Should You Pay for a Beta Read?

I recently shipped my manuscript off to two professional beta readers. Selecting them required significant research, but I'm pleased by my choices and excited to receive their feedback.

While I've served as a professional beta reader for clients of my own, this is my first time in the hot seat. Hopefully, I have taken all my own advice and done a thorough job of self-editing, fixing the problem issues I identified in multiple rounds of revision.

My beta readers will be able to tell me where I might still need to put in some work to fix any weak structure, incomplete character and plot arcs, or poor pacing, not to mention any other issue I'm as yet unaware of.

Engaging a beta reader (or multiple readers) is a strategy I fully believe in and wholeheartedly recommend. But how to find a quality professional for the purpose?

Ay, there's the rub.

Go on Upwork or Fiverr or another similar site and in less than 30 seconds you'll find a number of freelancers who've hung out such a shingle. Are they qualified? Trustworthy? Any good?

I guess anything is possible. But you usually get what you pay for, and the prices are insanely low, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say no.

Ah! There it is! I've mentioned (and repeated) that ugly word. Money. Yes, you should expect to pay (I'll repeat it again) money for a professional beta read. And yes, even if you know — or know of — people who are also writers or have friends willing to do so for free.

Your friends, even if they're knowledgeable, are unlikely to read your manuscript at the necessary remove. They know you, so even if you write crime fiction or fantasy or gardening how-tos, the perspective they bring is not the detached reader perspective (i.e. your intended audience) that a beta reader by definition brings to the table.

(And this brief argument doesn't even scratch the surface of the innumerable strata of problems inherent with allowing an unqualified reader to give you input. There's just not enough space here to cover even the most cursory things that could go wrong in this scenario.)

I don't recommend hiring a professional beta reader too early in your writing process.

Nor do I recommend hiring anyone until you're able to clearly articulate what questions you want answered in addition to whatever else the reader needs to bring to your attention — and what feedback you definitely don't want or need.

That said, plan to build a professional beta read into your budget. It's money very well spent.

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