want to know what questions I asked my
beta readers and how I organize their
feedback this is the fourth video in a
series where I'm sharing my personal
experience with my first round of betas
in the hopes that sharing my process and
what I've learned helps you figure out
how you want to run your round of beta
readers if you want to know how to find
beta readers how to schedule them and
even more definitely check out my first
three videos which I'll link below and
in the cards but in this video we're
gonna focus more on how to get feedback
from beta readers answering questions
like what are the best questions I
should be asking my beta readers and how
should I organize their feedback to help
you out with this I'm actually going to
be showing you my exact questionnaire
that I sent out my beta readers so you
can get some ideas about what you might
want to be asking your beta readers to
then I'll show you how I prepped my
folders in my computer to receive this
feedback and how I organized and did all
the geeky stuff like that if you want to
know more of how I physically and
emotionally process my beta reader
feedback make sure you subscribed and
hit the bell so you don't miss that
video when it comes out and I'm also
thinking of doing one more video where I
do a more live Q&A answering any
additional questions you guys have so
definitely let me know if you'd like to
see that livestream and what other
questions I haven't answered that you'd
love to see answer during the live Q&A
thanks again to my awesome patrons for
their support and requesting this great
series so much love to you guys and
let's get into my beta reader
questionnaire alright so I'm actually
going to show you two different versions
of my questionnaires one where I sent
out a page questionnaire for every
single chapter that my betas read and
another where I did one page
questionnaire for certain weeks that I
sent a larger group of chapters and I
wanted them to be reading more but
answering less questions so I gave them
more overall questions for the section
of chapters instead of each individual
chapter I talked a little bit about why
I did this in my last video but as a
summary basically I thought that it was
really gonna be helpful to have more
nitty gritty details for each individual
chapter and I think it actually was for
my first few chapters that I felt really
strong about but as I got to later in
the book where I knew it was a little
Messier and I just needed even more just
bigger general
mental thoughts I switched to giving
them more chapters at a time and giving
them the shorter questionnaire the
one-page questionnaire for the whole
section so let me show you both what
questions I asked what I thought was
most helpful and why I basically did
what I did so for the questions that I
asked per chapter I separated into a few
different sections first I want to know
their initial thoughts what were your
first reactions feelings thoughts after
reading this chapter and this could just
be really quick it didn't have to be
super lengthy I just wanted to know
their guttural reaction after reading
the chapter the second thing I thought
that was really important was what are
your thoughts feelings about the main
character and if you got this template
by being a patron this is where you
would insert the name of your main
character definitely in the first
chapter so you might want to put the
main character's name just in case you
have a few characters it might be a
little fuzzy on who is the main person
but your main characters character arc
is one of the main things you want to
track throughout the story and be able
to figure out what is strong and what is
weak because that is really the heart of
your story so I thought that that was
really important to ask
then I asked more generally about
characters so this included not just my
main character but also my side
characters which characters did you like
the most and why so again made that
really clear that I wanted to know why
and not just facts but reasoning so I
could then process feedback and figure
out the best ways to fix things and I
did indicate that again its main
character side characters and even
antagonist ik characters because they
could like a antagonistic character a
lot and I just wanted to remind them of
that the second question was which
characters did you like the least
and why how could they be improved
sometimes I got answers a more like this
characters well-developed but I don't
like them because they're a jerk and
that's totally fine but I added this
question because I really wanted to know
if they thought any characters really
needed to be improved not just that they
liked them or disliked them as if they
were a real person then I asked about
scenes and the questions I asked were
what part scene or aspect of this
chapter did you like the most and why
which part scenes did you liked the
least and why again how could they be
improved and again I'm separating sort
of character development and then the
scene where the chapter as a whole so I
could really get a feel for both and
again figure out how I wanted to edit
with
feedback and I really like this question
that I know by being a beta reader for
Bethany out asada that she had and I
really liked it were there any parts or
aspects of this chapter that were
confusing unclear or hard to envision so
sometimes people just put that in what
they liked the least which was fine but
just in case any scenes especially were
hard to envision or just certain pieces
were confusing I wanted those things to
be really clear to me so I could go back
and fix those for sure then I just had a
round of like quick answer questions and
I said these answers can be more like a
sentence or two and the first thing I
said on a scale of one to five how much
did you enjoy this chapter so I wanted
to gauge their enjoyment of the chapter
overall and I've had people that I've
dated forward in the past asked like
gauge on 1 through 5 or 1 through 10 but
it was all very relative and it was
often hard for me to be totally
consistent in reading certain chapters
so I added some verbage around the
rating system so number one meant you
didn't like it at all to make you sort
of like the chapter 3 meant you liked it
form it you really liked it and 5 meant
you loved it so much so I wasn't really
comparing chapter to chapter in the
sense of like I like to this chapter
more than this chapter but I wanted them
to take each chapter and say what did
you think about it how much did you
enjoy this chapter and then my reading
system gave me the verbage even if they
didn't sort of expound on how much they
enjoyed it number 9 said on a scale of 1
to 5 how eager are you to read the next
chapter so sometimes the chapter they
read maybe wasn't their favorite but
they were still really eager to read the
next chapters because they were still
engaged in the story and sometimes if I
had a chapter or two that was a little
slower and they rated more in the lower
end I could then see a trend where maybe
they were becoming less eager to keep
reading I actually did like a whole
spreadsheet where I took all these
numbers and found averages and again I'm
a nerd but if you like all that kind of
stuff and that really helps you then
having some numerical value might help
and again I gave each number some
verbage so number one they weren't eager
at all number two they were sort of
eager number three they were fairly
eager number four they were very eager
and number five they needed to read it
right now I really loved question number
10 as well do you have any predictions
or anything you hope
happen I think there is a distinction
between these two where some people
might think oh I'm seeing this
foreshadowing I think this is gonna
happen but that might be different than
what they hope will happen and there
were a couple of things that people did
bring up that they hoped would happen
that I didn't even think of that I was
like that would be really cool to tie in
in the next round of edits I could also
tell from this question which characters
they were really invested in and which
plot lines were really reaching them I
also loved this next question number 11
do you have any favorite lines from this
chapter if so which one I did ask them
in the weekly emails hey make sure to
take notes while you're reading so it's
easier to figure out what you're gonna
say in the questionnaire and some people
loved highlighting or writing down their
favorite lines and putting them in this
section and it just made me so happy to
know what lines were really grabbing
them which ones I should definitely not
change or delete and also if you are
wondering what to call your book if you
don't have an official title for it you
could go back through these favorite
lines because sometimes people pick
lines from their book to then be the
title of their book and finally I just
ask any other thoughts or questions for
me just in case there was anything that
I didn't cover that they wanted to
express then I copied and pasted this
for the other additional chapters that I
sent them and I added one more section
at the end usually about two to three
questions and the first one was usually
overall what are your thoughts and
feelings on the story and it's pacing in
these chapters like as a whole and
asking about pacing is always really
great to ask it got a lot of really
great insights on this question
sometimes even I thought the pacing was
slow but a lot of people thought it was
fine or vice versa then I usually had a
question that was maybe a little more
connected to these chapters and for this
one that I copied I had just said what
do you think about the world of my story
so far and that was something that was
important to me
and then another frequent question I
asked was was there anything you wished
there was more or less of in these
chapters and that was also really
telling and really helpful to know I
also sometimes went back and either
added a specific question or changed a
certain question in the chapter
questions because I was really either
concerned with a specific scene or a
specific character I tried not to do
that too much because I didn't want to
direct my betas I really wanted to see
what would organ
we come out of their answers without me
guiding them but there were a couple
times that I did have specific questions
that I just again inserted or replaced
one of these questions with a more
specific chapter questions now if you're
more of a person that just wants to ask
a few questions for a certain section of
your book and larger number of chapters
all at once which again is what I did
sort of closer to the end of sending out
parts of my manuscript
I might format it like this where I say
please read all chapters before
answering these questions
I put the chapter number range here and
then I ask some similar questions but I
just formatted it to more apply to a
bunch of chapters at a time so I said
what are your thoughts and feelings
about the main characters growth in
these chapters so again more about the
main characters character arc what were
your favorite parts who were your
favorite characters and why so I did
sort of all the favorites and one
question so scenes and characters and
then what parts our characters did you
feel like could be improved were any
parts confusing anything you wish there
was more or less of so basically
everything they thought could be
improved overall character scenes
whatever then I usually put in some kind
of section specific questions sort of
like how sometimes I would do chapters
specific questions and I would just say
if you haven't already mentioned above
and then I would put in the question
then I'd said on a scale of one to five
how much did you enjoy this section as a
whole and followed that up with on a
scale of one to five how eager are you
to read the next section and these look
very familiar as well do you have any
predictions or anything you hope will
happen did you have any favorite lines
if so which ones and any other thoughts
or questions for me again I would use
this if you're less wanting more
nitty-gritty stuff for each individual
chapter and you're just looking for
overall feedback for a certain section
but I'm thinking about maybe doing my
next round where I would send a quarter
of the book at a time where I would send
Act one and then the first part of back
to the second part of Act two and then
Act three so either way I think you can
take these questions and use them in
whatever format you think you want to
send your chapters additionally I wanted
to show you some questions I asked my
betas when they had finished the entire
book because I felt like I wanted some
overall feedback based on what they
thought of the book as a whole and not
just in sections or in chapters so the
first question I asked was about the
main character and
finished Ark and again super important
to make sure that your characters
character arc is strong and central and
make sense and is satisfying so I asked
what did you think of my main
character's journey and growth by the
end of the book the second question I
asked was on a scale of one to five how
much do you enjoy the book as a whole
and again I gave qualifiers for whatever
number they picked the third question I
asked was the strengths and weaknesses
what did you think were the strongest or
best aspects of the book and what were
the weakest aspects or the biggest
things I could work on improving for the
next draft and for me I'm going to be
submitting to this round of Pitt tours
so I actually worded this like what
could I be improving to then submit to
pitch wars what would be the most
important things to focus on so if you
have a certain goal or deadline or thing
you're submitting to you could also add
that so they know what to focus on
number four was if you were to describe
this book to a friend how would you
describe it and what comps or comparable
titles would you compare it to and this
is really helpful for both
self-publishing and traditional
publishing if you wanted to
traditionally publish the verbage that
your betas give you could help you shape
your query and also know what comps to
include if you're self publishing it
could also shape what your blurb looks
like number five was on a scale of one
to five how eager are you to read the
sequel and I gave qualifiers for all the
numbers and obviously this only applies
if your book is going to be a series but
again great question to add if it is
additionally I would also ask what you
be interested in beta reading the sequel
in the future I know a lot of my friends
have used similar beta readers that were
really helpful in book 1 for the rest of
the series and also mixing in some other
people that have only read the final
edition of the first book so they have a
mix of perspectives again if you're
writing a series number 7 would be great
to ask do you have any predictions or
anything you hope will happen in book 2
and I forgot to say this earlier but
with predictions it's really great to
ask because they could be predicting
like the whole series and in that sense
maybe you're making your story too
predictable but you also want to see if
they're predicting anything super
outlandish because then maybe you're not
being clear enough or foreshadowing
things that you shouldn't be because
then your readers are gonna be
disappointed when those kind of things
don't happen and again anything you hope
will happen is great because you can
also get some ideas that could fill in
some plot holes or just beef up some
subplots for you as well I really like
question number 8 for anyone that is
still figuring out what their final book
title is going to be so I asked I've
been thinking about renaming this book
to book title X what do you think any
other ideas
so again your beta readers have read
your entire book they can let you know
if they think that title fits your book
if it's a strong one or if they have any
other ideas number nine any other
thoughts or questions for me and finally
if I have further questions or have any
other ideas I'd like to float out to a
few of you as I do another round of
edits would you like to be included in
those emails and I know not everybody
does this but especially if you have
some really great betas I knew that
there were some things that I would
probably want for their feedback on so I
wanted to know if they would be open to
receiving periodic emails from me to
help me troubleshoot some things in the
future then to just show you real quick
how I organized everything as
questionnaires were coming back in I
first created a folder for every round
or every week I was sending out chapters
and they automatically got organized
because I would put the number of the
round first the word round and then the
numbered chapters I was sending then in
each of these folders I would first set
up a send folder and I would first put
the chapters in a word doc but then
convert it to a PDF that I would send
everyone then I would also set up the
questionnaire doc and I use this as a
template for every week and then
adjusted it based on what kinds of
questions I wanted to ask so these two
Doc's are the things that I would send
every week and I made sure to title it
with a shorthand for my book so PFF for
project very fantasy which is what the
original sort of working title was then
I did 0 for for around for a little -
and then chapters 10 through 12 for this
round and then what I would receive the
document back I would just put a
underscore and then their name so that
all of the beta reader feedback would
show up in alphabetical order and what
I'll show you next week is how I created
a compiled file where I organized all of
the feedback into one file so it is
searchable I added headers so it's
clickable and it just made everything so
much easier to sift through
later again pre setting up these folders
and then the sent folder and these Docs
just really helped to make everything
smooth especially making sure that what
I titled everything things would show up
in an organized fashion for every single
round got any other great questions you
love to ask your beta readers or ways
you like to organize their feedback
definitely let us know in the comments
below and if you'd like the
questionnaire template or any templates
i've given with this video series
definitely check us out over on patreon
where you also get a whole pack list of
videos posts resources for your writing
journey plus more personal help for me
if you need to catch up on any other
videos in this series I've linked the
playlist in the description below or you
can check out one of these two writing
related videos and we'll see you there
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