Beta readers without the chaos: frozen versions and comments on the paragraph

A round of beta reading usually goes like this. You send a file to six people. Four reply in e-mail, one in a document with tracked changes, one in a voice message. By the time the replies arrive you have already changed chapter three. Now you are reading a comment about a sentence that no longer exists, and you cannot tell which file the reader had.

You can fix that with two ideas: freeze what readers see, and anchor their comments.

Freeze the version#

Before you send anything, save a version of the book with a name that says what it is: "round 2, after the ferry rewrite". The reader link in Author opens that frozen version, not your working copy. You can go on writing; they are reading round 2.

Choose what to show#

You do not have to send the whole book. Choose the chapters. A reader who only needs to look at the opening can have the first three chapters, which is also an easier request to say yes to.

Choose the mode#

A link can be read only, or comment. In comment mode a reader selects words and writes a comment, adding their name. They do not need an account. The comment is attached to the exact passage, with the quote.

One address, shown once#

The address of a link is shown once, when you make it. Copy it into your message then. If it is lost, make a new link. You can give a link a label (who it is for) and an expiry in days, and you can revoke it at any time. Revoking is the right way to end a round.

Read the comments as threads#

Comments come back as threads with the quote, the reader's name and the scene. Reply, and the reader sees your reply under their comment. Resolve what you have dealt with. Leave open what you have not.

Compare rounds#

After the round, make another version and diff the two. The comparison is word by word and scene by scene, so you can check that the change you made because of Lotte's comment is the change you intended, and see how much you changed overall.

A few habits#

• Name versions by round, not by date.
• Tell readers what kind of feedback you want. A frozen version is the right moment for "is it clear?" and the wrong one for "should this be a different book?"
• Do not resolve a comment until you have changed the text or decided not to.