A while back, I wrote about beta readers (what they are, etc.) and specifically about my experience as a beta reader. When I wrote that post, I figured my turn to ask for and work with beta readers wasn't going to be for a long, long while, but here I am! I have a book with a beginning, middle, and end, and I revised that 1st draft and edited (as my dad would say) "the snot out of it." Pretty soon, it came time to ask for some "test readers" and see what they think. Disclaimer: I'm extremely new to this process and am by no means an expert in working with beta readers. In this post, I will outline my current process for sending out my manuscript to beta readers. This process may change as I gain more experience.
Hand picking I decided to send out my manuscript in "waves" or in sets. I'm the kind of person that can easily get overwhelmed with too much feedback, and my confidence as a writer is still somewhat fragile, so I "hand picked" my first set of beta readers. Through my four-year drafting journey for this first book, I had friends who supported me and said things like, "I want to be your first reader!" or "you better not let anyone else read your book before I do." These were the first people I reached out to and they were more than happy to be not only be test readers but also a guinea pig in my beta reading process. I wanted to make the experience the best I could make it.
So I reached out to those referrals next, but I knew I had to eventually step out of my comfort zone and, you know, have people who didn't all ready love me or people who would love me because they knew the people who did love me--- read it.
In other words, I needed "strangers" to read my book and give me feedback on it. Again, finding them was easier than I expected! I belong to several online writing communities, so it was pretty simple posting something about me looking for beta readers and sharing a quick description of my book, just like I'd seen others doing, in appropriate forums. It's a busy/crazy time (school starting, COVID-19, etc.), so I wasn't expecting too many people to sign up, so I was happy when anyone did. I had one writer tell me about his avid-reader-daughter (13 and 1/2 year old) and when I reached out to her via email like her dad suggested, I told her she was welcome to share the sign up with any of her friends, and she got four of them to be beta readers for me, so that was pretty awesome! Evaluation of my process There were seven people in my first (hand-picked) set of beta readers. For my second, I had about fifteen. I revised my book, by the way, in-between giving these different sets of beta readers, so the first set had a different book draft than my second set. I don't know if you're supposed to do that, but that's what felt right to me. Some of my first set of beta readers were curious about the changes I made and offered to reread the book as part of the second set, which I was happy share again. (I didn't count these rereaders as second set beta readers). Whether handpicked, referrals, or strangers, I highly recommend having a sign up form! (more on that in part 2) It made it really easy see who I needed to set the book to. I also used a quick comments form (again, more on that later), which also made the beta reading process smooth on both their end and mine. Overall, I'm happy I got anyone to agree to read my book! I remember sending it out to the first set and turning to my husband a little while later and saying, "someone could be reading my book right now!" It was thrilling to think about others falling in love with my characters and just as rewarding to hear back that they did. Beta reading makes me feel like I'm a published author.... almost. I think the next time I send out, I need to be braver and do a little more work to get readers. If you're new and fragile like me, though, I still say to start with people you trust and go with their referrals after. It's really the best way to get into it!
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A couple months ago, I attended WriteOnCon, an affordable online conference for writers. I think it was my second or third time attending this yearly conference. Anyway, at the end of a how-was-it-survey, I was asked if I wanted to put my name in for a few raffles. I said, okay. There were a lot of things offered (i.e chat with an agent, first 5-page critique from professional editor, etc.) I wasn't expecting to win anything, but I did! I won a phone call with children's author Kelly Starling Lyons.
Talking with Kelly I admit that I was bit nervous to talk to Kelly because, as many of you know, middle grade (MG) is my thing, not Picture Books (PB). She's done a bit of chapter books, and I have this one idea for a chapter book series (possibly), so I thought we could chat about that. But as I approached the week before our scheduled phone call and I started drafting questions to ask her, I found that I really am interested in writing picture books! I sent my questions to her beforehand, and while we talked, I took notes. Before I jump into what I learned, I just want to say how easy it was to talk to Kelly! She was interested in me, how I'm doing in my writing journey, and congratulated me for completing my first draft of my MG book. What's it like working with an illustrator? I've always been curious about this, so I asked Kelly. First of all, I learned that the publisher usually picks your illustrator. They decide who would be the best fit, based on the manuscript you've given them. I don't know--- I always imagined the illustrator and writer submitting a manuscript together or something, but they're separate. The illustrator, employed by the publishing house, will illustrate, according to the words that the writer has written. Sometimes, after you've published a few picture books, the publisher (or agent) may ask you if you have an illustrator in mind, but even in those cases, you rarely get to choose who you want to illustrate your book. To me, it almost sounds like a blind date! Except, you don't actually work directly with the artist. Kelly explained that artists and authors are kept separate because they don't want the author to take control over the vision of the art. Basically, the writer works with an editor, and the illustrator works with an art director, and then the final product slowly takes shape. When it comes to historical fiction, though, Kelly says she usually gets to see more of the art work as they draft. What's the process for writing picture books? Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? In case of picture books, the pictures or the words? Kelly says the words. You write out your MS, just as you do with any other book. The main difference is that you write with illustrations in mind. Oftentimes, you'll see picture book manuscripts submitted with storyboards: simple stick pictures to show what might be happening with the words you've written on the page. A lot of agents accept manuscripts digitally now, but Kelly said when she started out, she had to send in her submissions by mail and often got rejections back by mail, too. Now it's all done by email. Are picture books easy to write?
Kelly I spent a while talking about this because I've heard on social media (etc), that picture books are not easy! Kelly says that we sometimes go into writing picture books with the idea that it will be easy. Maybe it's because it's for a younger audience and, therefore, it must simpler. So, writers draft a picture book, don't put (maybe) too much thought into it, don't do their research into the market, don't have mentor texts from the current market (etc). They submit and are suddenly so surprised that they got rejected! Wow, it's harder than they thought. In reality, those who understand the craft of writing picture books stand a better chance of getting picked up. That's true anywhere in the publishing world (I've learned). Of course, there will still be rejections. That happens to us all! But Kelly says, "Good stories find homes." What a great mantra, right?! As far as the craft of writing picture books goes, Kelly says it's pretty similar to writing poetry! We work with imagery, simile, and word choice. I mean, poetry applies to all types of art form, but I can see how it's especially applicable to picture books. This was good news to me because that's where I "restarted" my creative writing journey. I took poetry classes at the community college I loved it! It's really challenging, of course, but fun, too. So picture this: me writing picture books. Why not? Maybe it was coincidence (which I don't always believe in, by the way), but the moment I learned about and started thinking more about what it would be like have beta readers for my WIP (Work In Progress) was the moment a local author asked me to beta read for her.
I thought, "This is great! I can experience what it's like to be a beta reader before I ask others to beta read for me." I'm a big believer in doing things you expect others to do for you. This might come from my teaching experiences, but I never (for example) assign my students to do something that I, myself, as a student wouldn't do and/or haven't done. But before I share with you my first time beta reading experience (and give some advice!), let's make sure we're on the same page. What's a beta reader? Beta readers (according to my understanding) are test-readers, people who read your WIP before you submit for publication and/or self-publish (etc). Think of it this way: Let's say you ask your mom to read your WIP. If she's like my mom, she might read a few chapters (or the whole thing) and then say, "It's great, sweetheart!" or "It's cute! I'm proud of you!" As nice as these things are to hear, they're not usually helpful. They don't help you see the "real" reader's experience. They don't, essentially, help you know where you need to revise. Getting advice from parents, family members, or friends is often a risky thing because they don't want to say something "too critical" about the story. They have a relationship with you, and they don't want to put that relationship in jeopardy because they told you they didn't like your book. Enter in the beta reader. These are "good readers," but usually people you don't see on a daily basis. They can give you a better sense of what your story is doing well (or not well), what questions they have (confusing parts), and give you encouragement. How to beta read When I agreed to beta read, I shouldn't have been as nervous about as I was. After all, part of my job as an ESL writing instructor is to give constructive feedback on what the writer has done well and what I think would make the draft better. I'm a tutor, as well, so this gives me additional experience in coaching writers. But reviewing an entire book?! That sounds really difficult! I thought about it, and, well, I guess I have some experience in that, too. I mean, I read books, and I often give a star rating and write a "review" on GoodReads. Still... I wanted to do a good job, so I reached out to the Writing Community on Twitter, and here's a helpful blog someone gave me: BEST PRACTICES FOR WORKSHOPPING I read that and felt a little better about beta reading, so I dived into it. My beta reading experience I don't know why, but I always figured that when I asked someone to beta read for me, I'd begin by printing out chapters or chunks of my book and giving to them in a three-ring-binder. I envisioned myself hole punching and creating a package covered in smily stickers and a thank you note. I'd make several copies of the manuscript and mail them out readers who agreed to review my book and give me feedback. (I suppose I got that image from my workshopping days in college-- not the smily sticker part, but the having a physical copy of the draft part. We always printed out our poems and short stories for others to review.) But that's not what the local author gave me. She used (and paid for) a program called BookFunnel, which allowed me (as the beta reader) to open the large book-length document on my phone/electronic device for free through Play Books. When I accessed the document, it had a disclaimer that told me what the local author was looking for (something she wrote herself) and how long I had until the document went away. It makes sense. It's like that moment I tell my students that when it comes to adding page numbers to your word document to "let the computer do the work," and select the insert page numbers option, rather than counting and typing in your page numbers. Instead of copying and hole punching and compiling little notebooks together, let technology do the work! So that was the first thing I learned about beta reading. (Probably obvious to many of you, but still...) The second thing I learned about it was how to convey my thoughts about the book to the author. For this, I again turned to the Writing Community and asked Twitter. I asked if I should comment on each scene or chapter or an overall review of the book. The answer? Whatever works for you! As I read, I decided to take notes (via google docs) for most of the chapters and then compile my thoughts in a long letter-type email to the author. I started out by telling her that I'm sorry if I sound like a teacher (because that's what I am), but these are the things I liked about the book and these are the things I'd suggest to change in order to make it more engaging to me as a reader. And then, I attached my notes. The email was received well. Compiled advice Overall, I enjoyed my beta reading experience. If I were to do it again, I might look at my personal schedule a little more seriously because her beta reading timeline overlapped with my essay grading times, so it was challenging to read the entire novel in (essentially) one week. I asked for more time over the weekend, which she gave me, which leads me to my compiled advice for those of you considering to beta read:
As I mentioned, I'm not quite ready to ask for beta readers. But I'm glad I had this experience because it gave me a "taste" of what I will be asking others to do for me, allowed me to see how the beta reading process works, and allowed me to test out (and challenge) my reviewing skills. If you have a book you'd like beta read, if you write MG or YA, consider me. I'd love to have more experience in it.
Within those two types, there are categories. For example, in traditional publishing, there's the Big Five, Mid-size and Large, and Small Presses. In Self-Publishing, there's Hybrid, Assisted, and DIY. Marylee gave us an awesome grid that shows the pros and cons for each type of "delivery" or publishing. (If I get a PDF of it, I'll put it at the bottom of this blog.)
This was a lot of help to me as I try to decide what my goals are as a writer. Don't be surprised by the request to build an author's platform This means you need to have ready to go:
Marylee admits that this can be discouraging to many writers, especially those not computer savvy. However, it's easier than you may think. There are lots of resources to help you get started. Personally, as an extrovert, this sounds like a lot of fun. Nevertheless, it is a hard truth, and it's even harder if you're self-publishing because you're basically managing everything. Just get started, Marylee says, and take baby-steps. Timing is everything Marylee gave us a list of keys to success. She said that you need to:
She gave us a list of things to do prior to book launch. It's defiantly a list I'll keep and use when I'm ready. Write and memorize your pitch Even if you self-publish, you'll be asked to talk about your book. You need to be ready to tell people what your book is about. The pitch, the synopsis and query are just as important as the manuscript. TRUTH FROM YOURS TRUELY Like I said in part 1 of this blog post, I learned a lot from Marylee MacDonald. It isn't over, yet. I'm actually meeting with her one-on-one on Friday and, hopefully, in August as well. I'm sure she'll have more workshops in August as well. I remember her inviting me to go to her first publishing-themed workshops. I told her "I'm not there, yet," but she told me I should come anyway. I'm glad I did. I've learned a lot. Of course, it's probably one of those things that you learn best on-the-job, like riding a bike. People can tell you all about riding a bike, but until you do it yourself, you won't know what it's like to to do it. I've taken notes. I've mused about them in a two-part blog. I'll learn more after I "finish" my manuscript and start working towards publication. But it's exciting! I hope you've enjoyed skimming through what I've learned (so far!) this summer from Marylee MacDonald. My library invites published authors to hold office hours in the library and help aspiring authors. They give workshops (to all the branches) and appointment-based one-on-one feedback for writers. For the past year, since I learned about the program, I've made a point to meet with each and/or participate in one or more of their workshops. I've met Bill Konigsberg, Tom Leveen, Shonna Slayton, and Melissa Marr. From June-August, the writer in residence has been Marylee MacDonald.
I feel like in all of her workshops, she ends up talking a bit about publishing. (She gave two workshops, actually, specifically about publishing.) I'm grateful because it's such a fickle and mysterious world to many writers, including me.
She provides resources for aspiring authors on her website and answers questions about publishing because, as she says, "I just wants to share what I've learned." It's hard to sum-up everything she's taught me over the past couple months, but I'm going to try anyway. Enjoy the musings! The hard truth about publishing She has a funny list about why-you-won't-be-published, which she's shown in at least two of her workshops. I don't have her full list, but it has stuff like:
Right now, she says the thing that sells are romance novels and YA literature. There are lots of genres out there within these categories, like vampire romance novels (yes, that is such a thing), and it's important to know what you wrote and if it will sell. Because sometimes it doesn't. Marylee is an advocate for senior-citizen writers (and is one herself), but another "hard truth" she taught about the publishing world is that agents don't like signing on writers who are in their 60s or older. Why? Maryless says it's because they don't know how many books they can get out of you. It's a business. They don't want one book from their authors. They want a lot. It's not fair, but that's the hard truth. Another hard truth, which does affect me (I'm in my 30's) is that it takes a LONG time to publish. Sometimes 10 or more years. The sooner you start, the better, I guess. The publishing industry is like a fish market This analogy is a good one. It fits with what I learned in the book 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why it Might by Pat Walsh, a book a highly recommend, by the way. Basically, everyone goes for the freshest fish. You need to not only be young, but also have a fresh idea. Your book needs to be original and good. Really good. You're book's not done until you feel like throwing up Marylee said, "If you think you're done, you're not." After you write all those words--- beginning, middle and end--- you need to proof read it. And then proof read it again. She says that if you have 20 avid readers (not friends or family) read your book and they say, "I couldn't put it down," then you're getting closer to finishing, but you're not, yet. She says you'll be so sick of the book that you'll feel like throwing up. That's when it's "done." Read Part 2 of this blog. |