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@r-m-archer

You might not like this answer, but I’d say it’s whatever works best for your story. With some series, it’s definitely better to edit the first book first. I have a duology I’ll almost certainly refine book 1 in before I write book 2, or at least before I expect book 2 to offer a solid foundation to work from. Meanwhile, my plan for the duology I’m working on right now is to write both books and then edit them as a whole

For me, the difference shows up in how the stories fit together; is the series one pretty continuous story, or are there clear breaks in the arcs? (Obviously there’s likely to be some of both, but I find that some series are almost more like connected standalones than a single story in parts, if that makes sense.) For the duology that’s more two separate stories, I’ll write and edit them separately; for the duology that’s more like one story in two parts, I intend to approach it as one piece.

Hopefully that made sense. If not, I can expand or reword as needed.

Oh! That makes sense, thank you! My books are just one long story, so I’ll probably do something along the lines of your plan!

M’kay, so there are beta-readers and there are alpha-readers. Alpha-readers read your book as you’re writing it and provide some general feedback as well as a lot of encouragement and general reader reactions; for me, they’re primarily a source of accountability with the secondary task of letting me know what I might want to edit first when the time comes.

I totally forgot about alpha readers XD I will probably incorporate some as I write my second book! That feedback would be encouraging

Beta-readers read a (generally much) later draft. They’re there to give you feedback on things you might have missed in your self-edits and let you know what the general reader response is to this close-to-final version. They’ll let you know whether or not your story beats, characters, world, etc. are all giving the intended impression and conveying the story you’re trying to tell.

You can employ beta-readers just once or you can have multiple rounds of beta-readers for different points of the process. I generally get beta-readers between my personal edits and professional edits, but you could have a round after professional developmental and/or line edits, you could have a round after just a couple drafts if you want to double-check that your self-edits are taking you in the right direction, whatever. Obviously there will be at least one round of self-edits between beta-readers and whatever comes after that stage, since you’ll need to apply the feedback that furthers your story and you might also want to go over a draft after you’ve implemented all of that to see where your story is at afterward.

This helps with my understanding a lot! I greatly appreciate it 😀 I have a much better idea of when to implement beta readers now.

I actually have a full blog post going into beta-readers, alpha-readers, sensitivity readers, and what is the role of each, if you want to take a look at that.

I am most definitely checking that out!!

As an additional note here, it’s a good idea to set aside the book for a while if you’re in the latter camp when you finish. Some time and space will give you a clearer perspective on it once you read it over again after a few weeks or even months. Readers can also help, but it’s generally a good idea–especially if you haven’t done much editing before/gotten much feedback before–to work from your own expectations first before sorting through outside feedback. Know what your aim is with the story so that you can filter feedback through that and make sure you’re applying the feedback that will strengthen your story. (Of course, it’s a balancing act to know what would make the story stronger even though it’s uncomfortable and what rubs you the wrong way because it’s wrong for the story… which brings us back to it being a good idea to postpone that stage until you’re confident in what you want to do with the story and you’ve had some practice making adjustments.)

That is a great idea; I never thought of trying to sort through both outside info on top of my own XD I tend to like to jump into things right away, so a break would probably be wise.

@e-n-leonard

If you know that your first book needs major edits, definitely tackle that before you move on to the second. It’ll set the second book up with a better foundation in such a situation.

Yes, that definitely holds a ton of weight; especially now that you mention it I see some “fun” revisions going on in my first book, since it really sets up the larger conflict for the second book.

And I’d be happy to beta read your novel 🙂 I love beta reading!

Thank you so much! I will most certainly let you know when I’ve got it ready!!

@rose-colored-fancy

*Hurtles into the room surrounded by a cloud of pink glitter*

BROOOKEE!!!! WINGIBY!!!! I MISSED YOU!!! *Gives you a huge hug*

I missed you so much, it’s so amazing to hear from you again! You have to tell me all about how your project is going!!

*sneezes pink glitter and then pulls out the silly string*

ROSE!!!!! AT LONG LAST WE MEET AGAIN!! *returns hug* It is wonderful to type with you again 😛

As for my WIP, I am farther along in it than any other book attempt before! I’m over 50,000 words *squeals in delight* That is why I am asking these questions, because (hopefully!) the first draft will soon be completed (and, I took the test on SE for what area I need the most help in and – you guessed it! – revisions XD)

… It’s Liorah, what were you expecting? XD

Has she threatened to kill you yet? 😛

UMMM YES!!!! Sign me up!! I’ll make time to read it, I love beta reading and your story is so interesting!!

Thank you so much!! As soon as it’s ready, I will be sure to let you know!

Also I’d really love if we could keep in touch, I really missed seeing you around! I can give you my writer email, if you’re comfortable with that! Or any other social media you prefer 😀

That would be great!! I’ve missed you too!! I’m totally fine with your writer email, and I have Facebook too (although I’ve posted literally nothing on there bc I don’t fully understand it 😛 )

Okay here we go! Blessing upon blessings this is something I can help with!

So, as always the answer is ‘it depends’ but I can clarify that a bit XD

As you know, I’m writing a trilogy. (Actually I’m currently revising it, so that works out nicely!)

I suggest having at least some draft of both books before finishing it, but not working on both at the same time. If you have to draft both consecutively, and then edit both consecutively, that can be a bit overwhelming!

So, I suggest having one, (probably the first book) a stage further than the other. So, you might draft book one, do a first editing pass on it, then draft book 2, and then go back and forth between them!

That sounds like a great plan! I love (hear the sarcasm) to overwhelm myself, so it’s good to have that in mind XD

In my experience, you’ll discover some pretty major things during the first revision, and they might completely change your perspective on book 2. On the other hand, you’ll discover things about book 1 in book 2, so going back and forth has always worked really nicely for me! Plus it has the added bonus that you can let one book simmer in the back of your mind while you work on the other!

I hope that made sense XD

That made total sense! Y’all have totally answered my questions on where to begin!

If you’re interested, I can tell you more about my revision process, if that would help you find a place to start!

Yes! The more skills and information I can accumulate the better!

Again, the only correct answer is ‘it depends’ XD

So, I think this depends on how practiced you are at finding flaws at your writing. Sometimes you’ll finish drafting with a mental list of ‘Here are the things I should fix’ and sometimes you finish with the thought ‘I have no idea if that was a masterpiece or a flaming hot mess’.

I am a mix of both: I have things I know that need more working on, and then the rest I’m like: “I know it has more flaws, but it’s my baby and I can’t see it!”

In the first case, I suggest doing at least one pass to fix the flaws you can already see! In the latter, it’s perfectly okay to get readers for the first messy draft.

Then I will definitely try and edit those flaws!

I think whenever you come to the point of ‘I don’t know what to do next and nobody can answer because they haven’t read it’, that’s when beta readers are life savers!

Giving the draft to people as you’re writing it feels a bit scarier, but it can help a LOT in specific cases! Especially when finishing a whole draft feels so overwhelming you can’t do it, it can help!

That actually takes a lot of the stress out of it; knowing that others can point things out and I don’t have to try and find them all myself!

So, short answer, as soon as you can’t think of what to do next! Also, you don’t have to let everyone read it at once! As Archer said, you can divide it into rounds, which is what I did!

I will need many rounds :0

Okay, this depends per draft! But for developmental edits, I’ve found it very useful to have a list of questions to ask them! (I’m happy to share it if you need an idea of it!) Besides that, the most useful way I’ve found that works for me and doesn’t use too much of my readers’ time is to ask them to write a few thoughts at the end of each chapter, even if it’s just something like ‘It’s fine, I liked it’. In the best case, you’ll get a ‘This chapter made me feel X, I liked Y, you could fix Z’

Again, this kind of depends on the reader, some of them like to leave a lot of comments, some of them keep it very brief. Both are useful, and you’ll figure out which works best for you and you can fine-tune from there!

This is great! Thank you! If you don’t mind, I’d love to see the list of questions!

I also started a writing newsletter a while ago! Here’s the link if you’re curious!

https://swordandscrawls.ck.page

You can bet I just subscribed!!

@arindown

Looks like everyone had awesome answers, so I’m just popping in to recommend Abbie Emmons on YouTube for any writing/editing tips. She’s super helpful and straightforward and most (I’ll say most because she does use movie examples from films I would not watch XD) of her stuff is clean.

Thank you!!! I will definitely check her out!

 

And thank you all so much for your help! I saw the posts this morning and was like “I just discovered a heap of gold!” I have a much better idea for what editing is all about!

I do have a few more questions though, not necessarily about beta readers, but how to share my novel with them. I write in Google Docs, and I know you can share it that way and enable readers to leave comments. Is that how y’all do it? Is there a better way?