It’s been a week since I sent my manuscript out to beta readers. How am I feeling so far? Honestly, I feel dismayed with the experience.
I’ve sent it out to a number of family members. Well, they can’t turn me down. A couple of them are avid readers, so it will be nice to just get their opinion on flow and plot etc. At the end of the day, it is not enough to say that my family likes it. I still don’t know if they do.
I reached out to a few groups on Facebook and I sent a full manuscript to a writer in my critique group. At least I know that one is in good hands, and I’ll get feedback. I’m reading her manuscript too. Swapping manuscripts for beta reads is popular and only fair, I suppose. I have, however, done beta reads with no expectations of the favour being returned.
I posted my blurb on a historical romance author group. I thought I would get plenty of interest. Nope, only two people replied. I also posted on a beta reading request group. Although romance, and particularly historical romance, is not the most popular, again, only two people registered an interest.
Now, I’m not stupid. I’ve been cautious about who to send it to. I checked profiles and sent a message giving more information about what I wanted. One profile was empty but they were active among author groups. I sent the them a few chapters to see if we would work well together. The second had a strange profile with pictures of naked women on their board. I felt it necessary to ask further questions, as I really wasn’t sure about sending them my work, or reading theirs. Both have yet to respond.
So far it appears if no one has even read my messages, let alone taken a look at the chapters I sent. What am I supposed to do?
I’ll admit, I like to think I’m an organised person, and I like to be professional. I like to respond to requests promptly, and provide feedback within a time frame where possible. People work in different ways, yeah I get that. People are busy, yeah I get that too. Do I need to shut up and just relax a bit? Yes, no doubt.
The whole process is frustrating. I’m a new writer and I need to build up a group of critique partners and betas around me. How do I get started when no one is interested?
This is when self doubt comes into play. Is it my blurb? I wrote a second and posted it again. Did this attract more interest? No. Is the novel and it’s concept just boring? Why, when I go on the same sites and others post one sentence about their novel, are they getting fifteen to twenty people vying to read it? Argh!
Deep breath…My next question is: how long do I give the betas that have shown an interest to read three chapters before I start chasing? The last thing I want to be is that annoying and pushy writer with unrealistic expectations. After writing this rather whiny post, I feel I may have already stepped across that line. Fingers crossed, some feedback will start to trickle in over the next few weeks. I’m hoping to still have hair by that point.
What are your experiences with beta reading? I’m interested to hear the perspective of both writers and readers. Leave a comment below.
