The Best Beta Readers are the Most Critical
When you ask someone to read your work, I suggest that you take the attitude that their criticisms will help you to make your book better. You should look forward to their criticism and understand that the harsher they seem, the better your book will be when you have fixed the problems. It’s better to have the criticism before it’s published than afterwards when it’s too late to fix it. This is why the best beta readers are the most critical and I always tell mine to be very critical and not to feel that they will hurt my feelings. Here are my suggestions for the kind of things you can ask them to look at. If you lose interest, please stop reading & I’ll send you a revised edition later. Tell me where I lost you. In general, does the story/plot work? Is there anywhere where it wanders or…