What is “group beta reading?”
A beta reader is a person who reads an unpublished manuscript and tells the author which aspects of the book worked for them and which didn’t. They don’t sound like editors; they sound like readers.
Authors are taught to get as many readers as possible before publishing. Oftentimes, that means going to friends, family, and social media groups to acquire them. While those readers will help the author as much as they can, they also may not be getting paid for it, meaning the quality of their reports will vary and their reports may also not return to you on time.
At Independent Book Review, we want to make your beta reader search easier and more effective. Our goal with this service is to help you guarantee a certain number of readers by a certain date and to help you get quality comments from beta reading professionals who can put themselves in any hypothetical reader’s shoes.
The IBR Group Beta Reading service provides authors with three to five personalized beta letters to help you recognize the strengths and weaknesses in your manuscript. In five weeks, you’ll receive 650+ words of feedback from each beta reader covering topics like characterization, plot, important scenes, and more.
When should you hire IBR beta readers?
You can hire IBR beta readers at any point after you finish a manuscript.
If it’s an early draft, we’d love to take a look at it. We’ll probably mention a few things that you’re already aware of, but we’ll also help you recognize additional issues that you can fix before entering drafts two or three.
If it’s a near-final draft, send that over, too. Our team is skilled in recognizing narrative and character inconsistencies, lulls in the plotline, missing motivations, and more. Since you’ll be getting multiple opinions, you’ll notice if everyone is commenting on the same issue and what the reason is behind that.
Who will be your beta readers?
That depends! What’s your genre? Who’s your audience? We’ve got a kick-ass team of reviewers, librarians, book bloggers, editors, and authors who specialize in certain genres. They can speak honestly about how your book holds up beside all of the others they read on a regular basis.
When you purchase an IBR Group Beta Reading service, we’ll put together the strongest three or five-person beta reading team we have available for your book.
Rates, manuscript length, & turnaround time
We want to keep things as affordable as possible, so we’ve decided to offer flat fees for group beta reading. These fees are for authors who have written a manuscript under 110,000 words*. They will receive the final beta letters in 5 weeks*.
3 IBR Beta Readers
To purchase three IBR beta readers, please select this option. Your book should be less than 110,000 words, and you can expect to receive your beta letters in 5 weeks or less.
$349.00
5 IBR Beta Readers
To purchase five IBR beta readers, please select this option. Your book should be less than 110,000 words, and you can expect to receive your beta letters in 5 weeks or less.
$549.00
*Written a book over 110,000 words? No problem! We’d still love to help you. Contact us below with the specific word count and we’ll give you the relevant fee.
How to get started
- Finish drafting your book. (You got this!)
- Tell us your word count, genre, and potential trigger warnings in the contact box below.
- Once we hear from you, we’ll request the full manuscript in Microsoft Word or .pdf format.
- After these documents are signed, we’ll ask you to make the payment above using credit card or Paypal.
- Your five-week turnaround time will begin. Are you ready?
Whether you’re asking a question or requesting a group beta reading service, we’re looking forward to hearing from you!
Thank you for checking out our IBR Group Beta Reading service! Click on the link below to check out what other services we offer at Independent Book Review.