I’ve been working on my alpha read for Corruption of Blood, Book 3 of the Blake Heira series. This is my first round of self-editing where I’m looking at what I wrote, how I wrote it, and if everything makes sense to me. Even though I do a lot of preparation work prior to putting my ideas into a draft, I’ll eventually realize that I need to add something, delete a subplot, or make some sort of change. I do that during my alpha read.

However, I wrote all of this stuff. I know how the world works, who did what, and why they did it. I know why Annika hates Blake. I know why Shenay serves the food she does. I know how the gods work and why the Natural Law is a thing. The problem is explaining that to my readers in a way that’s interesting and entertaining, not confusing or (worst of all) missing. It all makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean it makes sense.

How do I deal with that? The same way most authors do, and that’s beta readers. These are lovely people who read my second (or third) draft of my stories, then give me an honest take on it. Where did they get confused? Does the ending make sense? Did you figure out who did it? If so, when? What questions are still up in the air? If that was on purpose, is that annoying?

Here is a great YouTube video on beta readers from Jenna Moreci, who has a book coming out soon call the Savior’s Champion.

If you want to be a good writer, you need good beta readers, which is where you come in. I’ll be done with my edits sometime in May. At that point, I’ll be ready to send out in PDF or e-book form a copy of my book to anyone willing to give me an honest critique. I’ll send you a short list of questions and may do some follow up.

In exchange, anyone who does this will be listed in the acknowledgements, unless you’d rather remain anonymous. If you’re interested, let me know either in the comments below or as a response of Facebook. I’ll need your e-mail address, if I don’t have it already.

Next week, I’ll be getting back into the worldbuilding articles with Religion and Government. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next Sunday!