Last week I put out a call for beta readers for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. It was already in the hands of two people, one a relative one a friend, in a state of completion a few chapters away from being finished.  I haven’t received any feedback from them yet. But I decided to put out the call anyway and see what happened.

I mentioned this to Lynda and she asked, “What’s a beta reader?” I explained it is the next level of reader after the writer, who is the alpha reader. It is those who act as amateur editors and focus groups, who read the book in a stage somewhere between first draft and near-camera-ready and provide feedback to the author. In this sense a writer’s critique group is a bunch of beta readers for each other.

That feedback notion is what I’ve had trouble with. I’ve buddied up with other writers to read and critique their book-length works, and them mine, only to have it all go one way. I fulfilled my part of it but didn’t receive the promised feedback on my work. Then I had my first, unpublished novel, Doctor Luke’s Assistant, that a relative in my wife’s family wanted to read. As these were older people, I wasn’t expecting feedback. But they passed it on to a younger relative, who did give me some feedback. Part of what she wrote was, “I found some typos, perhaps as many as 50.” To which I asked, “Did you mark them?” To which she answered, “No.” As that was unsolicited feedback, I couldn’t be too upset. But why wouldn’t someone mark typos on a printed copy of a book on which they intend to give the author feedback?

On Documenting America, I sent that out to perhaps six beta readers, or seven including my wife, and received limited feedback from one. The feedback he gave me was valuable, mainly which told me that he wasn’t really my target audience. The feedback that my wife gave me, that she didn’t want to read beyond chapter 1, indicated that she wasn’t my target audience (so I guess I received limited feedback from two betas).

From my call for beta readers for FTSP, I received six responses. The books are all in their hands, or in one case in the mail. My nephew Chris is more than halfway through and is e-mailing me the typos as he encounters them. Since he is a rabid baseball fan (unfortunately for the NY Yankees), I hope he’ll give me feedback on the plot and on the baseball situations. Finding typos is of huge value. Knowing the plot makes (or doesn’t make) sense, knowing the book hits (or doesn’t hit) home, knowing someone would (or wouldn’t) recommend this book to their friends is also huge—just as valuable. I have a ninth person to send it to, a former colleague who asked for it some time ago but who didn’t respond to this particular request. Nine is a good number, especially for a book about baseball.

This time I asked for something specific: feedback of whatever nature the betas wanted to give me within 30 days. I realize this is a gift people are giving me, and no matter what I ask for it is a gift—I can demand nothing. People are busy. Good intentions are often overwhelmed by the necessity of living. Got it.

So we’ll see how this goes. I’m hoping for at least five responses out of nine. I’ll be anxious to see if these people are in my target audience. I’ve always thought I write the type of books I like to read, and if I like to read them there’s got to be a couple of million other people who would like to read them. DA is perhaps changing my opinion about that.