Ever Wonder Why They are Called “Beta” Readers?

Beta is the Second Letter in the Greek alphabet

What Happened to “Alpha” Readers?

Good Question - Glad You Asked

Google Defines an Alpha Reader as:

What are Alpha Readers?

Readers Who Look at Your Writing Before It's Polished

Beta Readers Commonly Look at a Polished Work

Alpha Readers Look at a Rough Draft

Alphas Help You Find the Holes and Disjointed Edges

They should Not be Looking at Sentence Structure or Commas

They Should be Looking at the Big Picture

What is the Big Picture?

What’s Working? What Feels Weak?

What May Make Sense in your Head but Doesn’t Translate to the Page

Alphas Help You Find the Major Points to Strengthen

or - Weak Points that May not Need to Be There

Alpha Readers – as Defined by Google - have Largely Disappeared from the Writing Landscape

Their Use has been Displaced by Beta Readers

For a Good Reason – Betas have Begun to be Used Today

To Review a Finished Manuscript

Why Take an Extra Month’s Delay (minimum) Getting to a Beta Reader

for “Essentially” the Same Final Product

So Alpha Reader Use is Essentially Extinct

Does that make Sense?

What have We Lost?

We have Lost Someone to Evaluate the Big Picture in a Timely Manner

What is Timely: the First 3-25 Pages

Look at the Issue from a Different Perspective

Agents Wanting a Sample of Your Manuscript Ask for a

Min of 5 to a Max of 50 pages

Why?

Agents can Receive 100 Submissions a Day

Their First Task is to Eliminate the Obvious Failures

For That They Need at Most Five Pages

A Successful Published Author can Get Away with Murder in Their Subsequent  Manuscripts

A First-Time Writer Can’t

If the Writer Hasn’t Covered the

Accepted Minimum Requirements in the First Five Pages

Their Manuscript is Rejected

The Remainder of the Fifty Pages only Confirm if Your Work has

Promise to Make a Profit

AND

The Agent has the Expertise Themselves to Know

and the Publisher Contacts

for your genre

Who Tell the Agent What They Want

With that in Mind … Remember

Beta Readers Need to have Expertise in Writing – Most are Authors

Alpha Readers Don’t – often They are Readers Only

They Need to Give Feedback from the Perspective of a Reader

When can They Provide the Best Service for an Author’s Needs?

First – and Most Productively

By Feedback that Mirrors what the Agent Sees

The First 25 to 50 Pages of a Manuscript

Before You Waste Time Writing a Completed, Edited Manuscript

Which would Only be Rejected Later

Second

By Reading the Completed Second Draft Copy

After You have Completed Your First Revision

You Want a Reader – Any Reader – to be an Alpha Reader

A Relative or Friend is Perfect

Not Necessarily a Writer – Save Them for Beta Reading

The Alpha Review Comes in Two Stages

Just like a Prospective Agent’s Review

The First is a Questionnaire for the First Five Pages Only

It Addresses the Requirements that Must be in a Properly Constructed Beginning

If Your Reader(s) doesn’t get All Answers Correct

You would be Dead at an Agent Review

You Need to Rewrite Now

The Second is to Double-Space the Manuscript Sample

Min 25 Pages to Max 50

Ask Them to Note Anywhere the Story Drags

Anywhere it doesn’t Make Sense

Whatever

Only Now can You Adequately Assess if You can Continue as Before

Or Go Back to the Drawing Board

That is an Alpha Review