Writer and Editor Relationship (NB) For all writers and editors.

[Graeme]

An editor can be a beta-reader, but my view of a beta-reader is someone who is looking at the writing from a plot and readability point of view. The mechanics of the writing are only important to a beta-reader if they're making something difficult to read. The primary focus is whether the story is 'working', whether the characters are being consistent, and trying to spot errors/flaws in the writing, such as a character taking off three shoes before sex, insufficient research on the effects of a particular medical condition, or simply characters being silent when they should be saying something. I remember the last one well. I had two characters having an argument, and my beta-reader asked my someone else in the room was being silent. I realised that they were right -- I had concentrated so much on the two characters that I had neglected to consider how the other people in the room would be reacting.

 

An editor can do all of that, too, but by having one or more people who whose job is looking at the story, rather than the writing, the end product is improved. Sometimes fixing an issue raised by a beta-reader means going back to earlier chapters and making changes. I've done that more than once with my novels. Something occurs and the beta-reader says it needed foreshadowing, so I would go back to an earlier chapter and add that foreshadowing. Other times, the beta-reader has told me that I need more justification for a characters actions, so I would go back and find a place where I can add that justification.