Getting Feedback On Your Writing - Betas and Critiquers

We all know that, at some point, we will have to do this. There is no point going ahead if you don't know whether people will like it, or that you writing is definitely good stuff.

The slight difficulty with this - though it should be easy enough - is actually finding people to read your work.
The obvious group of people to go for would be family and friends: that rock in hard times and the people you know (or hope) will love you no matter what, but unfortunately that familiarity is also their downfall. Can you trust them to give unbiased advice?
So, if you're not going for people that you really know, who is left? I've heard many stories of people asking tutors or teachers to read through their stuff, and this seems to go down fairly well. However, there is also a slight uncertainty of honesty and the embarrassment of the teacher not liking what you have.
And then there is that fountain of knowledge and danger: the Internet. We all know how to use it (or if you don't, where have you been?!) but can scarcely ever find exactly what we're looking for. There is the good old-fashioned google search and seeing what comes up, but it usually comes up with sites showing tips on how to find critique partners, rather than people who are really looking for them. And the ones you do find: how do you know they are who they say and can they really give good advice?
It's a bit of a problem, and one that I haven't quite found an answer to yet.

But if you are just looking for a site to get quick and fairly good feedback, there is one that I can recommend. It's not necessarily a sure-fire place to get top quality advice, but it is far from the worst and is definitely a place to find book-lovers: FictionPress.
On this site they have a system for beta-readers set up. Anyone can become a beta so long as they fulfil certain requirements - and therein lies the slight danger - but you are able to select who you send your work to beforehand, by looking at their beta-profiles for their reading preferences and general profiles for some information on the people themselves. These can usually tell you enough about them, for you to be happy for them to read your writing.
They have a secure system for sending files: both parties must agree before a connection to send can be established and you can withdraw your files if you want. Nothing is public unless you decide to announce it.


I already had an account on this site and last week decided to make use of the beta system. I sent off my first chapter to two beta readers I had selected - I seemed to hit the jackpot as far as good readers were concerned - after first checking if they were interested. Within a hour or two I had their feedback with me.
I was particularly looking for if my first chapter was interesting enough to keep people reading, and if the flow was good. Thankfully, they both seemed to enjoy the chapter and wanted to know more; this gave me a nice little boost (I was very hyper for the rest of the evening). One gave me a few tips on flow and how to make things a bit easier on the reader, and they both were able to point out some typos and little mistakes, that I had missed on my read through. One of them also added that it had the potential to be bookshelf material (*squee!!!*).


One word of warning:
Although there are plenty of active betas on the site, there are many who are no longer active, but are still listed as being so. It's a good idea to search their profiles for when they were last on the site, to see if they are still there: I recommend no-one who hasn't been on in at least six months.

Hope this was useful
W-O xx

P.S. If my two betas ever read this and work out who I am: thank you, I love you both!