How do you find beta readers? (Hint: Not on Goodreads)

I’ve talked on here about beta readers before, but the topic is rattling around my head again — and not only because my next novel should head off to that stage by this weekend. Last week, I ran across this article on SelfPublishingAdvice.org by author Michael La Ronn. It’s titled “Writing: How to Find Beta Readers,” but it’s really all about how to find beta readers on Goodreads.

Now, I’ve also talked about Goodreads before, along with my somewhat love-hate relationship with it, though I’ve largely made peace (If you need an overview of what the site is, click that link). It’s fun for keeping track of what you’ve read, and getting recommendations. I guess there are some good groups and forums, and it could potentially help an unknown author gain readers — though I can’t report a lot of bump from it myself.

One thing I’m absolutely sure it’s not very useful for, though, is finding beta readers. It’s not that you can’t find beta readers there. I’d imagine you theoretically can. But to find beta readers through Goodreads downplays the importance of what beta readers mean to your work. It’s not a step to be taken lightly. If you want your editor (You do have an actual editor, right?) to take your book from good to great, well, it needs to be good first. Editors aren’t miracle workers, even if the best ones can seem pretty close to it. Even assuming you’ve chosen wisely with your editor, you can’t reasonably expect they’re gonna take a rough draft and turn it into The friggin’ Great Gatsby. You need to take it as far as you can possibly take it before handing it off to your editor, and that means getting some people to read it and be honest with you about all its stupid little flaws.

The key there is honesty. Beta readers, generally speaking, don’t get paid. They’re reading your manuscript and noting problems in order to help you. The question about beta readers you find on Goodreads is, can you trust them? Do they know anything about what makes a book great? And will they tell you about every hairy wart you didn’t catch yourself because you’re too close to notice it? Because, if not, they’re not helping you much. Why would strangers you found through some Goodreads forum want to help you? If you wrote 100,000-word novel, that’s many hours of focused work. They don’t know if your writing will be boring or riddled with errors. What are they getting out of this? A free book whenever it’s published? If it’s published? If you give these random people two months to read your manuscript, I’d put the odds at about a coin flip that you’ll get near that two-month mark and never hear from them. Or they’ll “forget,” and ask for a bunch more time. And, if you do get something from them, the odds are pretty good it’ll be borderline useless to you. Then you’ve all wasted your time.

So, how do you find beta readers? I’ve found it most effective to go to people I know. For my next novel, my beta reader team features my wife, one friend I’ve had for 30 years (the Best Man at my wedding, for what it’s worth), another I’ve known for 20 years, two more friends I’ve had for more than 5 years, and a woman my wife introduced me to who was probably the first “fan” of my fiction writing. What they all have in common is they want to help a friend make his book the best it can be. They have time invested in our relationship, and they’re not going to leave me hanging; they know how important it is to me. They’re not random strangers from some website.

The point being, you absolutely need beta readers you can trust. Maybe I’m at an advantage because I have several long-term friends, and I’ve pretty firmly established with them that my skin is rather thick. There’s literally nothing they could say about my work that would negatively impact our friendship, and they know that. They have to know that. That’s as important as anything else. And even beyond that, not only can’t it have a negative impact, but you need to make them feel appreciated. Make them feel like you can’t do it without them (Quick note: You can’t). If they feel like you need them, they’ll not only be willing but anxious to work on your next one.

What if you don’t have those friends? Do you have a sibling who likes to read? An uncle, cousin, classmate, someone with some sort of connection to you? Can you trust them to be honest with you? Find those people. See if they’ll help. Then, if they do well, heap them with praise for it. If you want to go to Goodreads or whatever random place to add some fringe beta readers to your roster — ones you won’t be depending upon because you’ve got enough without them — go for it. Maybe you’ll find a diamond out there. But I’m certain you’ll find a lot more who are unreliable and useless than ones who will help get your book where you want it to be. Do whatever you can to pull in people who are actually invested to some extent in your success, who don’t want to see you produce something that sucks. Those are the people who can help get your book to great.