Author Topic: What are beta readers?  (Read 21578 times)

Offline Mickey Finn

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #45 on: October 20, 2008, 01:16:27 PM »
Pat Elrod is BIG into helping authors. She is harsh, she is brash, and she is mostly sharp edges...but it's always for your own good (or what she sees as your own good, anyways, and she IS good at it.)
And she HATES scammers.

While everyone needs to take all advice as a tool, and not gospel (anyone can steer you wrong)...trust the Pat.
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Offline Shecky

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #46 on: October 20, 2008, 01:33:28 PM »
Yep. Just don't trust the software implicitly. :)
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Offline polarglen

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #47 on: October 20, 2008, 01:40:37 PM »
I frankly admit I would be a terrible beta-reader of Jim's work -- too much of a cheer-leader and not enough fact checker, plot hole detective, or "jump-the-shark" scenario, and too much of a fan.  Except for the grammar part -- but that's what an editor's for. 
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Offline LizW65

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #48 on: October 20, 2008, 03:03:12 PM »
Not to nitpick or anything, but if Betas are "first readers", shouldn't they be called Alphas instead?  Just a thought.  ;)
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Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #49 on: October 20, 2008, 03:29:27 PM »
Not to nitpick or anything, but if Betas are "first readers", shouldn't they be called Alphas instead?  Just a thought.  ;)

A couple of the authors I have read for refer to their chapter-by-chapter readers as alphas and their "sent the whole thing in through draft" readers as betas.
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Offline Shecky

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #50 on: October 20, 2008, 04:33:54 PM »
Not to nitpick or anything, but if Betas are "first readers", shouldn't they be called Alphas instead?  Just a thought.  ;)

Heh. I strongly suspect that this terminology weirdness was influenced by cross-domain drift. A "beta version" is a very preliminary version that's really just a live test with non-binding input from lots of volunteers; the "real" editing takes place after all of that input.

But if we're going to be the Alphas, I call for myself the title of "Billy". ;D
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Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #51 on: October 20, 2008, 06:39:04 PM »
But if we're going to be the Alphas, I call for myself the title of "Billy". ;D

Georgia on your mind ?
Mildly OCD. Please do not troll.

"What do you mean, Lawful Silly isn't a valid alignment?"

kittensgame, Sandcastle Builder, Homestuck, Welcome to Night Vale, Civ III, lots of print genre SF, and old-school SATT gaming if I had the time.  Also Pandemic Legacy is the best game ever.

Offline Shecky

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #52 on: October 20, 2008, 08:13:00 PM »
Georgia on your mind ?

Nah. I grew up next to Georgia. Close enough for our gang.
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Offline Kris_W

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #53 on: October 21, 2008, 12:51:57 AM »
There's not a huge income potential there.

Yep, that's the reason I don't go professional.

Offline Shecky

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #54 on: October 21, 2008, 02:30:12 AM »
Yep, that's the reason I don't go professional.

How do you define "huge"? And where do you draw the line between loving your job but not hauling down monster bucks and GETTING the big paychecks but loathing going in every morning... and everything in between? I started out down a career path that would've ended up in the category of "wealthy", but after even just a little while in the field, I realized that the environment in which I was going to work was not something I could be happy with in the long run, no matter the remuneration. I've since gone into two fields that were each very low-paying by comparison, considerably more difficult work-wise and generally ignored or even frowned upon by the "right people" as being without worth (i.e., "it doesn't mean big pay"), but which were both work that I do not dread every day, that is genuinely worthwhile instead of upholstered parasitism (in my book, anyway) and that gives me some sense of doing what I actually enjoy.

In other words, if it's something you enjoy, then perhaps the "huge" money (I'd still like to see the numbers defined) won't end up mattering as much to you in the end. And if you play your cards right, you CAN make a reasonable income doing something you like; freelancers in my field can make $0.15 per word if they're specialized. Me, if I could make freelancing a steady income (i.e., a regular client base), I'd actually be making MORE, and while I'm not upper-class, I'm definitely well into middle-class. A comfortable income if it's handled right. And I don't resent the work, which is more than most people I've met can say.
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Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.

Offline Mickey Finn

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #55 on: October 21, 2008, 04:36:05 PM »
Nah, Shecky...we've already decided you're Kirby and get the gorgeous girlfriend. Congrats!

We are not nouns. We are VERBS. -Stephen Fry
The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms. -Muriel Rukeyser

Podcast: http://thegentlemennerds.com/

Wormwood Mysteries:
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Offline JRBobC

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #56 on: October 21, 2008, 06:32:31 PM »
Nah, Shecky...we've already decided you're Kirby and get the gorgeous girlfriend. Congrats!



Though hopefully you'll hold the magical mites. ;D
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Offline Shecky

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Re: What are beta readers?
« Reply #57 on: October 21, 2008, 06:41:27 PM »
Though hopefully you'll hold the magical mites. ;D

Bite me, mite boy. ;D
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Quote from: Stanton Infeld
Well, if you couldn't do that with your bulls***, Leonard, I suspect the lad's impervious.