Well, on the bright side, I don’t feel overwhelmed and swamped by the response to my Beta Reader invitations…
CritiqueMatch.
The way CritiqueMatch works is, once joining, you send invitations to people who are already with the site and form a pool of people willing to work with each other. The intro 5 Steps to Get Started (under How to use the platform, bottom of the home page) advises ‘invite at least 5 partners when you join‘ using the ‘Search Partners‘ feature.
I sent seven invitations out on September 17th, and a further five on the 25th.
Nobody seems to be in a hurry. Not even to say ‘no.’
Facebook, Round One.
I read somewhere that the best place to find Beta Readers is in your own social circle, so, following the low level of response I’d encountered that far, I sent a request out on Facebook to any of my friends who’ve ever been a Beta Reader to get in touch.
I guess none of them have.
I’d prefer to work with someone who knows what they’re doing in the Beta review process, because, personally, I don’t. I’m flying fairly blind in terms of what questions I can ask that would actually be useful.
Anyway, I mentioned in passing to my wife that the responses had been something short of lackluster. So she shared off the post to her friends.
Apparently, her friends are no more excited than mine…
An Interlude.
In the middle of all this, when I was hoping to be setting up a Beta process with a small number of Beta Readers – I’d rather not know what I’m doing with a handful of strangers than a whole horde – I didn’t really notice because I’ve been incredibly busy, and the last two weeks haven’t been my favorite, to say the least.
So, I had a scratch at fleshing out my – so far – main two characters for Lock Out Tag Out. Right now, they have an income, a home, cars, jobs. I even know what their tax return is likely to be – almost nothing.
Then I figured I’d get on with a couple of final research readings. Decade of Betrayal, which deals with the ‘Mexican Repatriation’ that most Americans don’t know about, and Ordinary Men, which deals with how Reserve Police Battalion 101, made up of ordinary people, got involved in the holocaust and mass murders.
More on those two readings will follow.
Facebook, Round Two.
While grilling the other day, I had my phone out and was messing around with it when it occurred to me that there might be a Facebook group out there that fits the bill for what I need.
There is. It’s a private group called Beta readers and critique partners.
I asked to join and early the next morning, I was accepted.
On the face of it, it looks awesome, full of people looking to be Betas, or seeking Betas.
The Plan.
My intention isn’t to just jump feet first into the group, I want to take a few posts to see the best way to present my request so that I get the kind of people who would actually read the material I’m writing.
This is an opportunity to narrow down that target audience.
The Old Man, or whatever I eventually rename it, wasn’t written with a Young Adult audience in mind. Actually, I just had the idea of a story to tell, but since I don’t think it works as Young Adult, I’m trying to steer more toward the more mature reader crowd. This first novel, at least in its current draft, doesn’t showcase the dystopia completely, so it might be better to consider it, at least for Beta Readers, as general fiction. It deals with domestic service, so it would hopefully appeal to Downton Abbey fans, although the setting is entirely different. I’ve also written it as what I expect literature to be – a story with an underlying message.
What this tells me is that my target reader will most likely be over 30, politically left-leaning, and probably female, though I can’t defend that assertion and it’s probably bias or prejudice on my part. I don’t see a reason at all that this would be the case, it’s simply what I would expect.
Up Next…
Right now I’ve got my nose firmly in Ordinary Men. It’s very well written, I’m learning a lot and it’s going to help me flesh out some of the characters in Lock Out Tag Out along with helping set up some credible events. I’m almost a quarter of the way through and I only started it yesterday (Saturday).
I would hope to be ready to bring this first draft up to fresh eyes for a critical review, probably some time next week, that is some time after October 5th.
Of course, I’ll keep this blog updated so you’ll get to see how it all goes. Which will be exciting, because so far, nothing has gone anywhere.
Unless you count me going mad…
By next week, I should have enough of a review for Ordinary Men, and if I’m in a position to go ahead with a Beta process, I’ll put Decade of Betrayal on hold until that’s over.
Anyway, we’ve pretty much run out of September, Fall should be with us for real any day, so I hope everyone gets some great Fall weather and the opportunity to enjoy it before the frosts arrive.
Stay safe and have a wonderful week.
Categories: Beta Readers, Beta Readers and Critique Partners Facebook Group, Critiquematch, Finding Beta Readers, Resources, Target Audience
Andrew Wellington 
Leave a comment