How to Choose Your Beta Reader

Crystal Watanabe

Introduction (various voices)  0:03  

Welcome to the Empowered Author podcast.

Discussion, tips, insights, and advice from those who’ve been there, done that, helping you write, publish and market your nonfiction book.

Being an author is something that you’ve got to take seriously. 

I’m proud I’ve written a book.

What does the reader need, first? What does the reader need, second?

What happens if you start writing your book before you identify your “why”? What’s the problem with that?

If you’re an indie author, you take the risk; you reap the rewards; you are in charge of the decisions. You’re the head of that business. 

Every emotion you’re feeling when you’re writing is felt by every other writer.

The Empowered Author podcast. Your podcast hosts are Boni and John Wagner-Stafford of Ingenium Books.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  0:52  

You’ve written your manuscript, hired an editor, and now you think you’re ready to publish. But wait: there is another important step. And that is the beta read. But what is a beta reader? Why do you need one? And what do you do with the feedback you get from them? That is what we’re talking about in this episode. And joining me to talk about all things beta reading is Crystal Watanabe. Crystal is the owner and lead editor of Pikko’s House, which is a small business providing editorial services for fiction and creative nonfiction authors. Crystal, hello, and thanks for joining us. 

Crystal Watanabe  1:33  

Hi, thanks for having me. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  1:35  

So you’re in Hawaii; I’m in Mexico. And we’re addressing – we’re addressing an audience, you know, wherever they are: anywhere in the globe, English language speaking. But it’s nice to be connecting to different geographical areas. What’s it like in Hawaii today? 

Crystal Watanabe  1:51

It’s really hot.

Boni Wagner-Stafford   1:53  

It’s pretty hot here in Mexico too. And we’re recording this in the beginning of June 2021, so ... So, beta readers, let’s start first with: what is a beta reader?

Crystal Watanabe  2:08  

I mean, a beta reader is basically someone who’s reading something that’s pretty close to your final manuscript. They’re like someone who can give you an advanced review in private so that you can get some good feedback, see whether you’re hitting the right notes and if there’s any problematic areas and if, you know, you’re hit– you’re just doing what you intend to do with your book. And beta readers are really good at doing that because they don’t have to worry about editing; they don’t have to worry about other things. They just, they read your book, and they tell you whether your message is shining through. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford   2:45

Right. So that leads to the next question, which is kind of obvious: ut what is not a beta reader? Or what is a beta reader not?

Crystal Watanabe  2:56  

I would say a beta reader is not someone who is going to help you develop your book or fix your book. They’re just there to point out things that work, things that don’t work. Anything past that, I think, would be considered like scope creep or possibly taking advantage of a beta reader. Because that’s more like an editor’s role. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford   3:20

So you raise the point about the editing and scope creep. So a beta reader, in your opinion – and I know there’s kind of a sliding scale of opinions on this – but are beta readers experienced in editing or are beta readers non-editor types that are more like a, just a generic reader audience for whatever your target is?

Crystal Watanabe  3:46  

I mean, it depends. You can try to find beta readers with different specific backgrounds that would fit for you. Some people want people who are not editors; some people who want people who are fellow writers; some people want people who just read books. So I mean, it depends. So if you have a certain expectation, it’s good to keep that in mind when looking for beta readers or reaching out to people. Because yeah, it all depends on your needs, you know, because maybe you already had like several editors working with you; maybe you already had a bunch of friends read your book. And maybe you just need like the opinion of somebody who, yeah, just somebody with specialized reading experience, kind of thing. So … 

Boni Wagner-Stafford   4:33

That sounds good. Who do you think needs a beta reader? Is it every author before they publish? Do you recommend they have beta readers? Or is it not for everybody? How do you decide? 

Crystal Watanabe  4:45  

I mean, I’m always hesitant to like give blanket advice but I do think beta reading is a very crucial – it has a very specific role in the process because I mean, you could go without a beta reader or you could go without a group of beta readers but what happens if, you know, something slipped through and like, there’s this big issue from a reader perspective that nobody picked up on and it comes out in your reviews on Amazon or something, you know: you can’t really take that back. So I think it’s, it’s good to have that feedback in private first.

Boni Wagner-Stafford   5:27  

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Boni Wagner-Stafford   5:59  

This makes me think about, first of all, a beta reader is not somebody who allows you to skip hiring an editor. That’s not what we’re talking about. 

Crystal Watanabe  6:10

Yeah. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford   6:11

So you always want to hire your editor. But I guess depending on the project and your budget, you might hire one kind of editor, which means that that editor is not looking for the kind of feedback that might arrive in the form of beta reader feedback. And, for example, structural or developmental kinds of editing, where you look at, you know, big picture, big picture focus – you know, are you reaching your right market? Is the message on point? – might not come through if you’re hiring a copy editor. 

Crystal Watanabe  6:49

Yeah. Yeah. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford   6:50

So it kind of – it kind of depends on what you’ve done there. Now what do I look for in a beta reader? And you kind of have touched on this a little bit but if we take ourselves and, you know, kind of stand from the perspective of an author who might not be that familiar with – maybe they haven’t used beta readers before: how would you advise an author to look at their project and figure out what they need in a beta reader?

Crystal Watanabe  7:26  

First of all, I think finding someone who reads in the genre or the category is really important because you could reach out to someone who’s an academic editor for your novel and maybe they don’t read sci-fi. Or, or maybe they don’t read fiction at all, you know, and they might take the job but they will probably have, like – they’re not in your market. So you want to look for a reader who would potentially be in your market eventually. Because I mean, what kind of feedback are you going to get from someone who doesn’t even read the type of book that you wrote? It’s not going to be really relevant feedback, necessarily, right? So … 

Boni Wagner-Stafford   8:05

Yeah. If I don’t like science fiction and I beta read science fiction, I’m going to tell you that I don’t like it.

Crystal Watanabe  8:11  

Exactly. That doesn’t really help you, right? So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  8:16  

No. No, that’s right. What about pay? Do you, can you, should you pay a beta reader? And I know you offer the service at Pikko’s House: you offer the service for a very reasonable fee. And I have direct personal experience with this. We’ve used your beta reading services, and really, really found the feedback constructive and helpful. But that’s not to say that everybody has to hire a beta reader. Let’s talk about that. 

Crystal Watanabe  8:47

Yeah, okay. So there are two types of beta readers: there’s free beta readers and then there’s professional, paid beta readers. And I think they both have a very specific spot in the publishing landscape. And people – writers – should definitely cherish free beta readers who give good feedback. They’re, they’re unicorns and you have to treat them really, really well because they’re precious. But the reason I actually started my business is because I saw this really big need for beta reading. And I saw a common – a really common complaint I saw from writers was that, you know, they sent out their book to their betas and they didn’t hear anything back. So they get frustrated with that, you know. So with paid beta reading, that’s basically a guarantee, you know: they’re your beta readers being hired to do a job. And provided you’ve done the research on who it is and things like that, you’re more than guaran– you, you’re more likely guaranteed to get that feedback, you know, as opposed to just relying on like your uncle or your friend or co worker who are just doing it on their free time and they might not get back to you for months, or at all. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  10:08

Right. And then, so the information or the feedback that you get back from a professional beta reader, so having – I’ve used both: free and the paid so I can see the difference in the type of information you get – but I want to talk a little bit right now about comparing the feedback from professional, paid beta readers versus a full manuscript assessment. So I don’t know if you’re – if Pikko’s House offers manuscript assessment; I didn’t you specifically asked this question. But I guess, a, do you? And let’s just talk a little bit about what one might provide you versus the other. 

Crystal Watanabe  10:53

So I do provide varying levels of this type of editing-slash-feedback. I have alpha reading, I have beta reading, I have manuscript critique and developmental editing. So we have all the levels of that type of constructive, foundational feedback, kind of thing. Sorry, what was the second part of your question? 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  11:18

Oh, just what – what’s the difference? So I – at Ingenium Books, we engage the – both levels: we sometimes say we’re looking for a manuscript assessment and sometimes we’re just looking for a beta read. And so I’m familiar with what I’m looking for when I pursue those two different levels but our listeners might not. 

Crystal Watanabe  11:37

Okay. So for me, how I usually explain is a beta reader will come back and say, “I didn’t like this; I like this. This is what I thought worked. This is what I – where I thought it was lagging or lacking and needs more – more work.” And it that’s basically where it ends. With a critique, it’s that plus how to fix it.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  12:01  

Right. And in – so the – we’ve called them manuscript assessments: critiques, kind of the same thing. And so, a written report that I might get from my professional beta reader might be a couple of pages, maybe three. And the manuscript critique that I get back for the same book might be 20 pages, kind of thing. Does that sound about right in your …? 

Crystal Watanabe  12:27

Yeah, I mean, it depends on the length of the book and the beta reader. Sometimes my beta readers on my team come back with like four or five pages and I’m like, “Whoa!” It just means they’re really passionate about the book. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  12:38

Yeah, yeah. 

Crystal Watanabe  12:40

But I think it depends. I would say, yeah, beta is probably like anywhere from two to five pages. And then critique would be anywhere from eight to 15. And developmental would be anywhere from 15 to 30 or even more, so ... 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  12:57

Yeah. And so on – you mentioned the beta will come back, “What I like,” – with what I like, what I dislike, what I don’t like, what works, what doesn’t work: more along those lines. And a manuscript critique or assessment will talk about your title, your tone, your structure, your – you know, potentially they’ll catch things like overuse of adverbs, or, you know, bad writing habits or, you know, all …

Crystal Watanabe  13:27

Yeah, it’s a lot more analytical. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  13:29

Right. Right. With recommending that you do this, you know, and here’s how you would do that: that sort of thing. Okay. Well, it’s super helpful. How many beta readers do I need?

Crystal Watanabe  13:43  

You know, that I think would vary from author to author: I don’t really know what authors prefer to do. I know some people use just one beta reader and that’s enough. I know others who use both or use both paid and free and others who have like entire beta reading groups. So yeah, it just depends on who you have, how useful their feedback is. Because, I mean, that’s going back to the free beta reading thing: another common complaint I heard was that, you know, they just get back feedback and say, “Yeah, the book was good.” You know? 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  14:21

Yeah. 

Crystal Watanabe  14:22

Yeah. So yeah, it just depends on the quality of your current beta readers. If you have one who could use a little bit more direction, then maybe you could try looking for another one or just keep, you know, asking the right questions that will help guide them and give them a better idea of what you want to know, you know, about your book and about their reading experience. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  14:47

I was – I came across another article where somebody was talking about beta reading and they said, “If you’re using free, just,” – and as you’ve mentioned that – “keep in mind that you may not – everybody you send it to may not read, may not finish, or may not respond, even if they have read and finished.” And so in that case, and if you’re using only free, you – depending on who the beta readers are and what your relationship with them is, you may want to choose a larger number, understanding that only a fraction of them will come back. But that’s a lot of – I mean, it’s a lot of work. 

Crystal Watanabe  15:31

It is. It is, yeah. That’s why a lot of people – a lot of my clients, that’s why they end up going for a paid reading is because they, you know, they’re on a schedule. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  15:41

Yeah.

Crystal Watanabe  15:41

They want, they want their feedback within a reasonable time. And so they just want to, you know, just pay for it and get it done instead of just sending it out and hoping for the best, you know. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  15:49

Right. And if you’re, you know, if you’ve got a long window and you can wait three or four months to see if every, you know, everybody comes back, then that’s one thing. So then there’s the issue of whether you ask specific questions of your beta reader or do you just give them the manuscript to read and see what they come back with? I’ve seen both camps. And I – there are pros and cons to either approach. What’s your preference? Or do you have one?

Crystal Watanabe  16:27

I offer both options. If somebody just wants to hear a totally unbiased, no-coaching-from-the-author kind of feedback, then we’ll just provide that. But I do offer clients the option to submit a list of questions. And so yeah, it just depends on your needs or whether you just want a totally fresh opinion, you know, so …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  16:54

Yeah. I am – I have seen it happen where an author will – and you know, we, these are long, big, deep involved projects, writing books, whether we’re talking fiction or nonfiction. And so, you know, you leave lots of yourself on the floor through the creation of the manuscript. And of course, there’s a little bit of bias. And so that is my concern with asking specific – for specific types of feedback is that you get a little bit of perspective blinders on and if you only ask for specific feedback, you might miss getting some feedback that you don’t even know you need. 

Crystal Watanabe  17:43

Yeah. So basically, how it works with my service, though, is when, if people do submit questions, I give them to my team member – my beta reader – and I tell them not to read the questions until after they’ve done the beta reading and after they’ve written their report. So they will give like the standard feedback that we provide and then anything that hasn’t been answered already that’s in the list of questions that were submitted, that’s when they put that at the, at the bottom of the report. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  18:17

Oh, that makes that makes total sense. 

Crystal Watanabe  18:19

Yeah. Because also, I don’t want them to like, go into the reading with potentially leading questions, you know? 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  18:27

Yeah. That’s right. And so it creates the bias ... 

Crystal Watanabe  18:32

Yeah. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  18:33

… in the beta reader already, if you’re, if you come in with a specific question. So what’s your suggestion on how authors deal with the feedback? And obviously, it’s going to depend. But if recommendations come back from a beta reader, does it mean that they should always be implemented?

Crystal Watanabe  18:57  

No. I mean, it’s important to keep in mind that a beta reader is still just one reader. And people react differently to books and prose and messages and things like that. So I mean, if you feel that like a report is just – they just weren’t a good fit, I mean, that’s always possible: it’s not a good situation but that’s – I mean, I’ve seen it happen, you know, I mean, where somebody were just, they were really attracted by the synopsis, it looks really good, they read in that genre and then when it came to the book, they just reacted really badly. Not like – I’m not saying that that’s bad on the part of my reader; it’s just the way that, you know … I mean, as a fellow reader, you understand how books can affect us, right? 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  19:47

Yeah. 

Crystal Watanabe  19:48

Yeah, it’s important to like, I guess, just keep in mind that it’s just one person and it’s possible they just weren’t the right person for your book. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  20:00  

Or that it’s okay to disagree. 

Crystal Watanabe  20:02

Yeah. Yeah. But also, if you see it happening across more than one beta reader, then you know, maybe that’s – you have to consider that. Even if you disagree, maybe it’s an issue that you have to consider. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  20:18

Yeah. And because if this one reader has this response, what is the likelihood that other readers will have the same response once it’s published and out for the public? And is that the response that you want? 

Crystal Watanabe  20:38

Yeah.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  20:40  

What else do we need to consider? What is the phase that you recommend a manuscript be in before it goes to a beta reader? 

Crystal Watanabe  20:51

I mean, I don’t think it needs to be like, proofread or like, maybe even copy edited. But I think it should be as clean as you want it to be. Because, yeah, I guess it depends on whether you’re self-publishing or doing traditional, like submissions and things like that. But yeah, like I mentioned before that I offer alpha reading. So that would be more like on our raw manuscripts: something that’s like a first or second draft, something that hasn’t really yet gone to developmental editing or critiquing and things like that. So like, I guess, it also depends on the experience of the writer.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  21:37  

Right. 

Crystal Watanabe  21:37

Because I guess for inexperienced writers, it’s probably better to seek out like an alpha reader because the writing probably isn’t as polished. But if you’re a first time writer and you’ve been editing it to death and you’re stuck and you just want someone’s opinion, you know: “How is this book doing? Is it any good?” then I think that’s, that’s a good time to find a beta reader. And then for experienced people, you know, they usually can just – sometimes they’ll have their book copy-edited and they’ll send it to beta readers and then they’ll have it proofread after. So yeah, it all depends on your own process. But yeah, you have to figure out where, where you feel your beta feedback will be most useful to you and your book. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  22:30

So it’s interesting that you brought up alpha readers. And I’m glad you did. So it’s possible for the same author to use both kinds of feedback services. And just to recap and feedback what you said: that an alpha reader would – you would employ. And I don’t mean employ by “hire”; I mean, “engage”. That’s the word I want. You would ask for an alpha reader at an earlier, potentially an earlier phase of development of your manuscript. 

Crystal Watanabe  23:04

Yeah. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  23:04

And so from your perspective at Pikko’s House, do you find that alpha reads are harder to do? And is the level of feedback that you give with your alpha reads, is it similar to beta? How does it differ from your perspective?

Crystal Watanabe  23:22

I do charge more for alpha reads just because the manuscript just isn’t usually – usually isn’t as polished or well developed. And so it’s definitely harder to read. And it’s not something that all my beta readers like to do. So I do charge more. But I do think that it also has a place in the process. So yeah, it just it depends.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  23:47

And is – what kind of feedback? Can you give me kind of an example of what kind of feedback would be – and typical as a terrible word because there is no such thing – but how would the feedback in a written alpha report differ from the feedback in a beta? 

Crystal Watanabe  24:02

I mean, I think it would be pretty similar to a beta. But in addition to a beta, it would tell you like, what the potential is. You know, whether there’s a story here. Because that’s a question I often hear from writers is, you know, “Do I have a story here? Is this worth telling?” Because maybe they don’t want to dive into a developmental edit right away. They just want to know if like the bones are good, you know. So that’s, that’s what an alpha read can do.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  24:30  

That makes a lot of sense. So you can use it to judge how much more time, effort and money you sink into the development. 

Crystal Watanabe  24:42

Yeah, because developmental editing is a big investment. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  24:43

It is. 

Crystal Watanabe  24:44

Yeah. So not everybody wants to just, you know, go straight to that. Sometimes they just want to gauge whether it’s worth pursuing, so …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  24:57  

And so we’ve talked about how to get the most useful feedback and it depends on what you’re doing. We’ve talked about the decisions related to what you do with the beta feedback and how to weigh it. And just to reinforce there that it’s not really about, if you have a team of beta readers, let’s say you’re lucky enough to get six people who give you feedback, however many you’ve asked: but you get six different bits of feedback. Does it mean that you need to take everything that everyone says and apply it?

Crystal Watanabe  25:32  

No. But I think that can actually be troublesome for an author, especially like a new author who’s not as confident maybe in their writing or their storytelling. And that can be – that can be crippling, you know, sometimes. So yeah, it’s important to understand how to process the feedback and know how to prioritize what you need to fix and what you have to just chalk up as just, you know, a reader nitpick or something like that: something that’s small and doesn’t necessarily need fixing. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  26:07  

Yeah, or something that’s an opinion and a preference and isn’t going to actually improve the overall quality of the book. 

Crystal Watanabe  26:15

Yeah. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  26:16

So that actually makes some more sense. And you’ve said it, but I’m just going to rephrase it, which is, for authors who are early in their career, it may make more sense to engage a paid beta reader and to use a single or maybe maximum two beta readers because they will be experienced in that genre in providing this feedback. So you have more confidence in what’s coming back, as opposed to a group of volunteers that are truly just readers, where you’re not sure about the editorial value to your book. And then somebody who is a more experienced and more confident writer would be safer and better served to use potentially a wider – wider scope of free beta readers because they will be able to filter better the feedback that comes back. 

Crystal Watanabe  27:18

Yeah, yeah. Plus, I think someone who’s established, they just in general, you know, they have like bigger readerships. So they need like a more general sense of how their book is landing or how it will land. So yeah. Whereas like an earlier author, they need more specific feedback, I think. So ... 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  27:43

Have you ever had somebody come for a beta read, where the feedback is, “Hey, this is awesome. I loved it. Ready to go; no changes.”?

Crystal Watanabe  27:55  

I’ve had beta readers, yeah, come back and just glowing, you know, just like, “Five stars.” And, “This is amazing.” And I – and then I try to discourage them from just recommending that, you know, it’s ready to publish. Because I don’t know what any author has planned already and things like that. But usually, like, you know, if it’s like a glowing review, then the author’s more than happy to hear that. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  28:19

Yeah. And there’s always something – there’s almost always something else you can do to tweak the manuscript.

Crystal Watanabe  28:28  

It’s always awesome to hear from my team, when they say, “Oh my God, this book was so good.”

Boni Wagner-Stafford  28:32

Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. So how long in advance do people need to engage with you when they want to come for a paid beta reader, paid beta reader with Pikko’s House? 

Crystal Watanabe  28:46  

I would say giving me about a week lead time is ideal. I can’t do something within the next several days or anything like that. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  28:59

That’s really fast. That’s really fast.

Crystal Watanabe  29:03  

I do have people who contact me and want me to start that day or the next day, and I’m just like, “Um, no.”

Boni Wagner-Stafford  29:10

Wow. A week is fast.

Crystal Watanabe  29:12

A week is good. For me, when – I mean, and when you engage with other professional beta readers, it varies because when I was doing – I retired from beta reading, personally, except for a few clients here and there, this past January.

Boni Wagner-Stafford  29:31

Yeah.

Crystal Watanabe  29:32

And before that, I was sometimes booked for beta read six months in advance. So it just depends. But for Pikko’s House, for my team, one week is good. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  29:41

So you’ve got enough – you have enough – your team of beta readers is big enough to accommodate? 

Crystal Watanabe  29:49

Yes, yeah. I can’t remember how many people I have right now. I think I have something like, yeah, I have 10 people so I have a sizable team who can – that’s why I can offer really fast starting times. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  30:03

Yeah, no, that’s very good. And then the other kinds of – you mentioned the other kinds of editing services that Pikko’s House offers. Can you just, as we’re winding up, just give me again a rundown of the kinds of specialized editing you guys do. 

Crystal Watanabe  30:20

Okay, so I have – as you know, there’s two types of general editing: there’s like the developmental type feedback and then there’s the copy-editing type. And so we offer both. For on the developmental side, like I said, we have alpha, beta reading; we do some sensitivity reading. And then we have manuscript critique and developmental editing. And then on the copy-editing side, we offer line editing, copy editing and proofreading. So …

Boni Wagner-Stafford  30:51  

Awesome, awesome. Well, this has been very interesting. And I can, again, say that we’ve used your beta reading services and can vouch for the value and the turnaround. And the constructive nature of the feedback and the things we’ve been uncomfortable with that particular manuscript turned out to be what came back from the beta. So no real surprise there. But it was good to have the validation that we got just a little bit more work to do. Crystal, thank you so much for joining us. In the show notes we’re going to have links to Pikko’s House. And always interested in hearing from listeners. 

Crystal Watanabe  31:44

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been nice talking to you. 

Boni Wagner-Stafford  31:47  

Thanks, Crystal. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode of the Empowered Author podcast, please feel free to share it on social media. We’d also be very grateful if you could rate, review and subscribe to the Empowered Author on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you access your podcasts. That’s helpful for us but, more importantly, it’s helpful for other indie authors who are looking for resources to help them on their continuous learning journey.

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