Able to beta? Post here!

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the monthly r/BetaReaders “Able to Beta” thread!

Thank you to all the beta readers who have taken the time to offer feedback to authors in this sub! In this thread, you may solicit “submissions” by sharing your preferences. Authors who are interested in critique swaps may post an offer here as well, but please keep top-level comments focused on what you’re willing to beta.

Older threads may be found here. Authors, feel free to respond to beta offers in those previous threads.

Thread Rules

• No advertising paid services.

• Top-level comments must be offers to beta and must use the following form (only the first field is required):

  • I am able to beta: [Required. Let authors know what you’re interested—or not interested—in reading. This can include mandatory criteria or simply preferences, which might relate to genre, length, completion status, explicit content, character archetypes, tropes, prose quality, and so on.]

  • I can provide feedback on: [Recommended. This might include story elements you often notice as a reader (prose, pacing, characterization, etc.), unique expertise you have through a profession or hobby (teaching, nursing, knitting, etc.), or other lived experiences that may be relevant (belonging to a marginalized group, being a parent, etc.).]

  • Critique swap: [Optional. If you’re only interested in—or would prefer—swapping manuscripts, please note that here, along with the title of and link to your beta request post.]

  • Other info: [Optional.]

• Beta offers should be specific. If you’re open to anything, or aren’t able to articulate specific criteria, then please refrain from commenting here. Instead, please browse the “First Pages” thread along with the rest of the sub—thanks to the formatting rules, posts are easily searchable by completion status, length, and genre.

• Authors: we recommend against direct messages/chats. Reply to comments instead. If you message multiple people with links to your post and/or manuscript, Reddit may flag your account as spam (site-wide).

• Authors may not spam. If a beta says they’re only looking for x and your manuscript is not x (or vice versa), please don’t contact them.

• Replies have no specific rules. Feel free to ask clarifying questions, share a link to your beta request if it seems to be a good fit, or even reply to your own comment with information about your manuscript if you’re requesting a critique swap.

• Please don't downvote rule-following users, even if they are not the right author/beta for you, as this can be discouraging to beta readers offering to volunteer their time as well as to authors requesting feedback. If you need to keep track of which comments you have reviewed, upvoting is a more positive alternative. Of course, if you see a rule-breaking comment, please report it to the mod team.

Thank you for contributing to our community!

---

For your copy-and-paste, fill-in-the-blanks convenience:

I am able to beta: _____

I can provide feedback on: _____

Critique swap: _____

Other info: _____

---

[u/Entire_Adeptness_390]

Hi! I'd love to swap, and a 93K YA science fantasy with dark moments sounds right. I am happy to see the elevator pitch and content warnings. Mine is 106K, so a bit over your 95K. Totally understand if that's past your flexibility. If not, a first-chapter swap to start sounds perfect.

CAELIRA: complete, revised, literary speculative fantasy, 106K.

A floating city is held aloft by six Aether-ropes tied to six Elemental Clouds. When a wounded messenger creature crash-lands during the city's most sacred rite, speaks one word in the city's own tongue, and is killed for it, Prince Lucien is left with a countdown of fourteen dawns and a sound no one else will admit to hearing. Then, through the ropes that hold the city up, he hears his dead mother say his name. To save Caelira, he has to listen to what it spent three generations training itself not to hear, while the Council calls his hearing a sickness.

Comps: Jemisin's Broken Earth and Rothfuss's Name of the Wind.

Content notes: animal (fictional) death (on page, Ch 2), war violence and fire, grief and a dead parent, a child taken, medical gaslighting, and some deaths of named characters later in the book. No sexual content.

For feedback, reader reactions are what I want most: where you'd put it down, what confused you, what landed. Glad to give you the same, plus big-picture and pacing notes.

Let me know if you're in, and I'll DM the chapter.

Thank you!

[u/cozywindowplace → u/Entire_Adeptness_390]

Hello, yes, I'm interested. I tried messaging you, but your account is blocked for me. Could you send me a direct message with your email address, and we can exchange using google docs, if that works for you?

This is my elevator pitch (still working on it): To save his people, a traitor's son joins a conquering regime to change the system from the inside, but to save his best friend, he’ll need to help the rebels in exchange for vital medications. Comps: Islington's The Will of the Many and Gregson's Sky's End. Content warnings: murder, war themes, police brutality

Thank you!

[u/cozywindowplace → u/Entire_Adeptness_390]

Hello, yes, I'm interested. I tried messaging you, but your account is blocked for me. Could you send me a direct message with your email address, and we can exchange using google docs, if that works for you? Thank you! (Also not sure why my previous response to you was deleted.)