What’s the Difference Between Alpha Reading and Beta Reading?
We know Writer Island is your very favorite source for beta reading services! We read your unpublished manuscript with that special combination of readerly pleasure in discovering your story and a sharp eye for the missing details or jarring notes that need adjustment.
But have you been wondering how our service differs from that of an alpha reader? The contrast lies not so much in the service itself as in the stage of the manuscript. Are you pretty much ready to send this baby out into the world for publication? Are you certain with half your mind that it’s as perfect as a flawlessly cut gem? But with the other half of your mind, pretty sure it’s the worst garbage ever written, composed of bytes not worth chewing? It’s time for Writer Island Beta Readers! You’ve been looking at this for so long, you can’t really see it anymore, and this is the perfect moment to begin the finishing-up processes of fine-tuning with the help of a beta reader.
On the other hand, do you know that your work-in-progress is completely unfinished? It’s still a diamond in the rough, filled with amazing potential, but needing a lot of work before publication? During this stage, an alpha reader can help you discover the bones of your story. Big reconstruction may be in the works: is your hero’s sidekick stealing the show? Should he be promoted to the main point of view? Or your alpha reader may highlight a hidden thread of metaphysics running through your story and developing that will be your next big project. Maybe you even have a handful of endings that you are testing out? Here’s a little secret: Writer Island does alpha reading, too! Even if you know that you are nowhere near publication-ready, we’d love to read your manuscript! And all the endings that you are considering! Maybe not as many endings as Hemingway wrote for A Farewell to Arms. (Just kidding, send them all!)
We’ve covered the A – Alpha, the B – Beta, but what’s the C of the ABC’s of manuscript feedback services? I’m going to use the term Correcting, just for the fun of ABC, but what I’m referring to is line editing. This is when your reader pulls out a red pen and corrects things at the sentence level rather than the story level. Do your subjects and verbs agree? Are your modifiers dangling? Does that adjective mean what you thought it meant?
At Writer Island, we don’t make much distinction between alpha and beta reading – we’ll give your book the same careful consideration at any stage in its development! If you have made some huge changes to your work after our first read, we are right here, waiting to do a second read. When the time comes for line editing, please consider Writer Island once again, for that final polish of your gem of a book.
