I hired 10 betas on Fiverr. here's how it went and what I recommend

Beta readers.  If you don’t know who they are, they are people who read your book in exchange for feedback so you can better improve the story before its publication.  Now don’t get them mixed with Alpa readers who read the first draft and help you shape the rest of the story.  While beta readers usually read the later drafts to help you shape up your mostly crafted body of a book, and point out any details or issues you may have missed before sending it to an editor/s.  Though you can technically hire betas during any stage of the writing and/or publication process.

Usually, betas are volunteers, but if you’re in a situation like mine where you don’t know many people willing to read a monstrous-sized book, then resorting to paid betas is sometimes your best option.  I hired eleven betas on Fiverr, but one canceled on me due to school taking up all his time.  So I was left with ten betas, ten feedback packages, and 7 separate docs filled with in-line comments since some betas prefer to just give final feedback rather than comment along the draft as they read it.

I have since applied all the feedback and advice given to me and now the manuscript is with my developmental editors, but I thought I’d go into a bit of detail on my experience hiring so many betas from Fiverr so you can evaluate this technique and see if it works for you.

I’m just gonna cut to the chase right now and tell you if I personally recommend hiring betas on Fiverr or not. My answer will be yes…mostly.  If you do your research you can find some great quality beta readers for an affordable price.  I paid no more than $40 and no less than $5. There were some more expensive options but I was on a budget here.  However, all in all, I spent no more than $200 on ten people who gave me bountiful amounts of feedback.

But that doesn't mean they were all perfect.  One beta gave me almost no feedback to work with and another gave me so much feedback that it was actually more of a ramble/rant surrounding only a few critiques.  Some of which were contradictory of themselves.  And though he did have a lot of good advice, a good chunk of this “good advice” was worded very rudely along with some morally questionable comments complaining about the diversity in my story.

But most of the people I hired were very kind, and getting so much helpful feedback from so many diverse people shaped my book into the final draft and helped me fix most of the larger issues.

What do you receive when ordering beta packages?

Each beta gave me what is called a “reader report”, which goes over all the areas in the book like plot, characters, setting, pacing, dialogue, etc, and tells where you did good and where you fucked up.  Some betas even took some of my custom questions so they could examine areas in my story where I specifically struggled, and tailor their feedback/advice to fit my needs.  Those beta packages did wonders for me and they helped me put together what is called a “story development plan.”

Usually, that is a term used in the film industry where script readers (The movie industry version of a beta reader or sometimes developmental editor) will put together a plan for the script writer consisting of things they must fix/change and advice on how to achieve those edits.  Meanwhile, I do the same thing but for my own novels.

And though reader reports are great for getting a birds-eye view of your story’s overall issues, I recommend finding betas who include in-line comments in their package since a lot of time there may be specific issues that need to be addressed but don't fit into the reader report.  And seeing the reader's first impressions on certain scenes can help to determine how good or bad your plot’s development and pacing is as well.

This was my third beta round, and the reason I did the third round was that I only got 1 beta who fully read the book in the first round.  And the second round–albeit better with more people–felt like there was still something missing.  Like my draft needed one more look-through.

My draft changed a lot and I wanted to do one last round with a whole army of readers as a final hurrah.  Just something to go off with a bang before sending it to all my editors.  And I’m so glad I did.  Getting so much feedback helped me see which issues were commonly pointed out and which issues were more so personal opinions amongst the readers.

I ended up rewriting this draft and changing many large plot points. I was nervous that I ruined the good parts while trying to fix the bad parts, but after getting it developmentally edited, it seems that I actually fixed 90% of the issues which will make this final round of editing much easier on my part.

So all in all, hiring betas on Fiverr won’t guarantee success, and everyone’s experience may be different, but if you’re careful about who you choose, look at reviews, and talk to the sellers before placing the order, you should be able to gather a good group of readers to help shape your story.  The number of betas you need may vary from person to person since I’ve seen some people only get two betas on their team while others hire over 50.  But ten ended up being such a perfect amount for me that I think that’ll be the number I stick with while hiring more betas in the future for my other upcoming books.

It’s up to you how many you want to hire and where you want to get them from, but I highly recommend Fiverr.  Not all the sellers are perfect and you may get a few bad apples here and there, but overall this was the best and most helpful beta round I’ve ever had, and I’m so happy I made the decision to do it this way.