Shooting Star Editing

Why Pay For Beta Reading?

The time and effort that goes into a thoughtful read, identifying issues and strengths, and writing specific, useful feedback is worth something.
If someone is being paid to read and offer helpful feedback, they're much more likely to follow through, and do so in a timely manner. With me, it's a guarantee, barring extenuating circumstances or if I come across the type of content I said I would not read and was not informed about. I recommend signing an agreement with paid beta readers to make sure you're on the same page about payment, the level of non-disclosure you need, and when the feedback is due.
It is possible to find good beta readers who will do it for free. But handing over a manuscript to a stranger on the internet without an idea of their scruples or process can be a risk. Be sure to vet your readers, whether you're paying them or not, and learn about their process before sending them your work.
- Will they run it through AI, or will they actually read it?
- Will they just say it's good or bad, or will they give you useful, specific feedback?

Note: I recommend having any beta reader sign a non-disclosure agreement to protect your work. You may want to include phrasing that prohibits them from feeding your work into AI. In a beta reader, you're most likely looking for a human reaction because you will be selling your work to human readers. Not only that, but if your work is fed into AI, it's possible that it could be flagged as AI-generated since it's now in the system. And it could be available to other users without you getting any compensation or credit for their use of it.

Back to FAQs