Why Every Novelist Needs Beta Readers Before Publishing
Why beta readers are crucial in the editing process
So, you’ve written a novel — congratulations. It takes a tonne of work to finish a novel, but before you send off agent queries, you might want to consider hiring a few beta readers and doing another, final edit.
While your novel is your own and you get to choose what you write about, there will probably be issues in your work that are impossible for you to spot alone.
Beta readers can be sourced cheaply, or even for free, and provide feedback on your book. They’re not professional editors or proofreaders. Think of beta readers as fresh pairs of eyes who can consider your novel without prior expectations or prejudices.
Foreshadowing
A good author foreshadows the major plot points in a book. There are a variety of techniques you can use to do this, and you can use planning tools to help you decide when to hint at important information, and when to leave your reader in suspense.
Because you know the story, you can’t elicit whether your foreshadowing techniques are effective without the help of beta readers. External readers who don’t know the story will be able to instinctively identify whether your foreshadowing works, and you can…
