Holmes Is To Sherlock as Beta Readers Are To Writers
by Theresa Bane

Normally I write funny blogs about things relevant to “my people,” the Gaming, Geek, and Nerd community if you will. Since I have just had a long sit down talk with my cat about the dangers of catnip, I think its about time I address all the newly published and budding authors out there about a topic as critical as the abuse of cat nip in the feline community - that of the beta process.

Let me begin with the basics. The idea behind beta reading is simple - make the story better; for those of you who don’t know or have never used the process, beta reading is when an author passes their work over to a group of people to read and critique PRIOR to it going to their editor or potential publisher. To beta read a story is to read it with a critical eye looking for ways to improve upon it before the final and finished piece is submitted to the publisher or editor for publication. These readers read the story for both content and editorial quality; they make and send these suggestions and queries back to the author. Then, the author peruses the comments and decides what, if any, changes will be made to the piece before they send to a publisher or editor.
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