Beta Readers

I sent out the call for beta readers last Friday. Yes, it was a last minute SOS and I knew I would be pushing my luck getting anyone to respond to me by this AM.

--Remember: my deadline is tomorrow. I have only today and tomorrow morning to make the needed changes. The manuscript must be in the mail with tomorrow's time stamp on it!

Many people had stuff to do this weekend so I didn't expect a whole lot. So far I've only had 2.5 responses.

--#1 beta reader is my SIL and I talked to her last night. She journals and reads a tremendous amount of books. She's the only person, other than Deb Dixon, to read the entirety of The Leprechaun Connection. Oh, since I couldn't sell that story, I stole some of my characters and put them in this book.--HEY! It's my own stuff, I can recycle. Her input concerned the first two chapters. She felt as if I had changed POV. Well, I had. :-) From the mom's POV to the daughter's POV AND into first person. I need to rework the first two chapters, especially since the daughter thinks/speaks older than her age, BUT I have an answer for that and I hope this will fix the problem.

--#2 beta reader writes MG/YA stories. She had the same issues with the first few chapters and caught some stupid stuff (missing words, wrong word, wrong tense, missing -ed's, that sort of thing)

--#0.5 beta reader was only able to finish 1/2 the story. This reader is published by Harlequin American. Now, this reader was awesome! She found so many missing things that I'm in shock! Definitely, head-whacking stuff. It is amazing how the eye and brain supply the missing words.

--one friend, not counted as an official response, but still has a valid point, is published with Wild Rose Press, has critted for me in the past. She sent me a quick note questioning the main character's maturity for her age and offered a suggestion.

Two things stood out for me. Missing words and MC too mature. Both are fixable in my time frame.
1) I will offer a sound reason for my character's maturity in the first few pages. The scene is already in place, I just need to enhance it.
2) Find and fix missing words/tenses, etc. For me this will involve reading the story out loud. My jaw will get tired, but I'm game.

Heck, I've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone out loud to my kiddo before she goes to bed, I think I can do this.

Write on! . . . or should this be . . .
READ ON! . . .
. . . and edit!