Beta Reader (Especially for Kiki) Qualifications

Tune Up Tuesday with Sally Lippert

MY JOURNEY AS A READER...

When I first started reading Joanna's pre-published work, my goal was to get through the book or short story as quickly as possible to find out "who done it?"

But Joanna encouraged me to take my time and look for problematic areas. As I did, memories of my youth came back to me. You see, I grew up with an aunt, who was head of the English department at my high school.

 My aunt never had any children, so I became her "chosen one" to be the best. She was extremely tough taskmaster when it came to proper English. (No, it did not make my school days easier!)

Then I switched career paths and went into nursing. My reading and writing skills consisted mostly of working with patients' charts. Definitely not creative writing. It was more about "painting a picture" of patient care in case you were ever called to give a deposition in a law suit.

Needless to say, my skill level deteriorated until I met Joanna. 

Interacting with her awesome tribe of Beta Readers has challenged me to remember my aunt's lessons on grammar, punctuation, and even diagraming sentences.

CHOOSING AND MAINTAINING A STYLE...

Of course, a lot has changed since my time in high school. English is an evolving language, adding thousands of new words each year. The usage of computers has forced changes upon us. Whereas I was taught to double-space after the end of a sentence, we now are told to use only one space.

Joanna and I decided that we needed one reference that we both could turn to for answers. She owned The Gregg Reference Manual, so she bought me my own copy. We're also compiling a style sheet just for the Kiki and Cara Mia books. A style sheet goes beyond the reference manual to keep small details consistent from one Kiki book to the other. For example, when Kiki flips the sign over at Time in a Bottle, it says OPEN or CLOSED in all capital letters. That's a small thing, but one that must remain the same from book to book and story to story.

Here's another example. Did you know that there's no full stop (period) after the letter "r" in Dr Pepper? That's right. It was dropped in the 1950s. So that, too, will go into our style sheet.

 

WHAT IS A BETA READER?

Wikipedia describes a beta reader as someone who brings "a critical eye, with the aim of improving grammar, spelling, characterization, and general style of a story prior to its release to the general public."

But that definition doesn't begin to define what you offer Joanna. Beyond the help you offer by reading and commenting on early versions of the work, you are a valued sounding board and cheering section. Because you are so invested in the series, your opinions matter greatly to us.

COULD YOU QUALIFY AS A BETA?

Do you like to read any genre in fiction?

Are you familiar with the basic rules of grammar and punctuation? 

Do you enjoy watching a series grow and evolve?

These are all qualities that we value in our Beta Readers. Most of all, we appreciate the dedication and candor that our Betas bring to their reading. While Joanna might not take every suggestion that's offered, I can tell you that she considers it. Often she and I will discuss the suggestions and decide whether she needs to follow them! (You'd be surprised at how much she cares about creating a satisfying reading experience. Then again, maybe it wouldn't surprise you. After all, you know her work.)
 

The Beta Readers bring their individuality to each and every story and book. We LOVE all of your input because you are so committed to Kiki. (And now to Cara Mia.)

 

A BIG SHOUT OUT!

I want to thank each and everyone of you for all you have given me--and of course, Joanna says she couldn't write without you!

 

How to Make a Contest Judge Very, Very Grumpy

The organizers of the contest I was judging sent an urgent email saying that a few of the judges had opted out at the last minute. Would I review two more entries?

Of course, I said, "Yes."

One of those is still upsetting me.

You see, this particular entry featured a charming and highly original story idea. To my mind, it was "high concept." It was a big idea that causes people to smile and say, 'Ahhhh!"

But the writer didn't proof her work. The 30 pages were riddled with extra spaces between words, lack of indentation for paragraphs, missing spaces between words, extra periods at the end of sentences, misspellings, verb tense mistakes ("lead" for "led"), and a total disregard for common usage of commas. At first, I simply marked these using the yellow highlight function. Toward the end of the piece, I started to get hacked off. Really annoyed.

You see, a contest entry or a query for an agent should represent your BEST work. You are consciously, and by definition, trying to set your best foot forward. To ask anyone to read your work when you haven't gone through it and polished it to perfection is like asking a guest to come over for Thanksgiving dinner to a dirty, messy house. A house festooned with wet towels, cans overrun with garbage, dirty toilets, and a grubby floor.

Wow, you are thinking, Joanna, you've really gone off the edge on this.

Maybe. But then again, maybe not.

You see, writing is my profession. I worked 40-hours a week in college to put myself through school. I went into massive amounts of debt to buy an education. Despite my full-time job, I still graduated cum laude, and it would have been summa cum laude had I not gotten tripped up in a statistics class. I take my work very seriously. I believe that publication is an honor. A privilege. I take my readers very seriously. Their attention is an honor. Their time--and mine--is a nonrefundable resource that is precious.

Even today, I struggle to improve my writing. Recently I asked an English teacher for clarification on "which" and "that" usage. I'm still working to perfect my skills with those words! And even in this article, I will stop and look up spellings and meanings of words as I go along. Every piece I write is edited many times over. That's just part of the job.

So when someone submits a piece for evaluation, I give that piece hours of attention. Yes, you read that right: HOURS. I was told to expect to spend 45 minutes judging each piece. I spent 2 and 3 hours per piece. I did not give them a cursory look and then assign numbers to the heuristic grid. I highlighted comments as I went along. I line-edited the submissions, and used the strike-through function to show wordiness. I noted missing commas, missplaced modifiers, faults of logic, and sequencing errors. Such editing in the marketplace is valued at $5 a page, on the low end of the professional editing scale. Each contest piece was 30 pages long. So I offered each contestant $150 worth of my time.

Which in this case was wasted. I say "wasted" because this particular entrant obviously didn't take the contest seriously. Didn't spend the time necessary to master the basics of our craft. Didn't put in the baseline effort needed to prepare a story for a contest, much less for publication.

In short, I guess I'm miffed because I was willing to "waste" my valuable time...but the person submitting that particular entry wasn't equally willing to spend his/hers!

Here's the shame of it: He/She had a wonderfully creative idea for a story. He/She was gifted with a delightful imagination. These are God-given talents. All this editing stuff can be learned! But those talents are gifts.

Then there's the underlying premise of any competition: The entrant promised me his/her best work in exchange for my time and attention.

And I was cheated.

What a shame.

Is it any wonder that I'm still sort of grumpy about that particular entry?

Things That'll Keep You Unpublished

Probably the LAST thing I should be doing with my time today is writing a blog post. Nevertheless, I am compelled to share what I'm learning.

See, I'm judging a contest for writers, new and hopeful authors. There's a wonderful set of criteria which guides me. Very helpful. Very insightful. But mainly, I'm calling upon what I've learned over the past five years.

And I'm using up far too much time doing this...except...except...it comes at an important juncture in my own career. I have two novels under my belt, and my third has been accepted but for the final edits. So reading these submissions, I can certainly see how my own skills have improved.

Here's what I'm seeing in these entries, problems that I believe will keep the books from seeing publication unless they are corrected:

1. Lack of specificity. Instead of having your protagonist say, "I went to college with her," tell me which college. MIT is very different from University of Illinois. A tiny specific tells the reader LOTS about your protagonist.

2. Simple grammatical mistakes. Common on, people. Learn to use a comma. All right, I still have trouble with "that" versus "which," but I keep looking up the difference and trying to get it right. And it's a subtle difference, one that may even go the way of "who" versus "whom," because proper usage almost becomes, uh, snotty. BUT...the major rules for comma usage are golden. Check this out, if you are unclear: http://www.eslbee.com/sentences.htm

3. Tighten up. I'm going to wear out my strike-through function. Here's an example of a sentence that needs to go on a diet: "I thought the words to myself." Uh, we only think to ourselves unless we are suffering from multiple personality disorder. Here's another: "Unexpectedly, I threw up my hands because I was startled by the surprise." ARRRGHHH. (I can't even start to fix that one!)

4. Delete the word "was" and write cleaner, clearer sentences. "I was tired, lonely from the long drive, and feeling sleepy as I pulled into town." How about "Tired, lonely, and sleepy from the 13-hour drive, I pulled into town." What I'm discovering is a real need for people to improve their technical ability, their basic repertoire of sentence structures. (Yes, "was" can be used perfectly. When you want to show that the subject was acted upon, then "was" does a brilliant job.)

5. Simple spelling and usage errors. I just looked up the spelling of "repertoire." That's part of my job. I always look up "lay" and "lie" because they are confusing. That's also part of the job. See, it's not just about writing--it's about knowing what my faults are as a writer and working to improve.

Okay, back to the judging.

PS I've re-read this and corrected it twice since originally writing it. That's another problem with beginning writers: They think their job is done once they have a first draft. (Sad to say, I'll probably find other corrections to make once this goes up. Still, the point is that you can't knock it out fast and walk away!)