It isn’t uncommon to hear from authors or their publishing team asking if you’d like to be a member of a book’s Beta Team, ARC Team, or both. It can come as both an exhilarating request and a daunting one—which should you choose? Do you want to beta or ARC? Both? What is the difference between the two anyway?

Great question - I’d love to help answer!

It’s not uncommon for there to be differences between what is expected of each role in a book’s process depending on the author or the publishing team. However, at Spellbound Publishing House, LLC, we have a few key differences that help get the appropriate feedback to our writers!

TALK BETA TO ME

At Spellbound Publishing House, LLC, our BETA TEAM consists of readers who are willing to be the first round of eyes from outside the author, their editing team, and their closest friends and family. The BETA TEAM is given the opportunity to read after our Developmental Edit, but before our line and copy edits. This means that there will be some grammar and mechanics errors, there may be a few spelling snaffoos, and there may be some strange wording. However, that’s not the focus of our BETA TEAM.

The BETA TEAM is generally given 2-3 weeks to read and provide feedback to our authors and we ask that our BETA readers comment just on the content of the manuscript. Questions that they may be asked to provide feedback vary from manuscript to manuscript, but BETA readers can expect to answer questions such as:

• Are there any plot holes that stood out to you?

• How are the characters? Are they believable? What feels inauthentic from a character?

• Is the character’s arc strong? How could their development be strengthened from your standpoint as a reader?

• What are some things that you really enjoy about the writer’s voice? Anything that just stands out as phenomenal to you?

• As a reader, what are some things you are struggling with in terms of character, plot, and/or structure?

THINGS WE DO NOT LOOK FOR WITH BETA FEEDBACK (these are all part of the line editing process, which follows):

• Grammar and mechanics feedback

• Syntax feedback

• Diction feedback

• Formatting feedback

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THE ARC?

While the BETA TEAM focuses on the broad structure of the story prior to the grammar and mechanics revisions, the ARC TEAM gets to be the first to access the finalized copy of a manuscript! This means the book is formatted, the manuscript is polished and bookstore ready, and we are looking for our first round of manuscript reviews. 

Generally, our ARC teams are given 2-3 weeks to read a manuscript and submit a review to GoodReads, Google Books, BookBub, Barnes & Noble, and more. (Unfortunately, Amazon waits until day of to allow ARC readers to review). At this juncture, if a reader was to find any level of grammar or mechanic errors, formatting issues, etc., we would want to know about that. 

We also provide our ARC readers with templates for reviews, as many may not be accustomed to writing reviews that are thorough or geared towards readers in a way that is supportive of the author (even if the review is negative). 

SO CAN I DO BOTH?

In short? YES!

In a more verbose response? Absolutely—it’s a treasure to be able to see a book from start to finish, reviewing the manuscript as it began and then seeing the growth and development that the manuscript goes through to get to the point of publishing. It’s such a beautiful process and for readers who are dedicated to a story and want to see where it started and where it ends in the process, we HIGHLY encourage participating in both teams!

INTERESTED IN GETTING YOUR HANDS ON SOME OF THE HOTTEST NEW LITERATURE?

We are still open to applications for our Beta and ARC teams! Sign up HERE and you’ll hear back from our Director of Editing and Publishing!