looking for a beta reader(s)

[Iflydogs]

Hi, I am looking for a beta reader, or several, for a manuscript I wrote. Not necessarily an author--I know there are several on this forum and welcome them, but also just a reader who enjoys an adventure book, with a dash of magical realism thrown in. Ideally I would like to find someone who is a woman and also of Hispanic descent, if possible, as I am curious if it comes across as offensive to those groups. Of course any pilots--it is a flying adventure book with lots of flying. I will have it read to send on Saturday and intend to send it to my agent around mid-August. Many thanks, please DM me if you are interested.

Here is the blurb:

Mad Dogs is a 99k-word adventure tale with elements of magical realism that will appeal to those who enjoyed Cormac McCarthy’s “No Country for Old Men” and Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust”.

In the spring of 2001, Hiram Bleeker is a lonely Vietnam veteran with severe PTSD whose only remaining loves in life are flying and dogs. He is one trigger-pull away from ending things when a strange woman introduces him to a world that restores his soul—rescuing immigrants in the desert and flying them over the internal checkpoints of the US Border Patrol in southwest Texas. The woman isn’t entirely of this world, but in her otherness, she introduces him to a new way of living and gives him a new lease on life.

As he ferries immigrants and saves them from dying of dehydration and heat exhaustion, the darkness that imprisoned him and caused him to contemplate suicide begins to fade from his heart. But in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, America succumbs to fear and hysteria. What was once a simple act of human kindness is now a serious crime against the state, potentially a capital offense. Can he win the love of his life and elude the clutches of the Border Patrol, while flying over the desolate and hostile plains of Texas? Mad Dogs is a story about flying, love, redemption, and how to hot-wire an airplane.

Hank Rausch is the author of “Submerged”, a memoir of service in fast-attack submarines in the 1980’s which has been approved for release by the DoD and is currently before publishers.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Damned creative way to troll for chicks haha.

Hopefully you will find a beta reader. I'd offer to help but I'm pretty busy right now with my own latest.

 

[Domenick]

I'd do it, except I'm just finishing up my yearly stint as a judge for The Adventure Writers Competition, and I'd be rooting for the Border Patrol. Good luck!

 

[RussR]

I read a lot of books of varying quality. Please tell me you hired (or are going to hire) an editor. I read so many books that are badly in need of proper editing for grammar, spelling, word selection, in addition to pace and storyline, etc. Heck, I just read one where the author would change tense in the middle of sentences.

I've been given books before by the authors where I've specifically asked if they had an editor. "Oh, no, I did it all myself!" they say proudly. And without fail the books are basically unreadable.

What are you expecting out of a beta reader? General comments about the story and flow? Or grammar/punctuation/spelling?

 

[Iflydogs]

I did not hire an editor. I think my writing is pretty good. My first book, I got over a dozen hits from agents and two offers of representation, that was out of 50 queries sent. I think the average is 1 out of 6,000 writers snags an agent, so what is that, 1 out of 12,000?

Or is it 1 out of 36 x 10(6)?

I am looking for:
plot holes
if you stop reading, where?
where does the story drag--what is explained in too much detail did you skim
What dod you want to read more of
what is offensive

 

[Half Fast]

Didn’t we discuss this one when it was in the draft stage?

Evading interior border checkpoints by flying over them

Hi, I am researching for a novel where the protagonist becomes embroiled in a scheme to fly undocumented immigrants—he calls them illegals to start out with—from airstrips along the Rio Grande to ones farther north, over the CBP checkpoints set up on roads in the SW. would there be anything...

pilotsofamerica.com

 

[Iflydogs]

I'd do it, except I'm just finishing up my yearly stint as a judge for The Adventure Writers Competition, and I'd be rooting for the Border Patrol. Good luck!

thank you for the response, I enjoyed your books immensely!

 

[Iflydogs]

Didn’t we discuss this one when it was in the draft stage?

Evading interior border checkpoints by flying over them

Hi, I am researching for a novel where the protagonist becomes embroiled in a scheme to fly undocumented immigrants—he calls them illegals to start out with—from airstrips along the Rio Grande to ones farther north, over the CBP checkpoints set up on roads in the SW. would there be anything...

pilotsofamerica.com

yes! That was before I started writing, this is the result.

 

[Iflydogs]

Damned creative way to troll for chicks haha.

Hopefully you will find a beta reader. I'd offer to help but I'm pretty busy right now with my own latest.

thank you, I found your website and have started reading you short stories

 

[Half Fast]

I think my writing is pretty good.

You make grammatical errors in your posts. Why do you think your novel is better?

 

[SkyChaser]

I did not hire an editor. I think my writing is pretty good. My first book, I got over a dozen hits from agents and two offers of representation, that was out of 50 queries sent. I think the average is 1 out of 6,000 writers snags an agent, so what is that, 1 out of 12,000?

Or is it 1 out of 36 x 10(6)?

I am looking for:
plot holes
if you stop reading, where?
where does the story drag--what is explained in too much detail did you skim
What dod you want to read more of
what is offensive

I'm not an editor nor am I Hispanic, but I'm a woman pilot and I have read a lot of good books. How graphic is it? Is there a lot of cursing/"strong language" in it? What exactly are you worried will be offensive about it? How detailed of a book review are you expecting? If I find a sufficient quantity of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, will you hire me to be your editor?

 

[RussR]

I did not hire an editor. I think my writing is pretty good.

Perhaps it is. But this is exactly what the others believed too. It is very difficult to accurately evaluate your own work.

 

[rwellner98]

I did not hire an editor. I think my writing is pretty good.

I thought my writing was pretty good also. Until I got the marked up copy back from the editor.

 

[Sac Arrow]

One of the significant characters in the last few novels is a military contract pilot who spends six months a year flying mercs and guns all over Afghanistan and North Africa, and the other six months chilling in the midwest in a large house with a built-in hangar, next to his own private airstrip.

And he's actually a real person and does those things in real life. He's my editor. Some here know him.

 

[Iflydogs]

I'm not an editor nor am I Hispanic, but I'm a woman pilot and I have read a lot of good books. How graphic is it? Is there a lot of cursing/"strong language" in it? What exactly are you worried will be offensive about it? How detailed of a book review are you expecting? If I find a sufficient quantity of spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, will you hire me to be your editor?

There is cursing, but in workshops I found some people found some things offensive and have tried to tone that down.

My publisher will edit it, it is sufficient for a beta read and submission to my agent.

 

[Domenick]

thank you for the response, I enjoyed your books immensely!

Thank you! I actually came back to this thread because after my glib answer I thought you deserved a straight answer.

When I noticed your name in your post, it tickled a few neurons. Thank you for the kind review on Liberator Legacy. Despite sales and page-reads, reviews and rankings are damned hard to get. I'll be tackling Amazon Ads soon.

I've sent you a rather long PM.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Thank you! I actually came back to this thread because after my glib answer I thought you deserved a straight answer.

When I noticed your name in your post, it tickled a few neurons. Thank you for the kind review on Liberator Legacy. Despite sales and page-reads, reviews and rankings are damned hard to get. I'll be tackling Amazon Ads soon.

I've sent you a rather long PM.

Amazon ads have been completely worthless to me. Believe it or not, I've had decent success with Facebook ads for the last couple years.

 

[flyingron]

I'll do it. I'm a professional book editor (albeit non-fiction).

 

[Iflydogs]

I'll do it. I'm a professional book editor (albeit non-fiction).

Thank you very much! I posted the first 3 chapters on Google docs, please DM me your email, I will allow access and it will send you an email. If you are not familiar with Google Docs, you can edit or comment on it--I found out the hard way when I beta-read someone's works and edited where I meant to comment!

Again, thank you!

 

[Iflydogs]

Amazon ads have been completely worthless to me. Believe it or not, I've had decent success with Facebook ads for the last couple years.

Have you tried Book Bub? I buy a lot off that, and it gets you the reviews. How about ARCs, any luck?

 

[wayneda40]

I'll also be a beta reader and will now DM you my email.
Wayne

 

[Baked Potato]

I recently had a friend-of-a-friend that published a memoir. He sent me a digital copy of the final, self-published book, which I diligently read in full. He then sent the friend group an email stating that he was actively soliciting feedback from each of us, and as a result I've been attempting to avoid him at social gatherings these last couple months.

 

[Iflydogs]

Thank you very much everyone, I have 3 readers now which suffices. I am aware this is a time commitment and am happy to reciprocate. now to in the future. Again, thanks to the community.

 

[DaleB]

I thought my writing was pretty good also. Until I got the marked up copy back from the editor.

Yeah, that’s humbling. I had that experience, too.

 

[robin ardoin]

Are you looking for a regular Beta or a Master?

 

[rwellner98]

Yeah, that’s humbling. I had that experience, too.

I'll never forget opening the doc and seeing 3-6 corrections/suggestions on each page. I immediately thought, "well, a lot of this has got to be just subjective stuff".

Nope.

Three pages in I got very comfortable with the idea that a good editor is worth their weight in gold. They improved my manuscript immensely.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Have you tried Book Bub? I buy a lot off that, and it gets you the reviews. How about ARCs, any luck?

I've had some success with Book Bub ads, particularly for my audible, but, wide (non Amazon) revenue is still only a little over ten percent of the total, so I don't dump a lot of effort there. I'm not familiar with ARC.

 

[Iflydogs]

I've had some success with Book Bub ads, particularly for my audible, but, wide (non Amazon) revenue is still only a little over ten percent of the total, so I don't dump a lot of effort there. I'm not familiar with ARC.

Advance Reader Copies==free books, you can only give them out BEFORE publishing, to get reviews. Another trick is to get lots of advance sales through discounts--so on your first day on Amazon, all those go to that day, and it artificially boosts your ranking--people buy on ranking, so getting it high to start helps

 

[Sac Arrow]

Advance Reader Copies==free books, you can only give them out BEFORE publishing, to get reviews. Another trick is to get lots of advance sales through discounts--so on your first day on Amazon, all those go to that day, and it artificially boosts your ranking--people buy on ranking, so getting it high to start helps

Back when I was doing Select, a vile, author unfriendly program, I was using Select promos to some degree of success.

I don't do Select anymore, for reasons I won't get into in a public forum.

 

[Iflydogs]

I don't do Select anymore, for reasons I won't get into in a public forum.

I don't know what that is, maybe a version of ARCs? But can you not do that on your own, send an advance copy to people?

 

[Sac Arrow]

I don't know what that is, maybe a version of ARCs? But can you not do that on your own, send an advance copy to people?

It's Kindle Unlimited. A service where readers can pay a flat fee and download a certain number of titles that are enrolled in the program. Authors are paid by the number of pages read. If a reader reads one title from front to back in its entirety the royalty is roughly like getting a book sale.

The penalty for being in the Select (Kindle Unlimited) program is that you cannot have the same title for sale anywhere else but Amazon.

 

[Iflydogs]

Forgive me. But KU is a slushpile, the writers that did not make the cut.

 

[RussR]

Forgive me. But KU is a slushpile, the writers that did not make the cut.

Yes and no. I've read a lot of books on KU, and while some of the authors seem barely literate, others are quite good, and have their own reasons for using KU over traditional publishing methods.

 

[Sac Arrow]

Forgive me. But KU is a slushpile, the writers that did not make the cut.

Yes and no. I've read a lot of books on KU, and while some of the authors seem barely literate, others are quite good, and have their own reasons for using KU over traditional publishing methods.

Well let's be clear here, KU is an option for authors that are self-publishing through Amazon (KDP). If you opt in to the KU (Select) program for your self-published book, it makes it available for KU readership but it's still available for outright sale. The penalty for opting your title in KU, is that it has to be exclusive to Amazon, and you cannot publish it to other retailers. Good books can be good books and garbage books can be garbage books, regardless of KU status. The good thing about self-publishing, is that anyone can do it. And the bad thing about self-publishing, is that anyone can do it.

It can be an attractive program for authors. It's easy to target marketing aimed at the KU reader crowd since it is a specialized audience. So much so that it can be possible to make more money in KU reads than outright sales. The problem however is that authors who make more in KU reads than outright sales are (or at least have been) accused of gaming the system, and stripped of their KU royalties, and threatened with delisting and account termination. This happened during a 2016 witch hunt. There were class action lawsuits levied by authors over it. Apparently there was some sort of fraud going on. Exactly how you obtain fraudulent KU reads I have no clue, but I guess some hackers figured it out. I would assume Amazon has fixed whatever security problem led to the fraudulent KU reads by now.

 

[GeorgeC]

Are you looking for a regular Beta or a Master?

Beta readers deliver higher quality, but it's easier to find VHS readers.

 

[robin ardoin]

Beta readers deliver higher quality, but it's easier to find VHS readers.

Well, what about a Master Beta?

 

[Iflydogs]

Hi, I had a drop-out and am opening this up again for a beta reader. Ideally, either a woman or someone of Hispanic descent as discussed previously. I think any reader will be pleasantly surprised, there is nothing like this out on the marketplace currently. Thank you.