Bad Beta Reading Experiences?

It depends on what kind of editing you're having done, of course. Someone doing copy editing isn't going to tell you if your story makes any sense. I beta read for a group of published authors (and they beta read for me) so I see this happening from both sides. I get a bunch of critiques for my work and I weigh what everyone says based on what I want the end product to be. Mostly, nobody is bothering with SPAG because the people involved are, as I said, professional writers, but when it comes to character and plot and all of that, it's great for catching all of those tiny plot holes that you want to plug.

 

Yeah. I reckon once you're an experienced, published author with many books under the belt, you probably don't need betas any more. Then you would do, as you said here, and simply take it to the editor. Or maybe just let your wife, husband or closest friend read it, because they are the first port of call, and have been for a long time—and they are familiar with your work and know what you need to do. Many very famous and established writers always use that sort of feedback. But that's different from getting a slew of betas as a first-time writer.

 

Lots of valuable advice here. I tend to prefer alpha and beta feedback for my stories, and when I offer feedback, I refer the author to my criteria for both to make it less likely I'll get bad experiences with the author. But, as this thread suggests, you just don't know until you get into it.