I just finished my first ebook in a 5 book series and my next step is to find some beta readers. Since I am new to this, how are others making their books available to beta readers for comments? I want to make it easy for readers to provide feedback in line with the text, but also want to protect intellectual property.
I usually use PDF... intellectual property is a red herring- if you don't trust your beta readers not to steal your work why would you want the feedback of people you don't trust?
Off the top of my head, I think if you want beta readers to be able to easily provide comments in-line with your text, the simplest way to do it is to send a Word .DOCX file. Comments can then be entered using blue as the text color for the comments. To add comments to a PDF, unless the beta reader has a full PDF editor, they'll be limited to applying comments as sticky notes in the PDF. I also agree with the Moose: "if you don't trust your beta readers not to steal your work why would you want the feedback of people you don't trust?"
This can also be done using Google Docs. In fact there's a Suggest function you can set to allow readers to suggest edits. You just need to send them the URL link.
From what I understand, when you create a Google Docs document, there'll be a setting that is supposed to make it impossible for anyone to copy it. When you turn it on, you ought to be reasonably secure. I don't think most people will bother to find out how to bypass the copy protection. For me as a beta reader, a Word file would be the most convenient format to work with. However,it's easier on Google Docs to discuss my comments with the author. If someone recognized your work as the next Harry Potter and was determined to publish it first no matter what, then nothing could prevent him from making screenshots and converting it into text. (Extremely unlikely to happen, of course.)
Thanks. That helps. I think anyone stealing my work is highly unlikely. I guess I will use Word or Google docs depending on which one the beta readers are most comfortable with.