Let's chat and what I'm reading now #6

Hello! Guess what? I'm a bit more organised right now and I'm getting to this post with a little bit of time to spare. Not the last minute thing I usually do. Go me! Before I get into the post, I'd like to drop a little reminder that if you'd like to get a newsletter with each post as they go up, you can sign up here.

On today's bit of random, and it's also related to what I'm reading now, is beta reading. Do any of you beta read? It's usually the phase of writing for an author where the book has been finished and is in its' third or fourth draft of self-editing, but before professional editing. The book gets sent out to a number of people (the number is up to the author) to read and critique it. These beta readers provide early feedback on the readability of the book, things like if they like the plot, characters, etc., and if they are so inclined highlight any typos or grammar issues too. How "clean" the manuscript is at this point depends on how the author writes and how much self-editing has gone into the process. Some are better than others. I have read anywhere between first drafts to almost completely edited versions of books. I've gotten pretty good at overlooking or just highlighting errors and moving on with reading the story and focusing more on the story rather than editing or proofreading issues. There's no point nitpicking on stuff that will be fixed later on. It's more important to ensure the story flows well, the characters are well developed, and the plot has not major holes in it. I've been beta reading for almost a decade now and if I check back on my files I can probably tell you the first time and book I beta read. I think that book is still available for sale on Amazon. I don't do as much of it as I used to since it's very time consuming and I'm selective who I choose to beta read for.

On the reading front, I'm actually beta reading Steve's debut crime thriller. The book has gone through about three rounds of self-edits and has now been sent out to about ten people to beta read. That's a bit on the high side for number of beta readers but a lot of people volunteered when Steve posted on social media and asked for volunteers. He's also got a good range of different people doing the beta reading. Great demographic, I think. Some guys, some ladies, older, younger, technical, not so technical, and then there's me. Little ol' highly critical me. I'm going to be honest, it took me a few chapters to get into the book and I had a lot of feedback about that. But after that, things flowed really smoothly and I was getting quite into the book. I was so engrossed in it that I wanted to keep reading instead of getting up and making breakfast. One chapter even made me cry when Steve introduced a particular character. I love when a story can make it cry. It means that I was moved emotionally by the story. I've got to finish this post and then cook lunch after, but then I'm going to get back into reading the book. I can't wait till other people get to read the book when it's available. Currently, targeted for a June 2022 release. I'm going to a little shameless promotion for Steve here and give you some links to follow him. Website. Facebook page. Instagram.

That's it for my ramblings. I hope you had as much fun with it as I did putting this together. Tell me what you want to see more of on the bloggity. I'd love to accomodate you.


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