Sometimes when you’re writing a book, you’ve spent too much time on it, or you’re too close to it and can’t necessarily see all that is going on.
That’s when your FIRST READER comes in. Booking me for a Professional Beta Read helps ensure your story and your structure is solid before moving forward on book production.
Someone new reviewing the story with fresh eyes can help point out where the descriptions are too sparse, or where the stakes aren’t high enough, or where some aspect of your character isn’t quite believable.
A Professional Beta Read includes:
- A complete read-through of your manuscript (at whatever stage it is in, including messy first draft)
- A full overview of the story, arc and characters, including what I think is going well and what needs more attention
- All the questions or confusions I have as a reader as I go through
- A list of specific tweaks or recommendations identified by chapter.
- Answers to any questions you have for me after reviewing my report
- (Complete reports tend to be about 1 page of notes per 10k words of story)
How much does it cost?
A Professional Beta Read costs $0.01 per word of the manuscript you send.
What genres do you read?
I read very widely and very thoroughly. I am more than happy to assess any genre you write in, but if you have a concern email me and we can talk about my experience with that genre. I’m pretty self aware on what I do or do not know, so in reading your book I will point out where something may be a genre trope that I am not familiar with.
I have a Masters degree in Literature, so I am well trained on critiquing books in general. Beyond that, you can see my read shelf on Goodreads here for an idea of my exposure.
I’d really love a full developmental edit. Can you do that?
I can. But maybe a professional beta read is all you need. Email me and we’ll chat about options.
Contact me for availability
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Amy is a thoughtful, attentive editor with a keen sense for story. She gives great constructive feedback, and has a real handle on a wide range of genres.
M.G. Herron, science fiction and fantasy author
I enlisted Amy’s help on my second book, which I already felt was better than my first, and she helped me take it up several notches. The most useful things she helped me do were:
- Work on some unintended character issues that my alpha reader identified, but couldn’t give strong enough feedback so that I could fix them. With Amy’s help I zeroed in on them and later beta readers didn’t report any issues at all. In fact, one beta reader was surprised how little feedback she had for me compared to book 1, and one of my first reviewers highlighted the initially problematic character as one of the strengths of the book!
- Significantly tightened up the pacing in a few places through some reordering and streamlining of scenes and sequences
- Identify some tics in my writing that I’m now very aware of.
- Helped me better integrate one portion of the story into the whole, or face a nuclear alternative.
The result is a much stronger book, and one I’m very proud to be releasing.
Jamie Maltman, author of Blood of the Water
