So, you’ve written your story, and you’ve even found an editor to help point out all those pesky missed commas and misspelled words. That’s it, right? I mean, what else could you possibly need? How about, a Beta reader!

A good beta/author relationship is worth its weight in gold. If you do decide to find a beta reader, be forewarned that it might take you a couple tries before you find one that you really mesh with. I personally have had countless beta readers before finding my current team and I wouldn’t do without a single one of my current team members. Here’s the basics of what I look for in a beta reader.

First off, I have to trust them. I mean, think about it, I’m trusting them with my hard work and effort. Some stories can be really time consuming to write and I have to know that my team is going to do their best for me. I have to trust that they won’t be afraid to point out errors that they find. I’m sure many writers have had continuity issues, whether or not they admit it, I trust my beta readers to find those issues. Granted, one or two might get missed, but overall, my team tends to catch the majority of them.

A second thing for me personally is, I have to be able to talk to my betas. I’ll find myself stuck on a story and generally at least one of my team members are around and are more than willing to help me work through a block. They’ll talk the story out with me and help me to get it on the right track. This to me, is invaluable and so many of my stories have taken on a life of their own because of it.

A third thing that I look for is, do they get easily offended if I don’t take their advice. Unfortunately, this is one thing that is almost impossible to find out until you actually work with them. One good tell is if they tell you from the start that what they suggest is just that, a suggestion, and that you can take it or leave it. I’ve worked with my team long enough that generally, I take most of their advice, but there’s occasionally that one thing that I just say nope, I’m leaving it alone. I still consider everything though, they took the time to give me their opinions and suggestions, so the least I can do is give serious thought to them before rejecting the idea, so keep that in mind as well.

So, that’s the majority of what I look for. Keep in mind though that a beta reader generally is not an editor. You might find one that does great with both, but a beta reader is not meant to point out spelling and punctuation errors, that’s not really what you have them for. They’re there to check the flow of your work, check the continuity, and check for phrasing that just seems off.

Now that you know what to look for, go out and find your beta reader so that they can help you make your story the best that it can be (and no, I’m not recruiting for the Army).

So, those are my main things, what do you personally look for in your beta readers? Feel free to add to this list by commenting!!!