Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing

Karen Miller has kindly agreed to be interviewed and she has provided some in-depth answers on her views on beta readers and the writing process.
Karen is one of the most hardworking authors I know. I have known her to spend a science fiction convention in her room because she has a deadline. She is also very generous with guidance and advice to newer writers. Karen writes under her own name, ranging from her fantasy series, Kingmaker, Kingbreaker and the Godspeaker to Star Wars and Stargate tie ins. Under the name K.E. Mills she has published the Rogue Agent series. Her latest release is Wizard Uncovered. You can find more about Karen here.  Karen is the Australian Guest of Honour at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to be held over Anzac weekend in Canberra 2013.

1. How many beta readers do you have and how long have you used beta readers in your writing process?

The number of readers I use fluctuates from project to project. Right now I have 7 on tap for the current work in progress. I’ve always used at least one. No matter how much experience you have, no matter how many books you’ve written,  you can’t accurately assess your own work. You need an uninvolved outside perspective to help you catch the blodgy bits your brain’s skated past. And it does always skate!

 2. In what ways do beta readers assist you in developing your novel for publication?

Beta readers are a mirror. Because they don’t know the story, and haven’t been involved in the creation of the story, they can give you the most objective feedback on the story. A good beta reader, someone who focuses on the reading experience,  is able to point out what doesn’t make sense, what doesn’t ring true, inconsistencies, where they got bored, where they stopped caring, where you’ve made a factual error, where they were engrossed, which characters they loved, which they hated, and ultimately whether or not the story worked for them. All of this information is crucial to a writer, because we’re storytellers, we’re crafting a tale for an audience. So an idea of audience reaction to the earlier version/s is key to polishing the story so it can shine.

3. Do all your beta readers pick up the same points?

No, which is the beauty of a range of readers! Nobody reads the same story in the same way. What delights one reader will disgust another, what one reader finds engrossing will bore another to sobs. One reader will believe something that another reader will disbelieve. Some readers are really good with continuity, others with structure, others with timing. So at the end of the process you’ve got this amazing 360 degree view of the work. The key is knowing how to interpret the feedback. If you find there’s a consistent theme running through the feedback, as in, everybody was bored to sobs in chapter 5, you can pretty much guarantee you’ve got  a rewrite ahead of  you. But if one reader is particularly sensitive to, say, violence against children, if they complain about it you might need to consider what you do. It’s a case of weighing personal preferences against what you’re trying to achieve in the story. A personal taste vs execution issue. You can’t write your story catering to every single personal taste out there, but you can do your best to craft the work so that readers whose personal tastes coincide with yours get the best book you can write.

4. Do you sometimes target your beta readers to particular areas based on the experience you had with them in the past? For example, one reader is good at plot holes, another reader is good at grammatical issues and another might be good at style. Or do you take what comes?

No. For me, the first rule of finding a beta reader is: Do they like what I do? If they don’t like what you write, even if they like you personally, there’s no point. Nothing you do will ever please them, and the feedback you receive will only be demoralising.  So with that on board, I just ask my beta readers to start reading, stop if they hate it, and make a note of things that jar for them. Every piece of feedback has value, so I try not to be prescriptive. When you know your beta readers, you know the things that will catch their attention, so I like to trust in that process.

5. Do you always want the same thing from the beta reader for each novel? For example, when you have deadlines and only have time for high-level feedback?

 Again, books are such complex things. If someone’s willing to give up their time to help me do a better job, I try not to tell them how to do their job. Once the first reading is done, if I need clarification on a criticism I’ll request more information. But because it’s a big job, and a sacrifice of time, and a huge personal favour, I try not to front load the request with a lot of rules and requirements. In between reading jobs, I’ll have a chat about the process if there’s been any confusion.

 6. How hard is it to find a good beta reader?

I’ve been blessed with my beta readers, and I didn’t find it hard at all. I think mainly because the people I’ve asked are familiar to me, they’re people whose reading skills I trust, and who I know will be absolutely honest with me. And also, I hope that I honour their hard work by staying open minded and listening to the hard stuff.

7. Do you have any advice for readers who want to be beta readers or even editors in the long run? For example, what type of commentary to you prefer?

The biggest thing for me is that the people reading my work are readers who have signed on for my story. If you can’t offer feedback that doesn’t morph into you trying to get the author to tell the story the way you’d tell it, then step off the bus. A beta reader and editor’s job is to help the writer tell their story the best way they can.

Once that’s established, the next most important thing is honesty. You must be able to say what you really think and feel. There are times when a writer says he or she wants honest feedback, but they’re kidding themselves. What they want is undiluted praise. That’s not what the beta reading process is about, and if you suspect the person you’re reading for is only after a shower of compliments — again, step off the bus. And if this person is a friend, before you start you need to be sure that the friendship will survive your honest feedback. My primary beta reader is a woman I’ve been friends with since 1982. She puts red lines through entire pages and says, That’s crap, you can do better, start again. And because I know she respects me and the work, and only wants me to do well, and I know that, and I respect her ability to read a manuscript critically, it’s a great partnership. That’s an ideal beta reader. Fearless, and coming from a place of respect.

And speaking of honesty, accept that the writer might not take on board everything you say. Sometimes the feedback is about personal taste and not execution, and the writer must be free to follow their own story truths. If you’re going to be offended and angry that every point you make isn’t acted upon, step off that bus. Ego has no place in the process, be it the reader’s or the writer’s. But, having said that, if it becomes clear to you that your hard work is unappreciated because all the writer wanted was praise? Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Also? Most writers don’t want you to tell them how to fix what’s wrong. They just need to know what’s wrong that needs fixing. You need to be accurate and concise. I lost interest at this point. I didn’t believe Character A would do this, because back in chap 9 you told me this about her. I don’t understand how that bit happened. HIghlight what you feel are areas of weakness in the ms, then leave it up to the writer to do the fixing. Unless you’ve noted a concrete factual error, in which case provide the right info and then leave it up to the author to act on it.

Finally, don’t ever forget that this is a huge matter of trust. Stephanie Meyers had a beta reader who leaked her work to the internet. It was a terribly destructive experience for her, a really wicked thing for that person to do. Please, remember that you’ve been given access to something special and don’t ever abuse the privilege of reading a work in progress.

As a writer, I’d be in a heap of trouble without the talented and generous people who beta read my work. And as a beta reader for other people, I am so humbled that they’d trust me to look at their work and offer an opinion. When it’s done right, everyone walks away a winner.
Thank you for the interview Karen. I have included a snap here of Karen Miller taken at Devention, (the World con held in Denver a few years ago). This was a rare glimpse of Karen at the convention because she spent most of it rewriting a novel. She will probably smack me for putting this up, but hey, considering she had hardly any sleep or rest, she looks pretty happy and good.

Donna