure you keep in mind whether this particular beta reader is someone who regularly reads your genre. Differences in genre standards can lead to misguided advice. For example, if your beta reader usually writes and reads chick lit and your book is horror, you might need to disregard advice to make things “lighter” in places.

But sometimes getting feedback from outside your genre can help you improve your writing overall, and can even make your book stand out from the dozens or hundreds of others agents and publishers see in your genre every day.

Treat Your Betas Like Gold!

I don’t care if you disagree with your betas. I don’t care if you think their advice is some of the dumbest, most-misguided, most trivial advice you’ve ever received.

They took the time to read your book.

In all likelihood, they took time away from their own writing to help you out. Sure, they brought their own preconceptions, their own prejudices to the table, but so will every single one of your readers in the “real world”.

When you receive feedback from your betas, you WILL send them a thank-you note. You will tell them you appreciated the time they took to read your book. You will NOT argue with them if you disagree with something they said. You can ask questions if you’re unclear on something they said, but make sure you do so in a manner that is respectful and polite.

Remember, no one has to read your book. You’re not entitled to beta readers (or any other readers). Treat them with respect, and if they then ask you to read their manuscript down the road, do so and give them honest, useful feedback without regard to the feedback they gave you previously. And if you are lucky enough and talented enough to get published, make sure you thank your beta readers in your book’s acknowledgments.

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That leaves me with quite the conundrum. Anyone who reads this blog regularly or follows me on Twitter or Facebook is probably familiar with my support of indie publishing and authors taking charge of their own careers. You’re probably also familiar with the fact that I’ve already self-published my own non-fiction book, Internet Famous, and have my own publishing company set up.

When I decided to self-publish Internet Famous, I had very set reasons for doing so. First, I wanted to get the book out quickly. I didn’t want to spend six months to a year finding an agent, then another six months or more finding a publisher, and then another year or more getting the book into print. The subject matter was timely, and I was afraid that if I waited that long, there could be a dozen books on virtually the same topic out in the meantime. The other big reason was that non-fiction has an easier time in the self-pub world, as it’s often easier to reach your niche.

So self-publishing Internet Famous was kind of a no-brainer. And while sales have been much slower than I’d hoped for, I consider it an ongoing project, and one that will soon be seeing some big changes. But more on that in another post.

Back to fiction. I love the indie novelist/author/publisher movement. I think it’s wonderful and empowering and a great thing for both writers and readers. There’s so much possibility there, so much room for growth, and I want desperately to be there, to contribute to it, and to challenge the conventions the publishing industry has held dear for generations.

But, and this is a big “but”, I wonder if I wouldn’t be better served by a mainstream publisher. That was a very difficult statement for me to type. As I’ve said, I love indie. I love everything about it. It speaks to the control freak that lurks not-so-deep within me. (Unless you’re an agent reading this; then I’m not a control freak at all and am the easiest writer to work with in the world. Promise.) And my book isn’t particularly niche-focused. It’s contemporary women’s fiction. Pretty mainstream, pretty commercial.

The other drawback to indie publishing for me at this point is time. I don’t have a whole lot of it. I have full-time blogging/editing/writing commitments already, none of which I want to give up. I have one self-published book out there that needs further attention. And I also have a lack of access to large numbers of book buyers. I live in a small town, I’m not particularly involved in my community, and there aren’t any real cities nearby. While I do have a large number of people who are familiar with my blogging (even a few fans, I think, which makes me smile every time I think of them), they’re not really my target market for this book.

So, I think I’ve developed a plan. I’m going to try the traditional route with this one first. I’ve created a list of roughly forty agents who I both admire and who I think might be a good fit for this book. I’m going to start querying them in the next couple of weeks, now that my rewrites are basically done. If I get no bites, then I’ll go through every publisher I think might be interested. If I still have no bites (which will be really depressing, btw), then I’m going to self publish.

What I’m hoping is that by the time I’ve gone through all the agents/publishers/whatever, I’ll have my next women’s fiction book finished (this would be either the sixth or seventh). And then I’ll release this one, the fifth one, for free to build a platform for the sixth. I’m honestly hoping I’ll find an agent, land a decent publishing deal, and start a long career as a novelist. I’m also not holding my breath and realize it’s a tough market out there.

So, while I will continue to support my indie friends, I’m gonna sell out and try my hand at mainstream for the moment. I may rejoin their ranks before long, and I’m sure at some point I’ll have a novel or two that don’t fit into the mainstream and will better fit the indie mindset.

I say: not gonna happen. And here’s why:

1. Lack of an ePaper display.

This is the deal-breaker for me. Reading on an LCD screen causes eye strain after awhile. Not a big deal if we’re just reading blogs or news sites for a few minutes at a time. But when reading a book, I might sit down for hours at a time to read. With an LCD display, that’s going to cause eye strain. That’s the single biggest reason I would not consider this at all for a viable ebook reader.

The other side effect of not having an epaper screen is that I have to charge the thing every day. With epaper, a charge can last for days or sometimes even weeks. That means if I’m going away for the weekend, I don’t have to carry along a charger with a Kindle or a Nook.

2. Lack of Selection.

The official Kindle store has more than 400,000 books available. Barnes & Noble’s Nook has access to over a million books, newspapers, and periodicals. And that doesn’t count the hundreds of thousands of books available on sites like Smashwords and Fictionwise. The iBooks store currently has titles available from five major publishers. Which probably amounts to a few thousand books (probably more with backlists, but I bet it’s still less than a hundred thousand titles). So if you only read mainstream ebooks, the iBookstore might have everything you’re looking for. But more likely, it won’t. And it’s unclear how well iBooks will play with DRM-free ebooks from other sites.

3. DRM.

If iTunes is any indication, iBooks will have heavy digital rights management. The mainstream publishing industry embraces DRM, but it’s pretty clear that tech-savvy consumers (which is what the iPad is most likely to appeal to) don’t appreciate DRM.

Other Shortcomings

The iBooks software isn’t the only shortcoming the iPad has. First of all, the internal memory is really lacking. Sure, the most expensive version has 64GB of storage, but the base model (the one that’s only $499) only has 16GB. To top that off, there’s no SD slot. Which means I can’t expand that 16GB of storage. I can tell you how long that will last me. About a month if this is something that I’m watching movies on, listening to music on, storing photos on, and reading books on. That’s unacceptable.

The lack of an SD slot also means I have to hook this thing up to my MacBook Pro if I want to transfer photos to it. Which makes that photo software they were showcasing a whole lot less impressive. It doesn’t even have a USB port. Or an HDMI port. That means I can’t hook it up to my TV to watch high definition movies. What’s the point?

A Better Alternative

First of all, if you just want a dedicated ebook reader, buy a Kindle. Buy a Nook. Buy an Alex. Don’t buy an iPad. If you want a giant iPod Touch, then buy an iPad.

The good news is that there’s a better alternative only a few months away. A company called Pixel Qi has come out with a new transflective display. What this means is that the display does double-duty. Let’s say you want to watch a movie. Then you use the display as a standard LCD. But then let’s say you want to read a book. You simply switch it over to epaper mode! And if you’re trying to surf the web in bright sunlight, then you can switch it over to transflective mode, which has less saturated color, but is easier to read in direct light.

And there’s a company based in India, Notion Ink, that has created a tablet that uses this new display. It runs on the open source Android platform, which means there are plenty of apps available, and it’s easy enough to learn to code them yourself. The best part? It’ll have expandable storage and it’s expected to retail for only $325. This is what I’ll be waiting for.

If you’d like to share what the image below inspires you to write, please do so in the comments!

A couple of basic ground rules for submitting your work. Please, nothing derogatory or defamatory about any person, living or dead. Also, please keep your writing samples PG-13 rated. I reserve the right to remove comments that I don’t find appropriate for the site or that I deem may be potentially offensive.

Photo by mikebaird, via Flickr

Now, I’m not one for starting resolutions right away on the first of January. I prefer to make them year-long goals. A few years ago one of my resolutions was to quit smoking. And on February 2nd of that year, I did (and haven’t touched a cigarette since). Had I tried to do that on the first of January, I probably would have failed miserably. So don’t force yourself to start your new goals on the first. Give yourself the time to ease into them, to get used to them, and to reach them successfully, in your own time.

So, without further ado, here are my ten New Years resolutions for 2010.

1. Write at Least 1,000 Words of Fiction Each Day.

This is one that I used to do almost religiously, but have become very lax about in recent months. Part of this has to do with increased work obligations. But in any case, I want to start writing at least a thousand words every day. I have two novels currently in the works, so lack of material isn’t an issue. And I can do a thousand words in less than an hour usually, so finding the time shouldn’t be too difficult. It’s just a matter of developing the habit. It’s something I know I can do once I find my motivation.

2. Do Less.

I have a tendency to commit to things without fully thinking them through. I’ve gotten better about this, but it’s still something I have to be careful of. So this year, I want to do less. I want to take the time to do whatever it is I’m doing as well as it can be done, which means devoting more time to individual projects. And since I have yet to find that elusive 25th hour in the day, the only option is to take on fewer projects. Which is tough considering I get ideas for brilliant new projects approximately every two minutes and forty seven seconds.

3. Drink More Water & Tea, Less Coffee and Soda.

This one should be easy. Theoretically. Of course, I’m saying this as I sit here drinking a double espresso…

4. Eat Healthier in General and Get More Exercise.

I’ve been struggling with my weight for a few years now. I’ve managed to lose around thirty pounds and have kept it off, but I still need to lose more. And with my ten year high school reunion looming on the horizon, now’s as good a time as any! And if anyone decides the class of 2000 needs to have their reunion in March, I’ll kill them (October fits in much better with my weight loss plans). The best way I’ve found to lose weight is to eat healthy and exercise. I know, that’s like rocket science, isn’t it?

5. Finally Set Up My Etsy Store.

I’ve been wanting to get involved with Etsy for awhile now. I lurk on their forums, read the blog, follow them on Twitter, and obsess over the products found there. And there are a few things I’d like to start selling on Etsy, I just haven’t found the time. Of course, this may contradict resolution #2…

6. Finish a Novel.

As in, finished, no more work to be done. I’ve finished first drafts of five novels, second drafts of three of those, and third drafts of one. But I have yet to get a novel into what I would consider anything close to “publishable” quality. I’m very close on one of those, so my goal is to finish it this year, to get it to the best quality I can possibly make it.

7. Apply to Bread Loaf.

I considered making this one “Get Accepted to Bread Loaf”, but considering they accept less than 20% of applicants and I still have no idea what I’m even going to apply with, I thought just managing the application would be ambitious enough. Bread Loaf is one of the oldest and most prestigious writers’ conferences in the country, and is conveniently located less than three hours from my house. If I get in, then that’ll be like icing on the cake.

8. Have More Experiences.

We all get so wrapped up in the idea of “stuff”. Our lives begin to revolve around things and possessions rather than the experiences and people who surround us. I want to have more experiences, make more memories, and stop focusing so much on the “stuff” we all accumulate. In fifty years, I won’t look back fondly on the things I owned, but rather the things I did and the people I did them with.

9. Be a Better Friend.

I’m horrible about staying in touch with people. It’s just in my nature. If it’s easy to keep in contact with someone, then I’ll do it. But if it requires a lot of effort, I’m not so good at it. Which has nothing to do with how much I care about a person or how important they are to me. I’m just easily distracted and have a hard time with following through on the whole “picking up the phone” thing or “writing a letter”. No more! This year, I’m going to make more of an effort to stay in touch with the people who matter to me.

10. Get Out of the Northeast Kingdom.

The area where I live is beautiful. It’s a nature-lovers’ paradise. It’s one of the few places left in the Northeast that’s really rural. It’s also almost entirely devoid of opportunity and cultural anything. Sure, there are bright spots within the Kingdom in terms of those things, but they’re few and far between. I love Vermont, and think I’ll always call it home, but I’m thinking it might feel more like “home” in other parts of the state. So I’m hoping to relocate this year, somewhere a bit closer to “civilization” and with a bit more to do. The house we currently live in was supposed to be temporary, something we could fix up and sell within a couple years, but it’s been our home now for more than six years. It’s definitely time for a change.

So there they are: ten resolutions for 2010. Not all of them are writing related, though some of them are. Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments below.

If you’d like to share what the image below inspires you to write, please do so in the comments!

A couple of basic ground rules for submitting your work. Please, nothing derogatory or defamatory about any person, living or dead. Also, please keep your writing samples PG-13 rated. I reserve the right to remove comments that I don’t find appropriate for the site or that I deem may be potentially offensive.

Photo by Augapfel, via Flickr

If you’d like to share what the image below inspires you to write, please do so in the comments!

A couple of basic ground rules for submitting your work. Please, nothing derogatory or defamatory about any person, living or dead. Also, please keep your writing samples PG-13 rated. I reserve the right to remove comments that I don’t find appropriate for the site or that I deem may be potentially offensive.

Photo by crabchick, via Flickr

I’m working on international distribution at the moment. The issue I’m running into is shipping costs. For international priority mail, the cost is about $13. But what I’m seeing is that first class mail is nearly that much to most areas (with the exception of Canada) and it can take twice as long. Can international orders be done through Amazon.com? Or through Barnes & Noble’s US website? If anyone knows the answer to this, please let me know!

At some point in the next couple weeks I plan on writing a post outlining the entire publishing process. Until then, feel free to ask any questions you might have in the comments here. And thanks to everyone for their support!

If you’d like to share what the image below inspires you to write, please do so in the comments!

A couple of basic ground rules for submitting your work. Please, nothing derogatory or defamatory about any person, living or dead. Also, please keep your writing samples PG-13 rated. I reserve the right to remove comments that I don’t find appropriate for the site or that I deem may be potentially offensive.

Photo by chalkie_colour_circles, via Flickr

If you’d like to share what the image below inspires you to write, please do so in the comments!

A couple of basic ground rules for submitting your work. Please, nothing derogatory or defamatory about any person, living or dead. Also, please keep your writing samples PG-13 rated. I reserve the right to remove comments that I don’t find appropriate for the site or that I deem may be potentially offensive.

Photo by closelyobserved.com, via Flickr