THE Group for Authors! discussion

I've published three novels (traditional small presses) and a poetry collection. I’ve just revised my fourth novel (83,000 words), and would like to exchange drafts with a beta reader who has published at least one novel so we’re on more equal footing. Tillie, the main character in Tillie: Portraits of a Canadian Girl in Training (an episodic novel), was the main character in the last novel I published, Freefall: A Divine Comedy. In that work, she’s a wacky installation artist fast approaching sixty. In Portraits, she’s just starting out in life, the work beginning with her at four when her mother marries a farmer who takes them to live on his farm. It ends when Tillie is eighteen. Tillie isn’t exactly the ideal “Canadian Girl in Training.” She’s the opposite, which leads her down darker paths. If you’re interested in knowing more about Tillie, I can DM you a synopsis. (The publisher that released two of my novels also will be publishing Portraits.) I look forward to hearing from other writers!

Exchange for feedback?

That's what beta readers do!

My experience with beta readers and with being one is that you will figure out between you what the expectation is and what kind of feedback/editorial exchange will take place. I've done several different swaps depending on the state of my manuscript. There are no rules here. It's a mutually agreed process.

I'm interested. Check me out at https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Hoffman/e.... My work in progress (3d draft) is a novel entitled Down in Dallas, set mostly in 1984, about two best friends, one a conservative real estate appraiser, the other a hotshot salesman, who find themselves on opposite sides of a massive fraud. It's told from their 2 POVs plus the POVs of their wives, one an heiress and the other a career woman who reluctantly volunteers for a program to support youth at risk. Let me know if you need more info, and what sort of critique schedule you have in mind. I've been in critique groups before, but never one-on-one online. Thanks!

I've contacted you on your website, Dick.

Dick wrote: "I'm interested. Check me out at https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Hoffman/e.... My work in progress (3d draft) is a novel entitled Down in Dallas, set mostly in 19..."

Dick wrote: "I'm interested. Check me out at https://www.amazon.com/Dick-Hoffman/e.... My work in progress (3d draft) is a novel entitled Down in Dallas, set mostly in 19..."

I've just 'finished' my second thriller novel, a sequel to my first. I have a lot of beta reader volunteers, but they've all read my first book. I'm looking for beta readers who haven't read my first book so I can evaluate the effectiveness of the handoff/segue. Ideas on how to find them? Thanks.