ARC and Betas

ARC’s and Betas

When all of a sudden after 2 years of serious writing you suddenly start to get people to ARC and Beta for you, it is just a WOW moment.

So what is an ARC and Beta Reader?

Well, beta readers read your work whilst you are still writing it and gives you feedback from the point of view of an average reader to the author.

A beta reader is not a professional, but a keen reader who will be honest about your work, ideally someone who would form part of a writers target market. If the plot isn’t working, then it just isn’t working. The manuscript is usually in its raw state before going to edit or for proofreading, so it is more about content continuity and character formation than editorial mistakes.

An ARC reader is someone who reads an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) and gives an honest review. They usually receive an edited copy a few weeks before it is due to be published in return for an HONEST review – this is not your Mum or Auntie Sally, who lives down the road, but a reliable group of your target market readers.

They will typically review on Amazon or Goodreads and their opinions do matter. So, in the past couple of weeks, I have had a peaked interest from people willing to join my team, and I can tell you I am chuffed to meatballs about it. Getting reviews as a Children’s Author can be an uphill struggle, as your target market is the kids and they are too young to hold accounts to post to Amazon or Goodreads without adult supervision, and well, for middle-grade books that can be hard as parents often don’t have the time to support these authors. They are keen when the kids are young to share their child’s latest books, but as their parental reading involvement tails off they are less likely to post a review or rating, and only when the child is old enough to post as a young adult do the reviews seem to start to come again.

Reviews, especially for Indie writers are so important, as even brilliant books won’t sell if the marketing tools are not spot on and no-one knows about your book. Reviews are an important part of that marketing process and help the authors enormously. So if you have read a middle-grade book, or your child or school learner has, please be generous and help them by posting an HONEST review.

If anyone reading this would like to come on to my ARC or Beta team please contact me. Ever-growing, ever learning.

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