Beta Readers Wanted

Hello again!

I hope everyone who’s been participating in NaNoWriMo this year has had good luck and hasn’t gone crazy just yet - You’re almost done, don’t give up now!

I’m not doing NaNo myself this go around, but as mentioned in my previous post, I have been cracking away at a new novel, which I am happy to say that as of today, is now one third of the way done. I’m moving a bit slower than I have before, but that’s due to trying out some new techniques that I’ve acquired in the past year - which I would very much like to talk about in a later post.

In my last entry, I stated I would be returning to solely focusing on publishing my first novel, Codetta, once I was done with all the “practice” projects I’ve assigned myself this year. I foresee I’ll be done with my current novel by either late winter or early summer by the latest. Realistically, I’m hoping to get back to Codetta by February, but we shall see.

Given that timeline, it is the perfect opportunity to bring up the topic of beta readers and how I am in need of them! Codetta has had a few drafts now and I’ve been lucky enough to have a little over a dozen friends and acquaintances who were happy to beta read for me. But given that I’m soon starting what I hope will be the final draft of Codetta, it is probably the last opportunity I have to reach out and find just a small handful who would be interested in giving their thoughts on my silly little book before I dedicate myself to the homestretch of publishing the damned thing.

So - what the heck is a beta reader?

A beta reader is simply someone who reads an unpublished work and gives feedback on the work the way any reader would, the idea being that a beta reader will help the author understand what the audience will think of the novel before committing to publication.

So if you’re still reading this, I hope it wouldn’t be inappropriate to ask at this point if you would be at all interested in beta reading my book?

To break it down, Codetta is a young adult paranormal mystery novel with some dark fantasy and horror elements (and plenty of melancholy and angst). You can find a brief synopsis here.

If you would like to beta read for me, simply hit me up on any social media or use my contact page here (just throw the words “beta reader” into the subject field, if you would be so kind). Oh, and real quick, copies of the of the manuscript will be provided in .pdf format, for those of you who were wondering. Do what you will with the file (print it or format it for your own device as you will), but I humbly ask that you please do not share it.

Perhaps you’re one of the lovely people who’s already offered to beta read Codetta. Thank you very much, if that’s the case! I appreciate all the feedback you’ve given me so far.

If you haven’t given me feedback yet, then any notes or comments you have would be wonderful, especially from those of you who may not have even finished the book! Your thoughts are perhaps the most important, as I need to know why my novel failed to captivate. Please, do not feel embarrassed or attempt to preserve my feelings; what I need now are hard truths!

That said, I’d like to take the time to talk a bit about my intended audience for Codetta and the types of feedback I need from my beta readers:

I’ve never intended Codetta to have a wide, universal readership - as it is a first novel and I’ll consider it an achievement simply bringing the thing to term. That said, I do hope to carve out my own little niche audience, as I’ve always been a fan of books, movies, games & music with a dedicated cult following as opposed to mainstream appeal.

The first of the two main groups I hope will like my book are actual young adults with a preference for the unusual and creepy; weird kids essentially, much like myself and my friends when I was younger and very much like the characters in the novel themselves.

That said, if you know of a real life young person who’d be interested in reading my book, please let me know if you’d like to act as a liaison, as I’ve had dreadfully few actual teens read my book - which I do hope is not a death knell for its success.

The second group I’m aiming for are folks around my age who may be nostalgic for the era in which Codetta takes place, that being the early 00’s. Aesthetics are always important in my writing and so I’ve tried my best to keep imagery from the era of my own teenage years just present enough in the story (hopefully I can be forgiven this YA novelist sin just this one time - after all, are the early 00’s not due for their own nostalgic, cultural revival). So if that’s your thing - please let me know!

Here are the elements in which I’m hoping my beta readers will give me feedback on:

-Characters - Do you hate them? Love them? Why?

-Genre - Does the novel succeed as a YA paranormal mystery story?

-Tone - Do all the vibes come across as they should? Or does it get too cringy throughout (that’s a real big fear of mine to be absolutely honest)?

-Atmosphere - Lots of spooky, dreamy setting abound, but do they all work? Are the more tangible locations relatable?

-Plot - Obvious! Let me know if the story just doesn’t hook you or if any chapters just plain suck!

-Sensitivity - Okay… So this element is a whole thing I’m going to need to break down some:

Mental illness is a big part of the theme. Furthermore, suicide also appears in this story. So perhaps if you have a difficult time dealing with these topics, it may be appropriate to skip out on this one. I myself have my own relationship to these topics, but that said, if the elements I’ve included in my novel are simply too dark to bear with (especially given the genre and audience) then it’s crucial that I be made known about it and make reasonable changes.

The other important one is LGBT content. Before I go any further, let me say that the LGBT content does not relate to the mental health or suicide stuff - rather the character in question is simply someone who identifies as a gender and is simply attracted to characters of that same gender. I have so much love for my characters and for the LGBT community, so I tried to be as careful as possible to not incorporate any pernicious or damaging tropes, especially given that this particular character’s experience differs from my own. That said, it’s very important to me that I know if I’ve missed the mark in any way.

I would like to write a whole entry on this topic some day, perhaps after Codetta has been published.

All that said, what I don’t need from a beta reader is a copyeditor - so please, do not feel the need to point out every spelling or grammatical issue (unless you just want to I guess… you’d certainly have your work cut out for you), as I’ll be paying quite a sum to have those ironed out professionally once I’ve gotten this last draft finished.

Hopefully, dear readers, some of you have made it this far. I can certainly be longwinded, but I imagine that will give anyone interested in beta reading an idea of what to expect from my book. So please reach out if you’re at all interested in beta reading for me - it’s basically a free book in exchange for simply telling me if you hated it or not, and that’s not a terrible deal, right?

Thanks for reading, love ya!