Shay Roberts, How do you Beta?

Andrew and I are so happy to be able to bring you an interview with Shay Roberts today. He has made heavy use of betabooks.co over the past few months. His thoughtful feedback and precise comments on both his process and the BetaBooks site have been extremely helpful to us as we polish our features and more fully develop our philosophy. 

For authors looking to find new beta readers his answer to question 10 might prove helpful!

Preface: Please, tell us a little about you and your book and where we can find/follow you online.

I write fantasy. At the moment my focus is paranormal and urban fantasy. I spend entirely too much time at my computer and never see the sun. I am becoming one of the mole people! You can contact me through my website at shayroberts.com.

1. How do you know when you are ready to beta?

I go to beta after my alpha readers are finished with the book. At that point there’s a lot more work to be done. I think I had around 150 beta readers for my last book. That’s completely unmanageable without a service like BetaBooks.

2. Who are your beta readers and how did you find them?

I’m fortunate to have a wide variety of readers helping me. I asked for their assistance via my mailing list.

3. What is it you look for in beta reader feedback, and have you ever been surprised or learned something new about your book from your beta readers?

I appreciate readers who focus on the big picture. Finding typos is nice, but I’m more worried about plot and character development. I learn something new about my books every time I get feedback. Mostly I learn that I’m not a good enough writer to succeed without the help of the readers!

4. What is your most significant or memorable beta moment? A revelation about your book? A necessary change? A funny?

I once established a character as illiterate, then had her reading something in the next chapter. See, this is why I need beta readers.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to beta readers what would it be?

Take two passes through the book. The first pass is to absorb the book and make some overall comments at the end. The second pass is to make your picky comments. People sometimes don’t leave detailed comments because they’re in a hurry to read the next chapter.

6. Do you get critiques or feedback other ways, for instance from a writer’s group? How is what you seek from a beta reader different?

I’m lucky to have some great alpha readers who read my emerging chapters on a daily basis. I have driven them all to drink. Once their comments are integrated, I give the book to a developmental editor, and from there to the beta readers. Then it goes to a copy editor, a proofreader, and a polisher. Beta reading is different from those other tasks. I’m not looking for a publishing professional, I’m looking for a fan of the genre who’s willing to strap in and crash test the emerging book.

7. What is the most frustrating thing about the beta reading process for you?

Discovering am I not as clever as I thought I was.

8. What is the best part of the beta reading process for you?

Finishing it!

9. What does your process actually look like? Do you ask for stream of consciousness feedback, end of chapter, end of book? Do you give any guidelines or documentation? Use any specific software or tools?

I ask beta readers for end of chapter notes, encouraging them to tell me if they were confused or didn’t like something. I’m constantly processing beta comments and revising the chapters. If a beta reader has an issue, I try to fix it quickly so I don’t get the same comment from the next reader that hits that chapter. Consequently, I tend to get fewer comments from readers who enter late in the cycle.

10. Has how you beta your book changed over time and how? (Specifically you have a large group of readers and do a great job of keeping them engaged and providing helpful feedback what techniques make that possible?)

Because of scheduling restraints, I’ve had to shorten my beta cycle and cut down on the number of beta readers. But I’m thankful there are so many readers willing to help. Most of them are people who joined my mailing list via Instafreebie. My advice to authors is to write a great book and give it away on Instafreebie. You will find some good people there for your beta and review teams.