What's a Beta reader? It's somebody who's prepared to read chapters of a novel in progress, and to give frank feedback. The author uses the feedback to fine tune the work.
What's special about my Beta readers? They get to appear in a special chapter that I'll slip into the novel. The special chapter describes a lunch which one of my characters attends. The lunch is thrown by a writer who wants to thank his or her Beta readers in person. Naturally the party will turn out to be a disaster.
To protect the reputations of my Beta readers I'll give you a pseudonym. I'll also ask your permission to quote bits of your comments in my social media posts leading up to publication, using your pseudonym.
Forty Apple Trees will be published initially as an independent e-book under the editorial eyes of my fellow writers at That Authors Collective. If I'm lucky enough to get a mainstream publisher the Beta character chapter might be cut, but I'll still acknowledge you.
So here's the deal: Let me know by the end of November if you are interested, and I will select four or possibly more Beta readers. I will send you up to three chapters a month in PDF format and ask you to email me comments within two weeks. If you respond to me at least three times during the writing of the book, then you'll get into my special chapter!
This post is distributed via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, so contact me through any of those media if you fancy being larger than life!
Forty Apple Trees is a black comedy about a middle class family who slide into genteel criminality. I've posted a whole chapter that can be downloaded free at http://www.stuartcampbellconsulting.com/downloads/ .
You can also download First Press by That Authors Collective, a free sampler of our work that includes an extract from Forty Apple Trees at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/360625 .
And not to forget of course The Play's the Thing, available for a mere $1.25 at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BMIF0J0
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