Fiction Editing Examples

Beta Reading

With an extensive background of both reading and writing fiction, as well as a degree that took in creative writing, I can offer beta reading services to fiction writers. A beta reader is somebody who reads your novel before publication to give you feedback on the plot, characters, style and writing. They will say what they liked and didn’t like, what worked and didn’t work for them. This is a subjective opinion on your book from someone with an understanding of the creative writing process. It is not gospel, and any author needs more than one beta reader in order to get a “feel” for how their book works for different readers, and what sort of market it would appeal to. It can be worth getting a professional to do a read for you to get a professional take on your writing style, plot, characters etc., as well as getting family and friends and contacts through writing groups to read it also. This service is not a developmental editing service. For beta reading I charge £1.75 per 1000 words. For this you will get comprehensive feedback on your book. I do not say a set number of pages of feedback as it depends on book length and complexity, but as a rough guide, a 100,000 word book would get 3-4 A4 pages.

An example of the kind of feedback I might give to an editing or beta reading client. (The following feedback cannot be applied generically, all feedback is specific to each book, though there are some good writing tips that would cross over between works of fiction.)

“I have a few suggestions for changes. I found your writing engaging, and I especially liked the first part. Very well written, moving and evocative. Overall, I would suggest you try to cut down the number of adjectives you use. Your descriptions are very inventive but I would say, perhaps try to balance these a bit more with action. It was at times a little hard to follow what was going on because of the amount and complexity of description. Some could be modified to be slightly less “wordy”, so you could keep them but not detract from the plot. Sometimes we have to rein in our love of being descriptive in order to keep the plot moving. I have made a few suggestions in the text. Please don’t take this as negative criticism. Your writing is very good, and you have some lovely expressions. I liked what you said about xyz, for example. But, my suggestions are an opinion, and don’t feel you have to use any of them if they don’t fit with your style or feel “right”.” Your characters are generally engaging, but there are some that seem to clutter the story whilst not serving much purpose, such as A, B and C. I’d suggest focusing more on descriptions of first impressions, such as the body language, stance, how the character comes across, clothing and voice, to give the reader a clear mental impression that will stay with them, before engaging the characters in action and internal mental workings.”