Do you need a beta reader? Or would you like to offer your beta reading services to others? Post here!
I highly enjoy beta reading, and from the bit of critique I’ve received, I’m decent at it. Things can get muddled up due to my own timelines or personal stuff at home, but just ask and I’ll be happy to let you know if I’m up for it :3
I am also very happy to do beta reading. If you have anything you’d like me to beta read, please let me know.
I’m a savage and feral beta reader, ready and willing to cull your herd of words. Email me anytime, I’ll try to read and critique within a few days time.
I’m definitely best paired with authors with thicker skin, but I’m also passionately committed to the improvement of any story that comes my way. 
Becoming a beta-reader? Well, why not? I’m always looking for something new to read, especially short stories! I’m not very quick, alas, but I’ll be happy to try to do it.
I also would like to have some of my things beta-read, honestly. I need feedback to improve my (English) writing skills, and it’s hard to find readers for my thingies outside the fandom…
-MikeT
I’d be up for helping after Jan 31st :3
I can be up for helping from tomorrow on! Just give me some time to download some stories (I tend to read them while I commute to my lab) and I’ll be ready to give feedback.
-MikeT
I’ve got the time now, so I’ll gladly throw my hat in for this.
I could help out if somebody needs a reader. Also, if somebody wants to do a swap, I’m good for that too:)
When I started the thread I forgot to say that I am totally up for some beta reading myself
Is the normal practice here to IM one of those offering to beta read, or simply ask here?
I’m looking for a beta reader for my novel. Here’s a version of my post on NaNoWriMo’s forum, for anybody wondering if it’s something they’d be willing to look at. I’m willing to do critiques in return.
Title: “Thousand Tales: How We Won the Game”
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: About 90,000 words
Draft: 2nd
Language: English (US)
Subgenre / Keywords: Hard SF, artificial intelligence, AI, robotics, uploading, transhumanism, friendly AI, virtual reality, seasteading, secession, griffin
Known Problems: Since it’s a collection of linked stories I worry whether they fit together in terms of logic, clarity and reader interest. One subplot has been heavily rewritten to make the female lead more active and successful. Also I suspect everybody’s dialog sounds the same.
Critique Requested: More concerned with the big picture (is it interesting; does it make sense) than fixing typos, though if there’s a persistent style problem that’s good to know.
Critique Tolerance: While I don’t like being told something’s awful, I need to hear it if it’s true. Just don’t be intentionally insulting, please.
Experience / Goals: I’ve got a SF novel out through a small press and a fantasy novel self-published plus 1 1/2 unfinished novels, and have sold a few short stories for near-zero pay. I want to market this to pro publishers, so it must be something they’d find acceptable. Backup plan is self-pub through Amazon &c.
Method of Communication: E-mail, IRC and Skype are fine along with this forum.
Other: The story began life as my fanfic of a fanfic by “Iceman” called “Friendship Is Optimal”. I’m confident I’ve diverged plenty far enough from “FiO” to be safe, though.
Summary:
“We built utopia… Now what?” A collection of linked stories about people dealing with the rise of Ludo, an AI nominally designed to run a game but really to develop brain-uploading technology that will create a virtual-reality utopia. Idealistic young couple Paul and Linda break up when Paul risks his life to get a dying girl scanned into Ludo’s machines, and is uploaded himself to become a griffin in a fantasy world. Linda considers him dead. She throws away her dream of a political career, moves to a dangerous ocean colony, and tries to find ways to keep people free of both hopeless oppression and the tyranny of a mad AI. Meanwhile, Paul finds that there are snakes in his new Eden and that (trans)human effort and struggle are still important. Other intertwining stories explore Ludo’s secret sponsor, the limits of brain augmentation, religion in a virtual world, and other effects of AI and the stories that define us.
Short excerpt:
[hr]
Warm sunlight stirred Horizon awake. He was outdoors on a cushion, feeling his ears twitch and something feathery curling at the end of his spine. He yawned, closed his mouth with a clack, and blinked. He poked at his face and felt the beak sticking out of it.
He stood up on all fours and tried to remember what had happened. He’d gone from his assigned Community in America, to a border town in Mexico with Simon’s dying sister, to jail, to Korea, to… here. Could it be? He felt unfamiliar body parts quivering along his back but didn’t dare to look straight at them. He might wake up from a dream.
A gentle touch on his hand. Horizon glanced down at a set of yellow talons where his fingers ought to be, then up along the raven-grey bird leg that had touched them.
Nocturne stepped closer, nearly as tall as he was, and said, “You here yet, drake?”
He looked into the griffin’s golden eyes and at her dark feathers and tufted ears. She seemed more detailed, more vivid. He reached up with his left talons to brush through the feathers along her neck, feeling them lift and fall with her breath. Nocturne shivered. Her beak was mobile enough to show a smile. He said, “I’m not playing a game anymore, am I? I don’t remember it all.”
“Let’s find out!” she said. She stretched her neck over to beak-nibble Horizon’s ears. “Can you feel this?”
He felt them swivel. Not something a VR rig was equipped for. “Oh, wow.”
“You said something about the pods only letting you feel the base of your wings by thumping your shoulders. How about now?” She began to run her talons from one of his shoulders all along the length of his wing, tickling through long brown feathers.
The new limbs were straight out and he couldn’t figure out how to bring them in. “Wings,” he whispered, as though they’d vanish if he were heard.
Horizon leaned against her and sobbed all over her shoulders, for the lives he had lost and gained.
“She said you might react like this,” she said, folding one wing over his back. “And that I shouldn’t give you a hard time until I’d seen you smile. Is it that time yet?” She nudged his head up by letting her talons click against the underside of his hard beak…
I think either is OK! I usually pick on someone I think would suit the story and drop them a line, but just asking on the thread is fine too, and might get you someone unexpected and brilliant
I should post I can help with beta reading as well
Just know that not everyone’s the best at checking the threads (myself included >.<), so most of those folks don’t mind a small poke through pm asking about it :3
I both need a beta reader (or readers!) and am willing to offer my services—a trade would work well. Poke me here or on Twitter, etc.!
I love beta reading!
Fire it at me at rochefortwrites@gmail.com
Let me know when you send it what you’re looking for. Fair warning: I’m of the “feral and savage” school of beta reading, wading in to cull herds of words.
It would probably be wise for me to get a beta reader for Sapphires Emeralds and Sorcery, but eyes Bahu perhaps someone with a gentle hand. I’m still waiting to see if it’s accepted into the RF Antho and to see what their edits are, but it would be nice to have another eye in case there are things that could be improved upon and compare notes with their edit suggestions.
I have a NSFW/erotic story I need beta read. I’ve been sitting on it for several weeks, unsure what to do with it. I wondered if I should save it for a Heat submission, maybe, but … I’m not sure if it’s good.
I’d be happy to help anyone who needs a beta reader, and may require one in the near future I’m usually able to get back to you quickly, and I’m totally free on most days when I’m not otherwise reading for class. You can contact me on here, but I’m more active on my Twitter @LeoMFoxx