I love to beta read. It’s a sick pleasure of mine. If I don’t have a book to beta read on my iPhone, I beg for one on twitter.
Most of the time I find something I love in the story. I’ve even made some great friends from it. On occasion, I’ve even read a book or two right before a big publisher bought them. I love doing that, and I love being able to help a fellow author find the flow in the story.
But, on very rare occasion–I’ve read books that suck.
Now, before you boo me, and I understand if you want to boo me–just hear me out.
When I read these books, it’s hard to tell the truth. I mean what am I supposed to do? Send them a quick email explaining that I think their never has any chance of ever seeing publication?
Um, no. That’s the worst idea ever. Don’t do that. Don’t be a pompous butt head. Because, let’s face it–Who am I to say that? I’m just an unpublished author myself, and I have no right to tell anyone their stuff sucks, and guess what.
Unless you’re Stephen King… you don’t either.
Now, I’m not saying you can’t tell them their manuscript needs work, but you need to tell them what’s good too.
Find the diamond in the rough.
Who knows, maybe they rock at dialogue, maybe they do a fabulous job describing a fancy palace, heck… maybe they have superb comma placement. Whatever it is, tell them about it.
Now, about the fact that their book sucks, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to tell them why it sucks, and what you would do to make it better. Just remember: a little bit goes a long way!
Jamie Harrington is an aspiring author that spends her days frantically writing about super heroes and band geeks. She blogs at Totally the Bomb.com. You can also find her mindlessly chatting away all day on twitter.![[del.icio.us]](http://giveagirlapen.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
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6 Comments so far
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Jamie, if you are needing another book to beta read – let me know
I have a manuscript that is almost ready to be read and I need some honest eyes 
I’ll even sweeten the deal – check out my blog … see those delicious treats? I’ll send you some
LOL
[Reply]
Jamie Reply:
August 14th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
yeah… I am with Sarah… I do love those sparkly vamps
Is that bad? 
[Reply]
By Steena on 08.13.09 11:20 am | Permalink
Book sucking is inevitable, kind of like death and taxes. I hear songs on the radio daily that suck. What does it mean? Only that that particular song or book is not my thing. (that’s the short version of the fact that publishers put out what they think they can market vs. what they think doesn’t suck from a literary standpoint)
When I read the work of my colleagues, published or not; I have a tendency to read with the same thoughts in the back of my mind.
How did you get this crap published/Of course this is published it’s a work of genius OR you’ll never get this crap published–it blows chunks!
Now, having said that…
There are many of you (you know who you are) that have a HUGE problem with certain MEGA selling series out there concerning a certain boy wizard and one concerning a certain girl wanna be vampire. You take issue with structure, storytelling and the like. OK-whatever. So, maybe it’s just not your thing.
But millions of other people disagreed with you. Imagine that.
Oh and for the record, I don’t think being Stephen King gives anyone the right to publicly disregard anyone’s writing abilities or success as an author.
My .02.
Cheers-
Georgia
[Reply]
By Georgia McBride on 08.13.09 4:19 pm | Permalink
I’ve read a few that didn’t do it for me. Why? Usually because they didn’t seen to get to the plot.
I need a plot.
So what to do?
Be honest with why you don’t like something, but like Jamie said, point out the good. I read one writer’s work, that said person could write travel logs to compete with the best travel mag writers in the world. I felt like I’d visited the places myself. Problem, didn’t need that much description in the novel, IMO.
But I told said person how I felt and that it was my opinion. Remember, these are just our opinions.
And I happen to love young wizards and wannabe girl vampires, even if I would have edited things differently.
So, great topic Jamie.
[Reply]
By Sarah on 08.13.09 9:37 pm | Permalink
Well said. As a writer, I need an extra spoonful of encouragment. I like to know the things I need to fix, but if I don’t have the spoonful of sugar, I’m not going to swallow the critique very well.
[Reply]
By Tara McClendon on 08.14.09 4:46 pm | Permalink
Oh, yeah, Tara. And there’s always something good. Even if you have to look for it.
[Reply]
By Sarah on 08.14.09 4:48 pm | Permalink
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