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Craft Chat Apps for Beta Reading

tyes

Full Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2024
Location
Mackay, Queensland, Australia
LitCoin
10
I am now working through the process of facilitating beta reading for my second novel. Like my first novel, collating everyone's feedback, comments, highlights etc is then a manual effort on my part, since I have issued the novel as a printed book. A 'tracked changes' Word document would make this far easier, but then my beta readers prefer a printed book which is fine.

Still this has raised a question that I explored last year with my first novel, which is if this process can be better managed using some form of mobile app. Since my day job is a software developer, I recognize that there would be a range of insights that can be provided through an app that may be valuable, including analytics on page reading, version control, live reader tracking and surveys.

I have dabbled and trialed a few of these, but most don't unlock any real features unless they are the paid edition. I am wondering if anyone else has made use of these and if they found them beneficial / worth the money? Some of these also offer a community of prospective readers which sounds like a nice idea, but I'm not sure that's a selling point in my case.
I'm sure I've seen others, but couldn't find them in my limited Googling. I am also not aware if some of the standard eBook platforms like Kindle might support the sharing of reader tracking data back to the author.

Have you used a beta reading platform / mobile application as an author or a reader? What were your thoughts?
 
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I haven't used any app before, though I can 100% understand the appeal. The last time I used the combine feature in MS Word to collate all the comments and track changes into one document. It took a bit of fiddling to get right though.

That said, not long ago my newsletter organiser app (Story Origin) added a beta reading feature, which I might trial next time I send out a manuscript for feedback. I pay to use StoryOrigin's newsletter coordinating and review copy distribution features, so this is a nice bonus feature/value add from them.

Screenshot 2024-09-24 at 5.21.27 PM.png

The guide mentioned in the above screenshot: How to find beta readers and collect feedback
 
There is an adjunct to query tracker that has a beta reading system similar to the lab. But honestly if you've never been published and are still on the learning curve it's worthwhile paying some money to a professional developmental editor for the brutal truth. Until we really get the parameters of how to edit ourselves we need a voice that sets the bar for what the profession expects. Even more so if we plan to self-publish. You never know if a free beta reader is right or wrong. If you pay someone who makes a living on their judgements yu can at least hear objective opinions about storytelling, soggy middles, character, dialog, etc... Once yu know about that yu can move onto subjective judgements -like is it an interesting premise.
 
I agree with @Pamela Jo . FWIW this was my experience: When I finished part 1 of my novel I had no idea if I was on the right track (esp coming from screenwriting) and didn't feel comfortable asking someone to read so much. So I invested in a dev editor who used to be an agent as well. I considered it my school. He was very thorough and pro and I took on some of his notes and some I didn't. Then when I finished part 2 I hit him up again, but didn't really have the funds to pay for full editing so I asked him if he would just be an alpha reader and I'll pay him for his time with no notes or editorial letter required. To my surprise he agreed to do it for free! And said he was looking forward to see how I tie it all in. So he read it in about 6 weeks and we had a good chat later and his notes were quite interesting and most of them spot on. I am so grateful to him and offered some barter services in exchange for his support...
 
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