How to work with beta readers: questions and feedback

A beta reader gives you the one thing you can no longer get from your own draft: a first read. You know what every scene is supposed to do, so you cannot see what it actually does. Here is how to work with beta readers so that their first read becomes a revision plan.

What a beta reader is for

A beta reader reports a reaction. They tell you where they were hooked, where they were lost, and where they put the book down to make tea and did not hurry back.

A beta reader is not an editor.

When a beta reader says a scene is slow, believe them. Readers are reliable about the symptom and unreliable about the cure.

When a draft is ready, and who to ask

Send the draft when you have run out of problems you can see yourself. If you already know the middle sags, a reader telling you so teaches you nothing. Find plot holes and continuity errors before a reader does, or every note you get back will be about them.

Do not polish the prose first. Beta feedback moves and cuts scenes, and a cut scene does not need perfect commas.

Ask three to six people. With fewer than three you cannot tell one person's taste from a pattern. With many more, you sort notes that repeat each other. Choose for range:

• At least two people who read your genre for pleasure. They know what the book is promising.
• One person who reads widely but not in your genre. They catch what genre readers forgive.
• Nobody who has heard you talk through the plot. They cannot have a first read. They already know Juliet is not dead.

Keep one or two readers in reserve for the next draft. A reader can only meet the book once.

What to tell readers before they start

Write one short message and send the same one to everyone:

1. What it is. Genre, length, and that it is a draft that has not been copy edited.
2. What you want. Their reaction as a reader. Say plainly that they do not need to fix typos or suggest solutions.
3. How to give it. Mark the passage and write a few words while reading, not a report afterwards.
4. The date. A real one, three or four weeks out for a novel.
5. Permission to stop. If they give up, you need to know the page. That is the most useful note they can send.

Do not explain the book or warn them about the part you are worried about.

Ask for reactions at the passage level

A summary written a week after finishing is a memory of the book, tidied up. A mark on the exact paragraph is evidence. Compare two kinds of note on a draft of Romeo and Juliet:

The second column tells you which paragraph to open. Ask readers for three marks above all: where they were bored, where they were confused, and where they could not stop. The third tells you what not to touch.

In Plotra, readers leave these marks in the draft itself. Click Share project… at the top of the binder, enter the reader's email address, and leave the role on Commenter. They get an email with a link. They can read and comment, they cannot edit, and they see nothing else in your workspace. Only the workspace's owner and admins can share. See sharing a project.

To comment, a reader selects some text and clicks Comment. The passage is highlighted and the thread quotes it. Reply to ask what they meant, and Resolve the thread once you have dealt with it. See comments.

Switch on the Review & editorial module in Project settings → Modules and the same bubble offers six one-click reactions: loved it, funny, surprised, sad, confused and bored. Reactions are collected at the top of the note's Comments panel under Reactions, grouped by passage, with a count for each. Three "confused" on one paragraph is a finding. Reactions send no notification, so open the panel to see them.

A beta reader questionnaire you can copy

Passage marks show you where. A short questionnaire at the end shows you the whole shape. Ask about the reader's experience, never about solutions.

1. Where did you first put the book down, and what made you pick it up again?
2. At what point, if any, did you feel you had to keep reading?
3. Was there a place where you skimmed? Which chapter?
4. Was anything confusing: who someone was, where a scene took place, how much time had passed?
5. Which character would you follow into another book? Which one could you not picture?
6. Was there a moment when a character did something you did not believe they would do?
7. What did you expect to happen that did not?
8. Which scene do you remember best, a week later?
9. Did the ending feel earned? Rate it from 1 to 5.
10. How did the pace feel overall: too slow, about right, or too fast?
11. In one sentence, what is this book about?
12. Who would you give this book to?

Question 11 is the quiet test. If four readers give four different answers, the book has not yet decided what it is.

With the module on, build this once in the Reviews view: open the Questionnaires tab and press New questionnaire. Set About to the whole project, or to one chapter or folder. Each question is a Written answer, a Rating from 1 to 5, or a Multiple choice, so questions 9 and 10 become one click each. Results shows every answer beside its author, the average for a rating and a count for each choice. See questionnaires.

Three things to know. Answers are not anonymous. There is no notification when a questionnaire is created, so tell your readers it is there. And a reader who is not a member of your workspace is shown as "Former member", not by name, in the results, under a reaction and on their comments. With several outside readers you see what was said but not which of them said it. If that matters, make the first question "Your name".

How to read conflicting feedback and decide what to change

Readers will disagree. Sort every note into one of four piles before you change a word:

Take the second row. One reader marks Romeo and Juliet's first meeting "too fast, I do not believe it". Another marks the same lines "loved it". Do not split the difference and slow the scene halfway. The speed is the point: the whole story takes five days. The useful question is whether the first reader was told early enough that this is a story about haste.

Then write the plan as a short list of causes, not a long list of notes, and work from the largest change to the smallest.

Before the rewrite, save the draft your readers read. In Plotra, open History in the inspector, type a name such as "Before the rewrite", and click Save. Named versions are kept until someone deletes them. A version is a copy of one note, not of the whole project, so save one for each chapter you are about to rework. See version history.

When the story is settled and you bring in an editor, share the project as Editor and ask them to turn on suggesting mode. Every insertion and deletion is marked until you Accept or Reject it. A commenter cannot suggest. See suggestions. The same setup works if you co-write a novel.

What a beta reader can see in Plotra

A reader sees the whole project: every note, including your character pages, your outline and anything marked as not yet revealed. There are no permissions on single notes or folders, and a commenter can export what they can open.

To show only the story, share a separate project that holds just the manuscript, or send an export made at a spoiler horizon.

On the number of readers: a project can be shared with 5 people on the Free plan and 200 on Pro, which is $10 a month for the whole workspace. Everyone in the Shared with list counts, whatever their role and whether or not they have opened the link. Remove readers when a round is over to make room for the next. The details are under guests and on the pricing page.

What to do next

Write the message from the third section today, before you choose your readers. If you cannot say in two lines what you want from them, the draft is not ready to send. Then copy the twelve questions, cut the ones that do not fit your book, and pick a date.