Behind-the-Scenes of Revising a Romance Novel (Part 3)
Handling feedback from beta readers during the process of revising Reality With You (a contemporary romance novel)
This week, I sent the final draft of my manuscript to my proofreader. I’m filled with all sorts of emotions, mainly joy/excitement/relief to be so close to the finish line.
I received it back from my lovely line editor,
of ELA Editorial Co., earlier this month and this last set of revisions was thankfully pretty smooth. Tedious, though—I went through a list of repetitive words and switched out as many as possible. Boy, that shit was time-consuming (but worth it).Before it went to my line editor, I sent it to a group of beta readers and used their feedback to revise the draft she later edited.
In this segment of my revision deep dive, I’m covering:
When and how I approached the beta reading process
How I chose my beta readers and worked with them
How I organized and incorporated beta reader feedback into my revisions
In Part One of Behind-the-Scenes of Revising a Romance Novel, I covered my revision approach and the evolution of my manuscript, and in Part Two, I talked about how I strengthened the manuscript. Definitely check those out if you haven’t yet.
As a reminder, full access to this series is a thank-you to my paid subscribers. Most of my writing journey is shared publicly, but since I go so deep into my process in this series, I wanted to keep most of it within a more intimate circle of readers. 🤍
Is there something specific you’d love to know about my revision process that I haven’t covered yet? Let me know in the comments!
Revisions Deep Dive (Part 3)
Why Beta Readers Are Essential
Throughout the writing process, I reach junctures where I need fresh eyes on the manuscript to ensure it’s hitting the right notes.
For early drafts, I go to my critique partners; they’re my close writer friends who look at my (very) rough drafts and help me test the foundation. For my romance novel Reality With You, I also worked with a developmental editor after I finished draft three, who helped me make sure things were structurally solid.
Beta readers see one of my manuscript's “clean” drafts. The plot holes have been ironed out, the character arcs strengthened, and the placeholders filled in. They’re the first audience that reads it from a reader’s perspective rather than a technical perspective.
The benefits of beta readers are:
They can catch things that fall through the cracks. As the creator, you have every single detail of your story packed in your head, so if any details are missing, you often unwittingly fill them in with that intrinsic knowledge. You’re also so close to the project that it’s impossible to get a clear read on how it feels to someone experiencing it for the first time. Critique partners and editors look at it through a technical lens, which is enormously helpful in the early stages, but they aren’t experiencing it the way a regular reader would.
Beta readers aren’t reading to critique or share how they think something that isn’t working should be fixed—they’re just reading it for fun and sharing their honest opinions, which is so refreshing and opens them up to noticing things others wouldn’t. Without the pressure of critiquing, you get different takes on your story that can be very eye-opening. If there are any problem areas, you can workshop them with your critique partners and editors.
It’s excellent to test-run your book on readers in your target audience. Do they buy into the emotional journey? Are they swooning over your love interest? Are they shipping your characters and reeling from the plot twists? Were their expectations met, or were there things that fell short? Their answers to these questions can be super insightful.
I gathered a group of beta readers from different backgrounds who were genuinely interested in my project's genre, tropes, and concept. I’ll explain how I chose them more in-depth later in the post.
Sharing my manuscript with beta readers was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking experiences. Because it is a test run with the market, I had no idea how they would respond to it. Would they hate it? Feel just meh about it? Would they find something that unravels the entire book and throws me back to square one?
It’s scary to face the answers to those questions, but it's necessary if you want your book to be the strongest it can be. Ego can’t be invited to the table.
Some writers don’t use beta readers, but I couldn’t imagine leaving them out of my process. They’re integral to improving the reader experience.
Getting in the Right Headspace
Whenever I send a manuscript to someone for feedback, I mentally prepare myself first. Sending it to critique partners and editors is a little scary, but sending it to beta readers makes me the most nervous, I think.
It’s the first time you face how the actual public will react to your book. They’re not reading it like it’s a work-in-progress (even though it technically still is). They’re just reading it like any other book and judging it accordingly.
It’s uncomfortable, but necessary. Dealing with the discomfort is easier said than done, so here’s some mental prep that helps me get there.
1. Acknowledging the Discomfort (and Doing It Anyway)
Even though I had done a lot of work on my manuscript, I knew I still wanted to strengthen it, but it was time to get readers’ perspectives to help me get it to that final stage. This meant I sent something off that I knew was close but not totally there yet. It’s really uncomfortable sharing a project that’s still a work-in-progress, but it’s a necessary evil to help it reach its full potential.
My finished draft is so much stronger and more polished than the one I sent to beta readers. My ego wants to beg them to read the new version (I really hope they do, lol), but their feedback helped me make it what it is now. You have to get comfortable with people seeing your “imperfect” drafts for the greater good of the story.
When my anxiety began to spike, I’d ask myself these questions:
Have you taken the book as far as you can right now? Would feedback help you streamline the process and make it stronger?
How important is it to you for this book to reach its full potential? Is the value of their feedback greater than keeping your ego comfortable?