Things to do with Your BetaBooks Annual Subscription

by Guest Author | Sep 05, 2017

Today's guest post is from Aaron Rath, a long-time BetaBooks user and friend of the team. Thanks, Aaron!

Now that BetaBooks has had its public launch, maybe you've already subscribed, or you're thinking about it but trying to figure out how to best make use of the tool. We all know about novels, of course, because the site seems special-made for them, but the software is flexible enough to support plenty of other options.

Here are a few things you might consider.

Episodes: Instead of one large book, maybe you've got a character who has a series of smaller adventures. They can stand as short stories, or bundle them together into a larger project. (If it worked well enough with Pratchett's early Discworld-Rincewind novels, it's good enough for you!) Focus on one at a time, but keep the same reader pool and all the feedback in one place.
Serial releases: It's an old-fashioned model (think Dickens, who was paid by the word ... and it shows), but it may have a place in a fast-paced gig economy. Instead of writing one giant novel, break it up into pieces and release them in serial fashion: monthly, quarterly, annually, whatever works for you and your audience. Even as the final product is spread out over time, BetaBooks can keep it all together.
Time-release challenges: This is the one I took advantage of. After three massive novels, I wanted to do something short and inspirational. I settled on a personal development theme, but then decided I'd frame it as a 30-day challenge, one that I would run through with a few willing testers first before wrapping up to publish.

As I flailed around looking for a way to present daily challenges, post my own personal results, collect feedback from the other participants, and keep it all organized, I first considered Facebook, or thought about spinning up some web site or personal blog just for the occasion, but then I realized I already had access to BetaBooks, and that it would do everything I wanted. I could post one "chapter" per day, letting my reader-participants (readipants? participeders? Okay, that needs work) follow along and either comment or at least check in to tell me they'd completed the challenge. Then I could tack on my results on the following day, in addition to posting the next challenge. (Plus, if they didn't check in, I could spy on them behind the scenes and at least know if they'd read the entry, or needed a poke to keep on track.)

And of course I had the other features handy that BetaBooks provides: the ability to edit on the fly (nothing like the first reader catching a terrible typo or confusing sentence and being able to fix it before the other dozen readers stumble over the same thing), communication management, feedback collection, the ability to flag notes for follow up and then put them to rest once you've taken care of the issue. All of this worked really well as the month progressed.

Even better, after the challenge was over, I could update the files, keep them in one place for revisions, and then let a second group of beta readers go through to experience the project as a proper book, helping me put the needed final polish on the project before publication.

The final results became The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay, which is now on sale in digital format from Amazon and in print from most major online retailers.

Andrew's note: I got to peek inside Aaron's book as he was working on it, and it's pretty neat. Also, he absolutely nailed the cover. Hope you'll check it out :)

You can find Aaron online at www.aaron-rath.com or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/author.AaronRath.