So you’ve written your first draft, gone through editing and cleaned up all the side tracks that didn’t go anywhere or got abandoned or just felt weird, and you have a solid, reader-ready copy of your book. You open up your advice source of choice and it says “get reader feedback” or sometimes “get critique partners” or occasionally “get beta readers.” It always fascinates me that there are sources that tell you to get beta readers after finishing your first round of self-edits. This is a terrible idea. Let me explain why.

What is a beta reader?

I suspect that the main reason for the erroneous suggestion above is a misunderstanding of what beta readers really are. In short, beta readers are readers. They’re not going to tell you how to improve the line-level writing of the book and they aren’t going to suggest improvements to your concept or ask if a particular character is necessary for the book because they’re only in a couple scenes. Their job is to read the book as if it was published and point out things that would make them either really excited for your book (i.e., oh wow, I never saw that plot twist coming. That’s really cool!) or consider putting your book down (i.e., um, sorry, but the chapter where the character goes to history class is not working for me. It was super boring.). Your job is to take the knowledge of what did work and what didn’t work for each of the readers and decide what changes, if any, need to be made.

This probably sounds like I’m arguing against myself—after all, don’t you want to know what works and what doesn’t for your next round of edits—but this is actually all bad for the first reader feedback stage. For the first stage you need someone who can suggest solutions and who is trained to look past the poorly implemented writing to see the idea behind and help bring that to life. You need a critique partner, and preferably more than one.

How is a critique partner different from a beta reader?

The most important difference between a critique partner and a beta reader is that a critique partner is expected to suggest solutions to issues, while a beta reader is only expected to point those problems out. There are other differences, largely in the complexity of the concern presentation but also in the stretch-scope of the role.

So, for example, a beta reader might tell you “this section didn’t hold my interest.” They might even say “the characters here didn’t feel natural and I wasn’t interested in their decisions.” That’s all great information and can inform your next decisions. But a critique partner would say “The characters here didn’t feel natural. Remember how MC reacted to a similar situation in chapter 3? They got really angry and glared, brooded about the issues for a week, then plotted a major assassination. Here MC has a very similar thing and just starts yelling and hacking at people. That doesn’t fit the character.” In early stages of editing, you need the more in depth discussion to decide which of those actions is more like your character so you can harmonize the character reactions. Obviously this is a pretty simplistic example—if you have this wide a disparity between responses you should probably have a strong character arc leading from one to the other, not an “oops, mis-remembered that” situation—but the point holds. A beta reader is a reader who will tell you what they enjoyed reading and what they disliked. A critique partner is a partner who will evaluate the manuscript to discuss elements that work or don’t and why they work or don’t. Let’s look at a few examples of how the feedback will differ:

Type of error/issue	Typical Beta Reader response	Typical Critique Partner response
Minor grammatical issues (I.e., missing punctuation or incorrect verb tense)	Two common responses: 1. If prevalent throughout, will likely note that “grammar issues made the read difficult to engage with” 2. If rare, will likely not say anything	Will usually highlight the issues, and depending on the prevalence (and their personal preference) may explain the rule that makes the error an issue
Character personality changes mid book without warning	Will usually say the characters don’t make sense or seemed to be poorly developed	Will usually discuss the altered personality from one scene to the next, pointing out how and why it is inconsistent and may even suggest changes to keep the character consistent
Plot doesn’t make sense	Will usually say that they were confused and/or couldn’t follow the action of the book	Will usually point out plot holes, missing explanations, and/or make suggestions for how to bridge the gaps while maintaining the intent of the book
Setting is weak and/or confusing	May ask for world details, or may say that they had trouble visualizing the setting	Will usually suggest places in the text where setting details can be added, possibly even referencing types of senses commonly excluded and how they could add depth at given moments
Too much information or information given in an inappropriate location	Will usually say the book got boring, slow, or confusing at the specific location	Will usually drop the dreaded “don’t infodump” warning, possibly tell you not to spout your entire backstory in one long rant, and have surprisingly little advice on how to rectify the issue beyond “cut some of this”

Now you may look at the list above and think “but why would I ever use a beta reader? Critique partners are better in every way, right?” Well, no. But this is exactly why I said a beta reader right out of self-editing is a terrible idea. Beta readers serve a very specific purpose, and it’s not the same purpose as critique partners. Beta readers are like beta testers for a video game—their primary purpose is to tell you if the story is interesting from an outside perspective. The more rough edges the work has, the more likely they are to tell you the book sucks even if they would actually like the finished product.

A critique partner, on the other hand, is more like the quality analysis department of the video game company. They probably like the book—they’ll do a better job if they do, in fact—but their job is to help smooth out the rough edges and bring the book to it’s greatest potential. A critique partner should never tell you a book isn’t good enough, interesting enough, or doesn’t have enough potential to be worth your time. The worst a critique partner should ever say is “the concept might work, but this presentation doesn’t so you might want to try re-evaluating the way you approach this concept.” Any critique partner who tells you to give up—whether on a specific book or on writing in general—should be immediately removed from your pool of critique partners. A beta reader, however, is perfectly within their rights to tell you a particular book doesn’t seem marketable.

So how do I know what feedback I need?

This question has a pretty fluid range of answers, and only you can know what stage you’re at, but here’s a few guidelines to help. Typically a critique partner is early in the process—in some cases even before you finish a draft, depending on your process. Critique partners help you refine elements of your story, improve your writing skill, and catch major flaws in style and presentation before they permeate the entire book. Beta readers are later in the process and give you a taste of what readers will think after you publish. They may find plot holes or inconsistent characters, but primarily they are to tell you whether or not the book is interesting to read. Beta readers are particularly good at helping you locate places where readers are likely to misunderstand what you wrote in unusual or unexpected ways.

As a rule of thumb, if you just finished a self-edit or are looking for ways to solve known problems, find a critique partner. If you think the book might be ready for publication but are unsure how it will be received, find a beta reader.

What if someone asks me to read for them?

Just about every writer is asked, at one point or another, to read someone else’s work and offer feedback. There’s only one piece of advice I can give for this situation Try, to the best of your ability, to pretend like you aren’t a writer.

The thing about writers is that every time they hear an idea they start thinking about how they would implement that idea. But when you’re reading someone else’s work, what you would do doesn’t matter. All that matters is how this writer was trying to accomplish the idea, and how well they actually did. So, pretend you aren’t a writer, try to figure out what the writer is hoping to present, and suggest toward that goal.

This works whether you’re asked to beta read or to be a critique partner. As a beta reader, your job isn’t to be a writer anyway. You should be focusing on whether you would pick the book up for yourself. As a critique partner, your job is to nurture the story the writer is trying to create. To do that, you need to set aside your own interests and writing style and evaluate what the writer wanted to make.

I can tell you from experience in four different writer’s groups all around the United States that this skill is extremely rare. I was often hailed as the best of the group at giving a critique because people thought I saw into what they were trying to do. I rarely knew for sure what the goal was and I was often wrong in my suggestions. But what I did do was try to match the image the writer was creating rather than mold the story into the image I would have created in their place. One of my closest friends in one of these groups almost convinced me to turn my epic fantasy series into a romance because she was most interested in the romantic subplot. She wasn’t malicious (in fact I genuinely valued her feedback), she just thought that thread of the story was most interesting and so she pushed me to develop it until I was having trouble finding the rest of the story. If someone wants you to read for them, don’t be that well-intentioned usurper who derails the entire story because you’re thinking about what you would have written.

Practice finding the thread the writer is trying to create and help nurture it. And look for critique partners who will do the same.

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For some original fiction, check out these posts:

• Taking Flight
• Lady Saylina
• Free Reign
• Stolen Time
• Fresh Heir
• Homecoming

For more thoughts on publishing and writing, check out these posts:

• Trad Pub: If you’re going to debut in epic fantasy, you better be the exception
• On Discovery Writing
• Indie Pub vs. Trad Pub
• Born Novelist
• Devel…opment in the Details