Harsh Does Not Equal Honest: Pick Your Beta Readers Carefully

By Dario Ciriello, @Dario_Ciriello 

Part of The Writer's Life Series

JH: Feedback doesn't have to be mean to be useful. Dario Ciriello shares thoughts on dealing with beta readers, tough crits, and the struggles of new authors just trying to get help. 

I’ve seen more than one new author crushed by tactless or even downright mean feedback from beta readers, and I don’t like it. So a couple of weeks ago, I tweeted the following as a simple PSA:

Too many writers upset by overly harsh feedback from betas. PICK YOUR BETAS CAREFULLY. They should be people you know well, who get your genre, whom you trust, and who are experienced, secure writers. Don't just let anyone read your draft.

Surprisingly, this got pushback from a few people who insisted they wanted and welcomed harsh feedback, didn’t want to be coddled, didn’t want to use people they knew as betas because they wouldn’t give honest feedback, wanted people who didn’t read their genre because that would let them appeal to a wider audience, and yada yada.

Wrong.

Here’s the deal: harsh does not equate with honest. Even when you have bad news to deliver, it can and should be done tactfully and with compassion. All of us have been beginners, and just because some of us have thick skins doesn’t mean everyone does.

Unfortunately, new writers typically don’t have a large network of author friends or a great understanding of the beta reading process. As a consequence, they often offer up their firstborn to anyone who’ll read it, and sometimes get savaged. The majority will be hurt. Some may never write again.

Yes, one does need to develop a thick skin, but very few writers start off with one. Harsh feedback isn’t defensible on the grounds of being honest, it's simply thoughtless and sometimes mean; and the people who deliver that sort of feedback are typically insecure writers themselves.

(Here's more on Why Writers Should Want Nitpicky Critiquers)

Let it Cool

It’s true that sometimes the beta reader may have been frustrated by having to plow through a badly flawed work and just didn’t let their angry words cool enough, then re-read and revise, before sending them off to the author: I’ve been there and I get that. But dash off that feedback raw, and the anger and frustration comes off the page like gamma radiation. Or the beta reader may simply not be in the author’s target audience: give a hard science fiction reader a romance novel to beta and I guarantee you the outcome won’t be pretty.

(Here's more on The Difference Between a Writing Problem, and a “Not For Me” Issue)

I’ve had a couple of these poorly thought-out or downright angry beta reads myself over the years and, thick-skinned as I am, vowed to never show that person anything of mine again. For feedback to be useful to an author, it needs to be presented with equanimity, objectivity, and at least a modicum of tact and sensitivity.

Beta Reading is not Critique

There’s another issue here, a problem of common misconception: beta reading is not the same as critique. Don’t believe me? 

We can clarify this with a simple look at the words’ origins: the etymology of critique goes back to the Greek word, krites, a judge, and tends to slant the process towards fault-finding; whereas a beta reader can best be defined as a test reader, someone who will look at the work from the standpoint of an average reader. The whole point of beta reading is to help the author end up with a publishable piece of fiction which readers will enjoy, not one other writers can’t pick holes in. The difference is very real.

(Here's more on The Difference Between Critique Partners and Beta Readers)

So yeah, your betas had better be people you know and trust, and also people who enjoy and read your genre. If your beta is an experienced writer or even an editor kind enough to offer a freebie read (as I more than once have when I see a new writer with obvious talent), they’ll also be able to suggest fixes to any issues – but, understanding as they do the difference between critique and beta, they’ll read as readers, not as writers.

And that makes all the difference.

Have you ever had what you saw as unnecessarily harsh feedback from beta readers? How do you choose your betas?

Dario Ciriello is a professional author and freelance editor as well as the founder of Panverse Publishing.

Dario’s fiction includes Sutherland's Rules, a crime caper/thriller with a shimmer of the fantastic; Black Easter, a supernatural suspense novel which pits love against black magic and demonic possession on a remote, idyllic Greek island; and Free Verse and Other Stories, a collection of Dario's short science fiction work.

Dario’s 2011 nonfiction book, Aegean Dream, the bittersweet memoir of a year spent on the small Greek island of Skópelos (the real Mamma Mia! island), was an Amazon UK travel bestseller. The Fiction Writing Handbook: The Professional Author’s Guide to Writing Beyond the Rules (Panverse, 2017) is his second nonfiction work.

In addition to writing, Dario, who lives in the Los Angeles Area, offers professional editing, copyediting, and mentoring services to indie authors.

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About The Fiction Writing Handbook

A Unique Approach to the Craft of Writing Fiction

The Fiction Writing Handbook* is a complete guide for the fiction writer who wants to develop an individual voice and understand the reasons underlying the so-called rules of writing. Although a few rules really are necessary, the vast majority are either dogma or passing fads. Worse, so much advice like “show don’t tell” and “open with action” is often poorly explained and entirely misunderstood, causing writers no end of problems. Similarly, the importance of both character and narrative voice, as well as tone, cannot be overstated.

Drawing on twenty years of writing, critiquing, editing and mentoring experience, Dario Ciriello explodes writing myths, shreds conventional wisdom, and dissects the often misleading advice and diktats shouted at writers by books and blogs, agents and publishers. The Fiction Writing Handbook gives authors the necessary tools and insights to retake control of their story and make it unique.

Other topics covered in The Fiction Writing Handbook include external and internal dialog, writers' block, traditional vs. indie publishing, PoV (point of view), creating suspense, and much more.

Whether your interest lies in short stories, novels or screenwriting, The Fiction Writing Handbook shows you how to tell your story in your voice and place it before your audience, eschewing novel plotting formulas and cookie-cutter fiction to remain true to your own, exceptional vision while adhering to the few rules that actually matter. Because writing isn’t about prose wonks and industry insiders: it’s about the reader, and most of all it’s about telling a story. Your story.

*Originally published in 2017 under the title, "Drown the Cat"

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