# So, the storyâ€™s finished, and polished, and repolished. Then what?



## The Backward OX (Mar 5, 2011)

*So, the story’s finished, and polished, and repolished. Then what?*

The writer is still only seeing it through their own eyes.

From what I’ve seen, and heard, about so-called beta readers, on another site, getting involved with one of them can be quite stressful. Not to mention unproductive.

So what do you do? Not you specifically, what does one do? What would you suggest is a good path to follow, to obtain a thorough, hopefully expert, and unemotional assessment of an entire 80-100,000-word masterpiece before it is sent out?


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## Sir Roberts (Mar 5, 2011)

Post the whole bloody thing on the interweb and let me read it until my sense of inadequacy and failure grows so poignant that I finally work up the courage to top myself.

But if you don't want to do that, hire an editor.


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## Like a Fox (Mar 5, 2011)

I can only tell you what I would do, if I were you.

I would let the thing sit and not look at it for a while. Month or two.
Then if you can think of a trusted reader, you give it to them. If you don't trust any of them implicitly (and why should you?), I'd hand it around to a few.

Finding a stranger who wants to read your manuscript seems... ridiculous to me, well, for free that is. I know you can pay to get your manuscript read.

If you don't have anyone you want to give it to, then I think your best bet is trying to get an agent.
The publishers, writers and agents I met last year mostly said that having an agent is your best bet for publication, and my understanding is that your agent will be able to set you up with an editor. Though that may not happen till the publishers. Hmm.


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## qwertyman (Mar 6, 2011)

I've had three attempts with beta-readers. In each case, I offered to reciprocate. Two of them fizzled out. The other said the MS was sub-standard because there were two passive sentences on the first page. Subsequently, I entered it in a 'First Chapter' competition and it was short-listed.

Fortunately I have a reader who will comment on a day-by-day basis and I guarantee will go to heaven and immediately be beatified. 

But it's not the same a s a fresh pair of eyes on a read-through mission.

I haven't given up.


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## mockingbird (Mar 20, 2011)

Hi Backward Ox, I went thru the same thing. Finished novel. Now what. So I spent an awful amount of dosh on a pro critique and felt like shooting the idiot for stealing my cash. Basically the reader must have been a 90 year old religious nut spinster - accused me of actually being sick in the head for writing vampires drinking blood and musing over their board au fare like fine wine - I describe each victims blood as one would a fine wine. So I won't do that again.


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## strangedaze (Mar 20, 2011)

by now you have to have accumulated at least a few writer friends who'd give the thing a read. id do it for you, if i had time. were it me, and one day i hope it will be, id give a copy to a couple writer friends, and a copy to someone who doesnt write at all - a reader only. im lucky in that i have people like this at my disposal; if you dont, and youre serious, you could go through a pro editor. this could be tricky - really do research. if you lived in canada (where i am), i would just say do it through the writers union of canada, which will ensure that youre getting someone who knows their stuff and wont fleece you. in fact, maybe you'd be interested in doing that anyway. . . . ? 

you could also form, or track down, a novel-writing group in your area. a friend did that and found it helpful. or take a course or do a distance program with a writer who can evaluate your work (again, i could recommend several - someone i know just did a few weeks w/ david bezmozgis, one of the new yorkers 20 under 40).


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## The Backward OX (Mar 20, 2011)

strangedaze said:


> by now you have to have accumulated at least a few writer friends who'd give the thing a read. id do it for you, if i had time. were it me, and one day i hope it will be, id give a copy to a couple writer friends, and a copy to someone who doesnt write at all - a reader only. im lucky in that i have people like this at my disposal; if you dont, and youre serious, you could go through a pro editor. this could be tricky - really do research. if you lived in canada (where i am), i would just say do it through the writers union of canada, which will ensure that youre getting someone who knows their stuff and wont fleece you. in fact, maybe you'd be interested in doing that anyway. . . . ?
> 
> you could also form, or track down, a novel-writing group in your area. a friend did that and found it helpful. or take a course or do a distance program with a writer who can evaluate your work (again, i could recommend several - someone i know just did a few weeks w/ david bezmozgis, one of the new yorkers 20 under 40).


I think perhaps you didn't take in the meaning of the OP. It was a general question, not one about my circumstances.


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## strangedaze (Mar 21, 2011)

does it matter? the gist still stands.


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## Alexandermerow (Mar 30, 2011)

First I would give it to some others to get a feedback. Then you will know more.


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## NicholasJAmbrose (Apr 5, 2011)

.


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