Advice on Friends editing

[SaphTalon]

Mods/Admins delete if need be. It would be kind to send me a message if you deleted it and I would be very grateful. I don't want to make the same mistake twice. THANKS
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Friends and family Editors
So I have been having a lot of my friends and family asking about my book series that I have been writing since I was in high school. I have been working on character references, cultural settings, and scenes for about ten years now. The reason it has been taking me so long is because I hit writers block several times and ended up rewriting the first three chapters of the first book. I also have been skipping around the whole series.
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I now have a really good picture of things because I forced myself to make up my mind on a story line. At least for the first book. This is something I plan on publishing because its a story of my life in a fictional fantasy if that makes sense. I got this idea to allow some of my friends to read my writing so that I can have them edit and or give a review on sections. I want to reward them with a small amount of money, but I want to be fair. I want them to edit because they want to and not for the money or because they think they owe me somehow. Not exactly sure how much I should offer much less the form of feedback I should have prepared.
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Advice? Thanks in advance!

[ladybastilla]

Your friends would not be editors, they would be betas. You could pay them or reward them in some way if you wish, but there is generally not a fixed rate for being a beta. It's usually something people volunteer for. I have heard of some authors hiring betas, but I haven't gone down this road personally, so I cannot assist you there.

As for how they can help you, at the stage you are describing, you will likely want feedback on things like whether the story is drawing them in / holding their attention, whether they love / hate the key characters or villains, whether the setting is feeling 'real' enough to them and whether any of the dialog feels stiff or off. Check if there are any terms or ideas specific to your world that are either too confusing or over described. And of course thank them if they catch any basic spelling or typos. It's not a priority at your stage, but it's handy to catch and fix that stuff while combing through a piece of work anyway.

Be careful how many people you give early draft access to and what kind of response you anticipate from them. A work that is still being written can be a fragile thing and you do not want to damage your confidence by having someone shred something you have not finished and polished. There is a time to put it in and let it get solidified like a piece of clay, but this is not it. That said, if you can find a couple people who are genuinely into your story, characters and world it can make it much easier to get the inner critic to shut up, which is crucial when writing a draft. You cannot fix what is not on the page yet.

I wish you the best of luck. Happy writing! BTW, are you planning to do National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) this November?

[True]

Iv beta read a few books for writer friends over the years. Most books have been successfully published later on. I never expected any sort of payment or reward. In fact I thought having such an early access to a publication was pretty awesome and reward enough, as well as combined with the fact that someone thought I was worthy as a beta reader.

As a Beta I was mostly always asked the same things, opinions on the story, like if it flows well or makes sense, and to mention any grammatical typos, but not to expect perfection at this point.

If you wan't to reward your betas then that's super sweet, but I personally wouldn't let yourself feel like you're obligated to do so.

I would also agree with the above, You want to be cautious on how many copy's you hand out, and be sure you're handing them over to people with some experience in the literary world. I mean if they're not writers themselves, they should at least be avid readers and probably also enjoy reading whatever theme your book is. Though I suppose there is something to be said about outside opinion.

You should expect feedback you might not have expected, or that might upset you. Keep in mind that Betas are NOT editors, which is someone you might pay once the book is much more refined and ready for those last checks, and they might have a lot of opinions or make a lot of suggestions for ways they want you to change things. :p Just remember, in the end it is YOUR story, try and pick out the good advice from the individual opinion and not let it upset you or overwhelm you!

[SaphTalon]

Thanks guys for your help. Like I mentioned in the "Whats your problem" forum I been dealing with some things. Sorry if I have not responded a little more sooner. Sucks that I lost friends over how I create my characters and stories. People think I am insane for how I create things in my imagination.
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I will be going to see my local friends at a study. Hopefully people there will understand and not consider me to be insane for my concept of writing and doing art. Its aggravating that I did not even get far enough to ask my so called friends the question after they learned about my wonder world.

[Taffeta]

I wish I'd seen this before I saw your other thread, but actually, like I said there, this resonates with me a lot. So I'll tell you how I handle my writing and if any of it helps, then great. If not, it's fine.

I've always written.
My family always read anything I have any feeling about getting published. I don't send it to anyone else, friends, anyone. Because they are my family I trust them, I can also take brutal opinions from them because they are my family (if that makes sense).
When I am happy with what I've written, then I'll look at it and (if I had time to do it) I'd look to the next step.

In order to help me with my writing skills, I started writing fanfic. A lot of people do this the other way around. I wrote pony stories and such when I was a kid but I also wrote original stories and always have and I came to Fanfiction late but realised that it was a good way to write for an audience where it wasn't an original concept but where you could play with ideas, characters, plot and writing style. That's helped me hugely both with receiving criticism and improving the way I write, getting rid of lazy habits and such. It also gave me confidence with my writing when I got some nice comments as well.

I would make sure that first and foremost, more than whether they have any literary knowledge, you only send your writing to people you trust and who understand you as a person. That is hugely more important than technique right now because unless you can trust someone with your work and know they will be supportive and honest with you in a way you can understand and accept if it comes to criticism or advice, then when it comes to wanting to take the work further into publication it will be even harder to place trust in someone else.

So start with someone you trust to give you a fair and honest opinion and that you know will take it seriously. After that, you can work on it and then look for someone who can give you more technical input if you feel it important, but if writing is as much part of your life as it is mine, the first thing is to trust your work to another person without worrying about it...and that's a big deal on its own

I also don't think that at that point rewards are necessary. It might be something you can look at down the line if your work gets published and you can reach out to the people who supported you, but at this point, I don't think it's something you need to do. I've read stuff for people and I don't expect any money for it. I think it's better, as you say, that someone wants to do it.