Today I have the pleasure of introducing to you all Jean Oram, the New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author of feel-good, tingle-inducing, heartwarming romances, including the Veils and Vows and Indigo Bay series. She also happens to be a BetaBooks subscriber, so she said yes when I asked for an interview. Hooray! Read on to learn about her road to publishing, her relationships with her beta readers, and her advice for authors thinking about running a beta.

How did you get started as an author?

I had been feeling as though I was missing out on watching my daughter grow up and my husband and I had decided to try having me stay at home with her instead of working at an out-of-town high school library. One summer I got this excited feeling and declared I was going to try writing a novel.

I had no idea how to write a novel. I had never done any creative writing and didn’t even know how many words long a novel was. I only knew I wanted to write something fun, light and romantic like the ones I had been enjoying reading such as Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding and Meg Cabot’s Size 12 Isn’t Fat series.

Well, I discovered part way through writing my first novel that they are quite a bit longer than I expected. Like, a LOT longer. But that actually worked out well for me since I still had a lot of story to write.

From there I joined a writing website, moderating online chats with literary agents while working with my critique partners to hone my craft. At one point I returned to working in libraries, but then my son came along and I was home again! I kept writing and one of my critique partners made the jump to indie publishing. She loved it and felt I would too. She was right. I made the jump when my son was two and haven’t looked back!

How many books would you say your publish annually? 

This varies a lot from year to year, but four novels (65,000 - 75,000 words each) is probably my average.

So how do you keep the ideas (and the work of writing) flowing?

For me, quiet moments can often lead to fun new stories ideas. However, as my kids get older and life gets busier in a lot of ways between their sports, my volunteering in our community, and running my own business (writing & publishing) I don't get as much time in my day to sit and dream in the same ways that I used to.

However, I meditate each morning and also allow my mind to drift during my daily walk with the dog. As well, we happen to live a minimum of 20 minutes away from pretty much everything which will give me a bit of quiet headspace whenever I need to drive somewhere. Story ideas will come or solutions to projects I’m working on if I give myself enough quiet.

And one of the wonderful things about my job is that I can take time off with my kids during their school breaks which is a great time to shift gears away from work which always sends me back to my computer refreshed, rejuvenate and my creative cup replenished.

What does your publishing process look like, and how does running a beta fit into it?

My publishing process tends to vary depending on what I need at that stage of growth as a writer. Here’s a sneak peek at my current process which I am using for my upcoming Texas series. Sweet cowboys, anyone?

I spend a month or two working on a few drafts of the book, then send it to my story editor who remarks on the plot and characters and ways I can strengthen it. Then I spend a few more drafts fixing up and strengthening the elements she has pointed out.

From there the novel is pretty much where I think I want it. However, I know that sometimes what is in my head doesn't always make it onto the page, Or, that something I understand and therefore don’t describe on the page doesn't always make sense to my readers who sometimes live on the other side of the world. This is where my beta readers come in. Typically I choose about eight for each book and we work on the book through BetaBooks.

Once my beta readers have completed the book I make changes based on their feedback. Typically this is fairly minor, but on occasion it means rewriting scenes or working on an entire story thread.

I do another read through and then from there the book goes to my line editor who works on sentence structure, grammar, etc.

Then I do another draft of polishing based on her work, and then the book goes to my proofreaders. And lastly, one last peek from another reader group who points out any last errors or continuity slips that have made it through this far.

And then… published!

Time to have a drink, then start the next book if I haven’t already!

You call your beta team your Beta Sisters, which I think reveals a lot about the relationship you have with them. I'd love to know how you found your team and built those relationships.

My Beta Sisters are simply amazing. They are spread out across the world and do a fabulous job of helping me hone the story and those minor things that can really impact a reader’s experience. My Beta Sisters are a vital part of my process and I love them dearly.

I found my Beta Sisters by putting out a call through my newsletter. There was an application form for them to fill out and I selected a few from that list. Originally I thought I would swap out beta readers with each book, but I quickly learned there was value in having these readers complete an entire series as they could catch continuity mistakes or suggest small things that maybe I needed to mention in subsequent books.

As well, my Beta Sisters love the feature where they can see each other's comments on the story within BetaBooks. They quickly built trust amongst themselves meaning we can have honest conversations about how a sentence or character action is interpreted by the reader, and how a proposed change may or may not fix that identified issue. That, to me, is invaluable.

In some ways, I feel our relationship was previously sketched out before BetaBooks through my newsletter and reader group. By that, I mean that they were aware of my personality and expectations—and also my books. Working through BetaBooks simply cemented things for us.

Have there been times you've drastically changed something in a book based on their feedback?

In one of my books, yes. I had set several flashbacks further in the book and my Beta Sisters convinced me to bump them up so they appeared sooner. I had been leaving the flashbacks as a reveal for later, trying to build toward it. However, they (correctly) felt the flashback would have a more beneficial impact if they were at the beginning of the story. Their reasoning was that the reader would then have insight into why the hero was behaving the way he was. Without the flashback, they did not like him.

In other words, I was looking at a high possibility of “Did Not Finish Reading” comments on that book if I didn’t switch things around.

With the flashbacks sooner in the book readers were able to understand the hero, and therefore his subsequent actions—which had initially been unlikeable—became layered in emotion.

If an author was on the fence about using beta readers, what would your advice be?

I would tell them to try it. I know it’s scary. I had a beta reader early on who made me want to quit writing. Yeah, it was that bad. Good thing I’m stubborn. Or is that determined…?

Anyway, think of it this way: What is the harm in getting feedback on your book before you publish it? We can’t always know what’s going on in the mind of our reader or how they interpret what is on the page no matter how good we think we are.

Back before BetaBooks I published my first book and set it free on all stores in order to get reviews so I could see what I needed to fix. At that point I wasn’t entirely sure I could do this whole romance author thing as a career.

That was a crazy strategy.

But it worked for me. Now, there are so many better ways to get that feedback without putting your one and only book free. BetaBooks is easy to use and my readers love it. It’s private so you can add someone you trust to read your story. Start small. Find people who will be honest yet kind. Find people who LIKE the kinds of books you write. As in, they read your niche regularly and know what they like in that niche and what others do, too.

Why? Try this story on for size:

One of the people who read my early work and called themselves an editor read romance. Yay! My author friend loved her. No. Not yay. They read steamy stuff and hated love triangles. Guess what my book was? Sweet—not steamy. And there was a love triangle. I spent a lot of time on feedback day doing an “anger run” on the treadmill.

So you found your people? In each chapter there is a spot in BetaBooks where you can ask for feedback. Try it. Ask for their reactions. Ask broad questions that are subjective, but don’t make you an open target. Such as: How did this scene make you feel? Does the way the hero reacts in this scene make sense to you based on the last scene or do you feel there should be more explanation around it?

Then track your readers. In BetaBooks you can see which chapter each reader has read to. I noticed in my last book that my Beta Sisters gobbled up the first three chapters as soon as I opened up the book for them. Then they went away for a day. Yes, it was in the middle of the workweek so this isn’t entirely abnormal. But a bunch of them stopped at Chapter 3? Hmm… So I looked at the chapter and saw my chapter ending was a very, very natural point to set down a book.

You can bet I went in there an added a better hook.

You've been using BetaBooks almost since the beginning. What keeps you around?

Beta books is easy to use, my readers are familiar with it and they have found it easy to learn. They love the features where they can see if a flag has already been made by another reader on something like a sentence that has a missing word.

I also love that I can see how far into the book they are. As I mentioned, if they all stopped reading in the same place, I can go in and fix things. I can also see when they are done.

I love being able to sort through the feedback based on chapter or reader and mark comments as done.

It’s so much easier than sending the book to eight different people and having eight different documents returned to me to work my way through. With BetaBooks all the feedback is in one place and ready for me to work on—in live time! I can comment back as a reader is in the chapter and leaving her comments which allows us to discuss something live and while the chapter is still fresh in their mind. And even better—other readers can chime in, too!