In order to make every writer book ready for the target audience and critique overview, one needs a bunch of readers, who give their views, feed-backs and critically dive into the work. These people are rare.
But if you find them value them. Because these are the people who will save your work from outright rejections when it gets published.
I’d also recommend getting beta readers for your short stories — this way you’ll have at least a few people who are acclimatized to your voice and style when you’re ready for your book to be reviewed.
This is exactly what I did before I released my third short story and which you will receive free if you subscribe here.
While writing my third story, I was giving an entirely new perspective to the world’s greatest epic Mahabharata and it became really important for me to take an overview. The epic is the basis of Hindu philosophy, outlining how to be naturally righteous and therefore it became most important to me that my story kept the philosophy unchanged, yet be able to look at it from a different angle. That’s where I found my Beta reader’s feedback very constructive and valuable, in-fact I had my work reviewed at five stages.
Stage 1
When one is trying to squeeze an idea in a story format the flow and sequence of events is most important- In my case, a part of the epic story was being presented in few thousand words, that’s where my first beta reader played a decisive part and helped me improve the flow immensely.
Stage 2
This is the stage where it is required to know if the whole story from start to end is being received by the reader as per the writer’s expectation. So, I sent it to my second reader to figure out if it was structured well – In between her many constructive comments, she also wrote back –
This feedback inspired me for few additional rounds of editing, addition, and altering – its very important that we value the time a beta reader takes to go through our work and also the fact that correct interpretations of their comments is the only way forward to make our work stronger.
Stage 3
I always believe short stories have the power to captivate and profoundly move us. For a writer, it is most important to understand if the key emotion in the story will be carried by the reader for his life, and the best way is to let it go through one more round of beta review-here is the kind of feedback I received to know if my short story was effectively making its point.
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Yes -the last line said it all- “Being a woman does not make you a lesser individual” – the key emotion was impactful enough.
Stage 4
For the final countdown, the story was given the much-required touches, and it was then sent back to my first beta reader for a final check-
Stage 5
Post this my dear readers, a round with the editor, and then the work was published. Subscribe here and receive your free copy.
Beta readers are therefore a part of every writer’s journey. Choose them well! Also, in my endeavor to give back what I receive, my Beta read is a book by Sean Michael Paquet -A Game of Gods. You can follow him by clicking on his name. Sharing my feedback on his latest work-
A beta review by Authorsonline-
It was such an interesting concept! As an interested conspiracy theory reader, it was right up my alley. I particularly liked the part where Ral, the professor takes up the sociology class as well as when Jon’s father was proud of him. It made me read more! The idea of a platform, Threa was truly enticing. I also liked the designation Golden Giants got. The complexity and sci-fi elements were great. Thank you for such a great read!
Founder of Authorsonline.in, Babika is passionate about helping aspiring authors identify their best opportunities in the market.
You can email her at B@authorsonline.in or reach out personally on her Instagram handle – Authorsonline
you can read her work-by clicking at below links-
The lost intimacy–a dazzling and provocative take on abusive marriage
The secret of the Dream Woman– a small city woman’s courageous take on life.