Words of praise make my day

Beta reading is sort of a hard thing to do. You have an unprinted manuscript by an author you might, or might not like, and a story that isn’t published, so who knows if it’s really any good. So you put it off, hoping you’ll fit it into your daily life at some point.

As an author, I’ve learned to be very patient with my beta readers. I’ve asked them to use their time, sometimes their precious time, to read a 99% ready manuscript. It’s work. If it’s not enjoyable, they are going to falter. If it is enjoyable, great.

They don’t know if it will or won’t be at the beginning, though.

When I make significant edits, I follow up with my betas to see how they are doing, ask if they have any questions and generally check in. This is usually right around the 1 month mark.

Sometimes, I never hear back (par for the course).

But sometimes… this is what I get:

I hadn’t had a chance to read any of your book, and then sat down last night and ended up reading more than half of it. It has surprised me, and I am very interested to see how it plays out.

Oh yeah…. that is worth the wait. 🙂

Got any strategies for enticing your beta readers? Any good feedback that just makes you smile? Share! 🙂