Rediscovering Old Books

I have moved many times in my lifetime - partially due to my being in the Army for ten years, and partially due to three moves after I got out of the service. My stuff was in and out of storage a lot! It has been over two year since my latest move. I have things out of boxes, sorted what needed to be given away, and what I wanted to keep. Some things are still in boxes, until I purchase more bookcases. I am doing yet another run through, and giving more books away. 

It is amazing to me how things seem to just "surface" when we need them. I found a book on karmic healing that I don't remember buying or reading - it is n top notch condition, well written, and inludes Tarot as a modaity for workign with visualization. What more can I ask for!

I have uncovered more mystery books - I read them all, then decide what to keep. Amongst my treasures are books by Agatha Christie, Rex Stout's "Nero Wolf" mysteries,  Rita Mae Brown's "Mrs. Murphy" mystries, and Margaret Maron's "Deborah Knox" series.

I love rereading a good book - I remember where I was in my life when I last read the book, and thoroughly enjoy entering the world of the book in front of me again. It allows me to step outside of the day to day of life, and become someone else.

Do you enjoy rereading your books? Do they hold good memories for you, as mine do for me? One day I hope that my books hold good memories for my readers!

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.  

    

Questions To Be Covered By Beta Readers

Before you even get your Beta readers lined up, you might want to think about what questions you want them to respond to. What is important for you to get feedback on? What will help you firm up your book so that it will sell? The following questions cover some areas that you might want to consider. Reword them to fit your tone, and exactly what you want covered. Add questions that might not be here, but that you want covered. Take out questions that do not really interest you.

Storyline:

Does the story engage you? If not, why not?

Does the storyline flow well? If not, why not?

Are there certain sections of the book that drag a bit, or are bogged down? If so, which sections, and why.

Were there enough false clues to make the story interesting? If so, why.

Was it too easy to guess the ending? If so, why.

Was the ending interesting? If not, why not.

Was there enough conflict/tension to keep things moving? If not, why not? 

Characters:

Do the characters show depth? If not, why not?

Do the characters interact well with each other? If not why not?

Are the characters consistent? If not, why not?

Do the characters have enough "back story" that you feel that you know them? If not, why not?

Background:

Were there any discrepencies in the timeline, the environment, or in character detail? If so, where and why specifically.

Was the locale believable? If not, why not.

Did the dialogue flow, and was it intresting? If not, why not.

Were there a signficant amount of grammer, punction, or spelling errors?

Do you feel that this book represents its genre well? If not, why not?

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission.

What To Define Before Looking For A Beta Reader

You have at least started writing your book. You are thinking about how to connect with Beta readers. Before you do that, think about what you want from these readers. You will want them to do a lot more than just read your book and make a few comments!

Beta readers have a significant place in the process of getting your book published, as do proofreaders and editors. Beta readers will give you feedback, point out any potential issues with your manuscript as far as readability and potential saleability, and help you to fine tune it for the proofreaders and editors.

Some things that you will want to take into consideration in a Beta reader is their familiarity with the genre you are writing in, how familiar they are with the publishing world, and that they are not so close to you that they may hesitate to tell you what they really think. You might also want to ask if they are regular readers - if so, they are coming to you with a solid background in the genre you are writing in. 

There is one no no that I would also like to mention here - you may want to think twice about asking someone from a critique group that you are in to be a Beta reader for your book. They have seen your book in progress, and heard other individual's critique of it. Ideally, you want your Beta readers to come in with no preconceived notions.

Beta readers should also be able to understand your writer's voice - not as it might be defined in a writing manual, but as you are actually writing. They need to be able to consistently follow that voice, and to be able to let you know when you are not being consistent.

Your Beta readers should also be able to understand the genre you are writing in, as well as be able to identify with locations referred to within your book. You need to have fresh eyes that will tell you whether what you have  written will hold within a particular locale. What flies in Denver, CO might not fly to well in Honolulu, HI.

In my next blog I will be discussing creating a format for the questions that you would like your Beta readers to respond to.

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproducton prohibited without written permission of the author.

We Have A Contest Going!

I am currently running a contest through my newsletter, "Bonnie's World". I am going to be giving away "Writing Spiritual Books - A Bestselling Writer's Guide to Successful Publication", by Hal Zina Bennett. 

From the book: "One of the realities that we face when we start looking at publishing is the size of the potential readership we're writing to. This doesn't mean that you should change the way that you are writing your book in order to reach a broader market - though, indeed, that might be a choice you'd make. But it does mean being realistic about the size of your potential readership and what you can do to more sharply focus your writings for the people you want to reach. If you have a very narrow readership focus, consider self publishing, or going with a publishing house that specializes in the narrow niche you're considering. Understand that you might be talking about selling only a few hundred or a couple of thousand books. Fortunately, in this day and age, you can actually do okay with small niches like this. New printing technologies make it so." 

The winner will be chosen from the list of all individuals signed up for my newsletter. Because I did not think to promote this give-away sooner, I will include all individuals that sign up before the end of April, and will be announcing the winner in my May newsletter. 

Please share this information with anyone that you think might be interested! Sign-ups can be done from my site, http://www.bonniecehovet.com/.

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited without written permission of the author.

Where Do We Find Beta Readers?

In my previous blog we discussed what Beta readers do for us. Essentialy, they provide another pair of eyes to check grammer, punction, story flow, character development, character interaction, etc. We don't, IMHO, need that many Beta readers. Two or three will do nicely. The big question is - where do we find them?

I am going to expand on this thought in my next blog, but I think this is important to take into consideration when looking for a Beta reader. This is a working relationship - Beta readers have input, and essentially become part of our team. I watched recently as a writer that I know and hold in high esteem reached out on FB for Beta readers. She was clear about the genre, and about what she expected from them. I was very impressed!

The first place that I am going to mention is one that, to date, I have not made use of. However, I do post a lot of reviews on Goodreads, so I do have a foot in the door - a presence, if you will. The group is entited Beta Reader Group, and can be found on Goodreads. I just joined the group - we will see how this goes!

One suggestion that I have seen is to source your Beta readers from the writing community. Yes, we want Beta readers to understand the genre that we are writing in, but we also want to connect with them, to have them see the big picture of the book that we have written. Remember, Beta readers are reading an entire book, and giving feedback on the entire book, they are not just critiquing one part of your book. It is important that we connect with other authors - with good connections we can put out feelers for getting other authors to be our Beta readers - and we can do the same for them.

Absolute Write is an online writers group that has free registration. I have registered to see what they have to offer. The resources look good.

Upwork.com is a site where you register for free, and post a job. This does appear to be a site where you have to take a close look at services being offered.

Fiverr is an internet site that requires membership (which is free), with a large market where Beta readers can be found.

Beta Reader's Hub  is a source blog on tumblr.com for Beta readers, and those looking for Beta readers, can post.

Now that we know what Beta readers are, and have a few clues where to find them, in my next blog I am going to address things that we need to take into consideration when looking for one. Stay tuned.

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited  

What Are Beta Readers?

This month I will be blogging about beta readers. As writers, what do we think of when we think about beta readers? What part in our getting our work to market do they play? Are they even necessary?

My definition of a beta reader would be someone who will give me honest feedback on my finished manuscript, someone who can spot errors and inconsitencies, and who is not afraid to share how they feel about my books. For someone like me who is a self-published author, a good beta reader is pure gold! (Note: While I write in the field of fiction, beta readers also work well for non-fiction work.)

Beta readers can help us improve the readability of our books, the consistency of the relationships betwen our characters, as well as the flow of the plot. They provide that extra pair of eyes that catch both big and little things that we don't see for ourselves. They help us fine tune our work so that once we get it out there, it sells. 

We might have built up an expectation in our book that we either failed to bring to fruition, or we forgot about completely. We could have left out vital steps in a scenario that was in our head, but never made it to paper. Our descriptions of events might not be as clear as they could be. The characters may not come across as clearly as they should, or their backstory might just not hold water.  

Some of you may be asking how beta readers are different from critique groups. In general, a critique group is looking at only a specific portion of your book, while beta readers are looking at the entire book. Beta readers will also give you written responses, while a critique group may or may not do that. Critique groups also take place in a group stting, which some people (myself included) my find uncomfortable. Since each beta reader reads the material on their own, their responses are not influenced by other peoples thoughts. Getting two or three beta readers for your book gives you an expanded view of your work, through different eyes. 

In my next blog, I am going to address where to find beta readers. Stay tuned!

(c) April 2018 Bonnie Cehovet

Reproduction prohibited wthout written permission of the author.