I was perusing the Nanowrimo forums the other day and I stumbled across something absolutely magical. It’s a thread called “Find a Beta Reader, Become a Beta Reader” (it’s under the Novel Draft Aftercare and Critiques & Feedback categories if you’re looking for it). On it, users are posting calls for beta readers, as well as calls for manuscripts to beta read. And it seems to be working. The thread has dozens of responses and plenty of back-and-forth between posters, some of whom are already swapping critiques and advice on excerpts posted on the thread. It’s a thing of beauty, I tell you.

Finding this thread alleviated a major anxiety of mine, which is where to find a large pool of beta readers once I’ve reached that stage in the process – and That Stage is coming up fast for me. But I noticed something else interesting about that thread that I think it’s worth calling a little attention to. Many users are asking for beta readers when it sounds like what they really need is an alpha reader.

Now, let me be painfully clear: this post is not intended to be a criticism of writers asking for an alpha reader or critique partner on a beta-reader-finding forum. I have no intention of gatekeeping that space, and don’t think anyone should. I’d encourage everyone, regardless of the type of critique you’re looking for, to post there – it’s very active, and full of positivity, support, and inspiration. I can’t tell you how much fun I had just reading through the summaries and excerpts people posted, and I can’t wait to buy each and every one of those books the moment they hit the shelves. If I had time, I’d have signed up to read every single one of them.

My point, rather, is that it’s a lot easier to find the specific type of help you’re looking for if you know the word for it. I also want to take this opportunity to bring some recognition to one of the most underappreciated and crucially important aides to the writing process.

So, without further ado…

What’s an alpha reader?

An alpha reader is someone who reads a very early draft of your novel – often the first draft. It’s usually a trusted friend, another writer, or both. The purpose of an alpha reader is to tell you if you’re headed in the right direction, and help you spot problems that are large enough to derail an early-stage draft. Alpha readers frequently overlap with critique partners, who not only point out problems but actually work with you to solve them.

The benefit of getting another writer to help you at this stage is twofold.

1. They’ll be more willing to overlook the inevitable slough of typos and grammatical issues that always litter a first or second draft, because they know their manuscript is just as messy, and they don’t care about it at this stage any more than you do. You’re not looking for a line edit. You want help with that semi-truck-sized plot hole over there.
2. They’re able to give you more precise technical feedback, which is what you need from an alpha reader as opposed to a beta reader. Someone who is a writer themselves will be able to help more with this.

I currently have one alpha reader: one of my closest friends, who I’ve known since high school. She isn’t a writer herself, but she has the following qualities going for her as an alpha reader:

1. She’s a book lover with very strong book-related opinions, and we know each other well enough that I trust her to tell me straight-up if something sucks.
2. She is willing to sit and listen to me ramble about foreshadowing and character arcs and thematic consistency for hours on end, and is therefore well-equipped to give me the kind of specific feedback I’m looking for.
3. She’s a nurse technician with many years of experience working in an ER, willing and able to give excellent feedback and suggestions on injury/death scenes, of which there are many in my books. (This really could be a whole post on its own, but really, writers: get yourselves a medical friend. You can thank me later.)
4. She’s very organized and has an elaborate color-coding scheme she uses to annotate my drafts. While this is by no means a requirement for alpha readers, I do really love it, and it nicely illustrates her ability to be extremely technical and detailed in the feedback she’s providing.

I usually have this friend read my second drafts, although she’s read snippets of first drafts as well. She provides detailed, honest feedback, sits there while I awkwardly transcribe every word she says, and answers all my middle-of-the-night “Would you hate the book if…?” questions whenever I’m considering a major change.

Basically, if you’ve got an early-stage draft that has been through one round or revisions or less, and you’d like someone to help you spot big problems and possibly even contribute to fixing them, you’re looking for an alpha reader.

What’s a beta reader?

A beta reader, by contrast, isn’t necessarily another writer or someone you know. Most authors will put out a call for beta readers after many, many rounds of revisions. The most important characteristic of a beta reader is that they’re in your target audience. So, if you’re writing YA, you want teenagers. If you’re writing a romance novel, don’t recruit a bunch of people who only read horror novels. You get the picture.

Beta readers represent the average person who picks up your book at the store and will give it a nasty review on Goodreads if they don’t like it. You do not give a beta reader a first or second draft – you want it to be as close to its publishable (or at least, send-to-an-editor-able) form as you can get it. Don’t think of beta readers as critique partners, but collectively as a focus group representing your future readership.

You also typically need more beta readers than you do alpha readers. At the alpha reader stage, it’s easy to end up with too many cooks in the kitchen if you give a lot of people access to your draft. But by the beta reader stage, you’re just a few revisions away from sending this thing off to an editor. You’re more than ready for a larger sample size. When my time comes, I will be aiming for at least 25 beta readers – and that’s a bare minimum. As for alpha readers, I’m happy to have one or two at the most.

So, yes, you need an alpha reader

Alpha readers really don’t get enough love. Some people don’t use them at all, and very little of the advice I’ve run across on the revision process even mentions them. But the volume of responses on the Find A Beta Reader thread requesting detailed, writerly feedback on large-scale problems with an unfinished first draft is proof enough of their necessity. You can and should involve an alpha reader as early as you feel comfortable, especially if your manuscript is bound for eventual publication. They can help you spot much more severe issues than a beta reader should have to deal with, setting you up for much greater success down the line.

Happy writing!