Welcome to the Writing with Coach McCoach Podcast. A podcast for busy writers who want to cut through the fluff with exact strategies for launching their author career. I'm Katie McCoach, your book coach, guide, unqualified therapist, and cheerleader. Since 2012, I've helped hundreds of writers become authors, gain confidence, and grow their best stories yet. Let's do the same for you. This is the Writing with Coach McCoach Podcast.
Welcome to another episode of Writing with Coach McCoach. Today we're going to talk about what the heck is the difference between beta readers, critique partners, and sensitivity readers. Some of those words might be like, what are you talking about, Katie? This episode is part of our What the Hell is Constructive Criticism series, how to deal with constructive criticism, how to navigate feedback, how to not lose your shit, how to apply the feedback. So we've talked about those things so far, and I'm continuing the series with discussing the different types of people that you can work with to get feedback from. So as you start learning about getting feedback, yes, you can get feedback from editors, and I'm going to have an episode that talks about the different types of editors, the different types of edits, different types of feedback you can get from them. But let's talk about the mostly free feedback that you can get before you publish, and when would you use them?
All right, so first of all, I'm going to start with what's the difference between these three, right? So if you've heard of beta readers, some people say alpha readers. Those are not necessarily interchangeable, but they could be. So also just touch base on alpha readers and what people are talking about there.
So let's start with critique partners. I think this one is one of the most common phrases you'll hear, and a lot of people will hear someone say, you should, you know, why don't you get a critique partner, work with a critique group, usually early on when you start writing. And this is kind of your first stop. Well, let's say your first stop is probably like friends and family. A lot of times that's going to be your first stop when you're like, okay, I wrote a book. Does someone want to read it? But then after that, typically you'll start trying to find like the next level, right? And then who can give you feedback that is actually going to be better for actually knowing what to do. You know, friends and family can say nice things and you're like, cool, this is great. But when you're ready to take it to the next level and really get your work out there to how do I make this writing the story the best it can be, you're typically going to start looking for the next level. And I would say this is where critique partners come in or critique groups. And I'll talk about the difference, but critique groups and partners are the people that also write who are trying to get feedback on their work.
So when you're in the stage of like, what do I do next? I really want to know, what do I do with this book? Is it any good? What do I start changing? I'm going to, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm going to start with the differences and then I'll discuss where you can find these folks with each one because I think that's a very important piece and it can be really hard to do too. A critique partner is someone that you are going to exchange writing with. This should be free. I don't think I've ever heard of a critique situation that's not free unless you're getting a critique or you're in a, like unless you're in a class and you're doing peer critiques or you're getting critiques from people who are not just like exchanging work. But typically, like say an editor is hosting a critique group. If you have someone who's kind of facilitating, they can kind of monitor how things go.
A lot of critique groups don't necessarily have facilitators. And so I'm going to talk about again, like the differences, but if that can be a caveat, I guess at times it could be a pro and it could be a con. I'm going to talk about some of the concerns, the pros and cons of each type, some things to be wary of.
Okay. So critique partner, this is a person that you're going to exchange writing with. They are also a writer. This is awesome because you both are like, we're trying to write the best book ever. I am determined to be the best writer I can possibly be. So you both are coming to the same goal and you really want to succeed. If you find a critique partner who you really link up with what they're saying. And now I, in the last episode I talked about how you apply feedback and how to sort through it. It's really helpful when you get this feedback, right? To know even like, is this feedback valuable? Is it useful for me? Is it the right stuff to listen to? If you do find a critique partner and you're who gives you feedback and you're like, this is yes, like this person gets it. They see my vision. They're really trying to help. That is worth so much. Really critique partners can be amazing for your entire career because you guys can be in it together. You can be each other's support system forever, right? Or as long as you want, as long as it works. But the people who are so happy to have great critique groups are the ones who are like, I don't know what I would do without a critique partner or my critique group. Like they are my support system. That's what I want for you.
So I do want to say that if you ever find yourself in a critique situation, a group, and you feel like this is hurting you, it's making you feel worse, get out of it. Nothing says you have to stay in that group, but don't let it stop you from trying to find the right one. When I was writing a lot and when I was younger, I had worked with, oh my gosh, so many critique groups, classes and partners. And you learn quickly how to be a great partner and what you want out of a partner. And sometimes you just don't mesh and that's okay. But you also have to consider it's a two way street. So critique partners, you have to keep in mind that in a critique partnership or critique group, you are both contributing to the situation. And that can be fabulous because you're both supporting each other. However, that can be a lot, right? So you're also really involved in someone else's story and career introductory. And for some people, this might be kind of hard to do because you are constantly exchanging work. You're not just giving someone your work and saying, hey, what do you think? You're also doing the same for them. This is not ideal for everyone, but I would say that being a really good critique partner is going to be great for your critere.
Your critere. Huh. I think I just made that word up. Your critique critere. Your critique career. Okay, we're going to call critique careers a critere now forever.
But so I think it's going to be really great for your career as a writer because you begin to really see what a story needs, what writing needs, and you start to articulate how to make that happen. And that will just help in your own writing too. You'll start to be able to see it a little more or when people point things out and you say, oh yeah, instead of like, I cannot believe they said that, that jerk. You start to be like, well, yep. Cause I've seen it when other people have done it and now I see it now that someone's pointed out. Yep. I see what they're doing. I see what I'm doing. I really love critique partnerships because besides the fact that you're like always in it together and you're supporting each other, you both are looking at it from a craft point of view. This can be really useful as someone who's like, okay, writers see things different than readers do. So a writer is going to probably point out some stuff that only other writers or editors would be able to notice. Whereas a reader, they probably, they might be like, I have no, I've never written before. So that's, they're not even thinking about that. But a critique partner might be like, okay, you're telling here and we need to show, you know, the very standard rule show, don't tell this is telling language. You know, maybe they can even get as nitty gritty as like the, you're switching tenses here or the grammar is incorrect here, but a lot of times they can also just be like focusing on the plot or the story or are there questioning, does that make sense? Is this engaging? How does this line come off? What about the dialogue? And the other piece that I love about this is that a lot of times, you know, if you're both writers, you're using similar language. So you can say, Hey, like I'm, I'm working on the way that I, the pattern of my sentences, the flow of my sentences, do what I'm trying to break up the pattern. So it's not too repetitive. And that's something that a critique partner can help you with. And they can understand why you're doing that and what you're doing versus maybe a reader who is not considering that.
So that can be what's really fabulous about working with a critique partner. You guys are both using the same vocabulary, the same things are on your top of mind and you get, you get it right. Someone else is getting it like they're, they're in it with you. They understand how the challenges of being a writer and you guys can do stuff together, work through things together and be supporters for your whole career. There've been many times where I've gone to conferences and it's fun. I've met people who they somehow became critique partners like online and then they both met for the first time at the conference and got to hang out the whole time or vice versa. They meet at a conference and become critique partners. So let me talk about how you can find, you know, critique partners.
So go to events. You could go to in-person events. A lot of times there are, I am sure no matter where you are, there is some somewhat local writing event taking place, whether it's at the local library, because a lot of libraries will hold writing events and they'll have talks and stuff, or it's a write an organization. There are different ones everywhere and a lot of big organizations have sub chapters and they have local chapters. So for example, Sisters in Crime is a bigger organization, but then they have these local chapters. And so in LA there's a Sisters in Crime chapter and a lot of times they'll have monthly meetings or classes or presentations and then you meet other writers there. It's like a little mini conference. And if you connect with someone, you guys can become critique partners. The great thing about something like that is, especially when it's targeted to maybe the genre you write in, is you can find someone who's writing in that genre that's going to be a stronger critique partner for the most part. Other places people find writers online all the time, there are literally thousands of Facebook groups of writers. So you can find one, you can put a call out, you can go on Twitter, you can, a lot of times like you can take part in events or contests and just through that you might start getting to know people. And naturally like that eagerness to develop a partnership might take place.
So I am a co-founder of RevPit and now we've been doing this several years and it takes place mostly on Twitter. However, I will just say at this point while I'm recording this, yes, it's on Twitter. Twitter is also in the weirdness of X at this point of my recording. So who knows what it'll look like in a few months. But that has been a great place for a lot of writers because, you know, in that case we're having all these writers are at a certain point where they all have a finished manuscript, it's not published, and they're looking to get some feedback. And so they're engaging with each other throughout the contest event and a lot of people have formed relationships that way and partnerships. There are some organizations or people who host like critique partner match-ups. They try to help pair people up. When I was a member of RWA, the Romance Writers of America, years ago they had a critique partner matching program to try to get people who had similar goals and needs and genres to work together. And that was great. So if you're in any sort of, you know, literally you talk to any writer at any time, ask them, do you have a critique partner? Number one, do you want to be one? Number two, if not, where do you find some?
So here's how I found a critique group that I joined when I moved to Los Angeles. I was, that was like a decade ago. I actually did attend a sisters in crime event because I was going to support someone I knew and they were speaking. And so I'm at this event. I don't know anyone there and the person I do know is speaking, so I'm not talking to them and we're kind of just standing around. And I just awkwardly, you know, smiled at people, right? And I'm just standing there by myself and a very nice human pulled me into his circle and it was just this very odd collection of people, people who you wouldn't look and be like, oh, they have something in common. You know, we've got all ages, all genders. So everything and all different types of writers, as I soon learned that they all write different things, but they were going in support of one of their critique members who was at this event too. And so we got to talking, they just kind of like opened me up and let me into their group. And I found out that they all meet at a Barnes and Noble every week and Barnes and Noble actually like it's not like hosted by a Barnes and Noble, but they allow them to sit there. And so once a week they have a in-person critique group meeting and it's like maybe 10 of them, you know, maybe eight show up every time. And I was a member of that critique group for years and it was so nice. And it was that one was one interesting because, you know, that was the sometimes people would join the group by literally they were in Barnes and Nobles and they saw us and they were like, what is this? We're like, yeah, join. Like anyone could join. It was totally open. Or, you know, we meet someone and we tell them, Hey, come to our critique group. Things like that. You sometimes just going to ask, right? Like, or just show up and be a little awkward at things and it's worth it, you know, because you get to see, is this the group that's going to work for me?
Now the one thing about groups is each group is going to have a different structure, let's say, a way of doing things. So you got to find what works for you. Some groups they'll have you say you read your work out loud to the group for like five minutes. That's how the group that I joined worked and it was intimidating, but it was also nice because there was so much that you uncovered as you read your work out loud, you uncover stuff and you get that immediate feedback. So then right after you would finish, it would go around and each person would have two minutes to give feedback. One did have to like be the timer and someone had to like moderate and someone had to also be like willing to be like, Hey, we're not going there or a, that's not appropriate or anything like that. As long as you know the rules beforehand, it's really good, you know, and as long as there's someone who or the group themselves are good at making sure that we stick to the rules, other groups will have you email your work ahead of time and then you print it out and you read it at home on your own and then you come to the group and you talk about it. So there are so many different things. There are groups that obviously just meet online on zoom and that works really well for a lot of people, especially in this day and age online. You can write with any writer, any anywhere in the world, right? And that can be fabulous too. So there's so many different methods. Just know that everyone has their own, every group has their own structure. Be sure to know the rules and follow them. I would say the same with a critique partnership. Be sure that you guys set expectations up and follow them. I will probably do a whole episode soon on literally how to be like an ideal critique partnership, but I just want you to have kind of general for these several different things right now.
So know the rules, literally look anywhere. NaNoWriMo is a great way to begin to connect because if you go to NaNoWriMo.org, if you haven't heard of it, it's national novel writing month. And this is where you write a book, 50,000 words in a month. A lot of people love doing it because it does, it gets you in the chair and stuff. And they host so many in-person and online events. This is a fabulous place to begin to connecting with writers. We talked about critique partners and where to find them. And I talked about critique groups a bit. Now on both of these things, there is of course the caveat that you could end up in a group or partnership that just doesn't work for you. If you find that this is happening, I mean, one, get out. Like you don't, you're not forced to do it, right? Like you, this is up to you. And if it's not helpful for you, don't do it. Right. Then it's not, it's not worth it or tweak what's needed or the rules. So in some cases it might be that you do have to preface things with like some questions in advance. Like I'm really want to know this today. And I talked about that in the last episode. You know, I'm really looking for feedback on this element so that you can kind of keep people from giving feedback. That's not really what you need at the time if you really need something specialized or just consider, you know, if you're in a critique group, a lot of times you might be in a, well, let's say sometimes you might be in a critique group that is from an organization. So you might all be the same genre that can be really useful because you kind of all know the same tropes and expectations of the readers. Other times you might be in a critique group that is a total mishmash of anything, which is the one I was in. It had its pros and cons. You know, on one hand you get feedback from people who don't normally read what you write and it can be really interesting feedback and you're like, Oh, I didn't even consider that. Or there's the elements of just like what makes good writing in theory. And so you can get comments just that are a little more like, well, is this engaging or not? It also can expose you to different things. So in the critique group I was in, it was different genres, but also different types of writing. Some people were writing flash fiction, some are writing screenplays. I mean, I am in Los Angeles. Some were writing short stories and some were writing novels. So you also get a different collection of the type of stories or the type of work or fiction versus nonfiction. So keep that in mind as you go through and you find your critique groups and partners, you might have the best critique partner in the world, but if they write in totally different genres that can help and hinder you, right? That can be amazing. So you guys don't kind of accidentally overlap ever, like on ideas or something and that doesn't get clouded. But then also you might still need feedback from others who are a little more in tune with what your readers would expect from your genre.
Oh, and then critique partners and groups, this is really probably your earliest. They usually use these folks early on. So maybe you'll do some of your own revisions first, anything that you already know you want to do and then send it to critique groups. You might even be like, this is my first draft. I want feedback. So critique partners, critique groups, that's going to be your earliest version of feedback besides like if you send it to friends and family, that's going to be your first like targeted version of feedback. Okay. I think I discussed everything there.
So let's move on to beta readers. So what makes a critique partner and beta reader different? Beta readers are the readers you get on your work who are first and foremost readers, not as with critique partners, other writers. Now sometimes they might also be writers, but the difference is you're not exchanging work. A beta reader will do this sometimes for free. They'll read your work for free and give you feedback. And this is, can be fabulous. Some people love giving feedback as a reader without necessarily looking at it with the writing eye. So the beta reader is someone who, the best ones I would say are if you can find readers who read a lot in your genre or niche or trope, they are people who read a lot in that world. So they know, Hey, this is not meeting the expectations of this genre. Like you are going to piss off your readers if you do this, you know, and that can be super helpful because you know, if you wrote a Regency romance and you didn't hit certain pieces or you didn't get some of the details perfect, I mean, and I'm not getting like Regency readers, they, in historical fiction a long time, they're very specific. Like don't F up the details or we know that you didn't do your research. So it can be really good to get feedback from these types of folks so that you know, like, okay, what will the readers in my market say? And that's really what a beta reader is for. It's like getting early feedback from readers in your market before you publish.
Some of you might be hearing this and being like, well, what then what's an ARC reader or ARC? That is an ARC reader is someone who it's the same thing. They're essentially a reader before the book releases. However, the book's already ready to go. So that's an advanced reader copy. So there are readers who will receive the advanced reader copy, the ARC of your book after it's proofread. And it's like, it's good to go, but here's advanced copy before it's released. And they'll get reader reviews on that. That is different than beta readers because a beta reader, you're getting feedback to make changes versus the ARC copy. You're really actually just looking for reviews, like early reviews.
Beta readers you're going to use. I would say it, depending on your beta reader, any time between your finished draft and the proofread copy. So you can use beta readers in different ways. I would consider who your beta reader is and their advice. So some people have, let's say they have five beta readers that they're just always on hand, willing to read their stuff. They might have a couple who are like, they already know after getting feedback, oh, this reader is really good at characters, or this one's really good at the chemistry, or this one loves pointing out grammar, even though I don't ask for it. And so you can use it at different times. I'm going to use the beta readers who are really good at the earlier story stuff early on versus then the ones who like to get a little more nitpicky and little like, like doing some editorial, you know, copy type of work. I'll use them later because why have them do the earlier version when they're, they're noticing things that aren't going to matter at this time. So know when to use your beta readers, depending on them themselves, that might take time to get to.
So you might not have that information right away. So when you're first starting with beta readers, I would say get your critique partners first and then move into beta readers. And usually if you work with a developmental editor, they'll usually say you should get a beta reader before developmental editing. If you work with a book coach, it's going to be different. I will come into the situation at any point as a coach. So I could be there from literally while you're drafting to the very final product. So it depends on what we're working together to do. But now developmentaleditor, they really want to see that you've done so much on your own and you've taken it as far as you can on your own and with feedback from critique partners and beta readers before you work with that editor. So if you think, Oh, I'm going to hire a developmental editor, they're going to be the ones who give me feedback. I'm going to tell you right now, it would be ideal if you get critique partners and beta readers first because you want to know, Oh, what are the obvious things I need to change so that when you hire a developmental editor, they can go deeper into the work to really help you write the best story possible. And so they're not just saying, Hey, this was something you could have done on your own. And you know, and you don't want them to just deal with the surface level stuff, get them to go deeper. Right. I love when I can take a book and be like, Ooh, okay, I get to address all these bigger things because the, or smaller things or guess more nuanced things because the writer already addressed the kind of obvious stuff with someone else.
Beta readers can be free or you can pay for them. It depends on where you find them. So you could kind of like critique printers put a call out. Of course you always do want to be in a wary of sending your work out. Sometimes you want to just make sure that the person's a person and protect yourself where you can try to, you know, meet the people. I would take a zoom meeting with folks before, get a sense of them before you go ahead and like join in a partnership or beta readers. But hopefully you build somewhat of a relationship before you enter into a critique partnership. As for beta readers, a lot of times it is a fact of you're going to put a call out and hope that you get people who want to read your book for free. So there are groups on Facebook. There are, I would say also organizations you can kind of find, maybe talk to other writers. That's going to be best is really ask other writers, where have you gotten your beta readers? Do you have any you're willing to share? And that'll help, especially if you have a writer who's in the similar genre, that would be great. Beta readers, I would say can be a little harder to find only because you're just asking for someone to do something out of the goodness of their heart and time. That can be tough. But there's definitely people who love to do that because they want to help. And they're usually readers who freaking love reading. So they're like, yes, or it's people in your life. Now this is the case where sometimes friends, I would say not family, but sometimes friends can be beta readers. The way that a lot of my clients have actually found some really great readers is because it's someone who is maybe the target audience. So say for example, you're writing a story that is a YA romance and the main character is a 14 year old girl. If there is someone in your life, you know, a niece, so okay, maybe some family, a niece or a friend or the, you know, a friend of a friend or the child of a friend, you're like, oh, I would love their feedback on this book. They're likely going to do it. If there's someone in your life, they like you, you're a good person and they want to help. And you know, yeah, especially if you're writing teen romance, you might want to get some teen feedback, you know, so that can be really great. So there could be people in your life who you are discounting. Don't discount them. There could be really great people in your life who want to help. These are the people who really are great beta readers because they want to help. So you might get lucky and have beta readers who will happily do it for free. I think that that's really the first step, right? There are a lot of people who want to help. And I would just say, just be sure that you thank them and the acknowledgements in your book lists our name. Maybe some people do things like, hey, I'll name a character after you. And like one that we don't kill off if you help me out. So you can also do fun things like that where you can try to include them a little bit into the story or just be sure to definitely list them in acknowledgements and give them a free copy when the book is published. Like don't make them go pay for that book. Give them a free signed copy as a thank you for their help.
Now another thing that you might do is you might end up paying for beta readers. I don't want to sway you either way. So just be sure that if you are in this situation that you really do your due diligence of who you're getting the work from and the report that you're going to get back. So I do have a client who've used a beta reading service where it was basically someone ran it and she had a team of beta readers. And so the client paid maybe a certain amount and then got I think at least three reports back and they all filled out the same report and it was all just written notes. And so she was able to get to see like, okay, where are the similarities? What are people connect to? What don't they? And the readers had no affiliation with their author, right? They had no feelings towards the author or knew anything about the author. So it also allowed for just really advice that is not swayed by any means by who the person writing it is. So there are services like that out there. And then also, yeah, as I mentioned, you can, you know, Facebook groups and stuff. So beta readers can be fabulous. You can find a few, I would say like three to five. You really, you really don't need that many beta readers in this feedback. What you're really looking for is like, what is kind of the general opinion? What are readers thinking? Not as a writer, but as a reader, am I meeting their expectations? Are they engaged? Are they enjoying this book? And if you can send them like five questions at a time that are very like, this is what I need to know and make it a little more general. Like did you find yourself wanting to stop reading at any point? Or what was your, who was your favorite character and why? And try to see what patterns and similarities you get. And then go back to my last episode where I tell you how the hell to apply the feedback so you can figure out what to do with that feedback.
Let's move into an alpha reader because I hear people use this term. This is going to be, sometimes people are using the alpha reader like the beta reader. So pretty much similar thing. Some of them are using it as more like a critique partner, or they might ask the alpha reader to be a little more heavily involved. I'm really not going to touch on that much because it's really, I think some people, if they're using that term, they, I'm not going to say too much about it essentially because I just feel that it can be sometimes alpha and beta reading is the same thing, or it's someone who's basically getting a critique partner level feedback without exchanging work. Or they might be considering their alpha reader is helping them in the much earlier stages as they're really working through things versus maybe using them closer to the end. Like I said, with beta readers, you can use them at any point, but keep in mind that you do want to send them your best work unless they're used to something else. These are people who are reading because they love reading. So give them some good quality work. Don't just think, oh, well, they're beta readers. Like I don't need to do the best, you know, or I don't need to clean it up. Clean the work up, you know, don't send them crap where they have to work really hard to enjoy it. You know, allow them to enjoy the process of being part of this with you.
Beta readers and critique groups and partners use those before you hire a developmental editor. And I will talk about developmental editors and the different types of editing next episode so you can understand that more. But these are your free-ish opportunities to do so much on your own and before you hire someone and pay for additional feedback. Now the feedback you pay for usually is going to be some of the best feedback you get, right? Because it's very targeted. It is really trying to help you write the best story ever. But like I said before, sometimes getting this feedback from betas and critique partners can be so helpful because it's that stuff that's like surface level or very obvious things that someone's going to point out and be like, duh, I knew that, or I know how to change that instead of paying someone to do it. And then they're not able to give you the deeper, better feedback, you know? So I want you to keep that in mind.
Critique partners, beta readers, and then let's talk about sensitivity readers. This is a newer-ish term, you know, the past few years. A sensitivity reader is someone who usually identifies with a marginalized group or identity and they will read your book to give you feedback on how you handle that group or identity or type of person. For example, if your story is about someone who is deaf, you hire a sensitivity reader who is hearing impaired or deaf to get their feedback on, are you handling it properly? Is there anything here that's offensive? Is there anything that needs to be changed? Things like that. You can really make sure that you are representing something, some identity or experience as well as possible. Now sensitivity readers should be paid for their time. If you find some who are handling it more like a beta reader and they don't want to be paid, that's one thing. You know, you might have someone close to you who wants to make sure that you don't offend people or you're not getting it wrong in some way.
You want to give sensitivity readers payment because a lot of times they are putting themselves in the position of having to educate you sometimes and also they're subjecting themselves to potentially being offended by work. So for example, say you have a character who is Native American and you hired a sensitivity reader who is also Native American, that person has spent a whole life dealing with a lot of microaggressions and racial slurs, racial insensitivities, like just a lot of shit. And they are being awesome beings by saying, I will help you make sure that you don't write something super offensive and that you're doing your best to represent my experience and the experience of those I know as well as possible. But there are a lot of times they are literally putting themselves in the line of fire by choice because they're helping. But they're, I mean, these people are like gold. So pay them because these people are amazing that they're willing to be exposed to things that could hurt them in order to help prevent you from hurting other readers. I mean, that I think is just freaking fabulous. And I think everyone could use at least one sensitivity reader, even if you're like, I'm not writing anything. You can hire a sensitivity reader to help for anything you include in your story that it hits on any sort of marginalized identity. So whether this was race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical disability, ability, language, mental disability, ability, you know, anything within a marginalized community or group and anything that especially where someone has notoriously been offended or harmed or systematically harmed. This is a really good time to use a sensitivity reader. If you have any sort of thing like that in your book, if you any character who is similar to that, any character who is experiencing something or any character who your character is dealing with or talking to or, you know, anything like that, get a sensitivity reader so that you know that you're not completely off base on something or you might not realize that you wrote something that will like offend an entire population. You're like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that if I said this one word, I would piss everyone off. And that's why a sensitivity reader can be worth their weight in gold because they're going to help you not piss people off, not offend people or not get it wrong, you know?
And yes, you do have to recognize that each person has their own experience. So not one person can speak for everyone. However, they can at least help you see what could be an issue. And so I highly recommend sensitivity reader. At least I would say a couple, especially, you know, considering what your story is about, figure out do I need a higher sensitivity readers? I'm sure that it might be helpful to at least have one, but if you have a story that deals with any sort of racial tension, wars, even if you're writing fantasy and you're like, I'm writing a fantasy novel and it's about these races that don't exist, you're still dealing with racial tension. And so I think it's important to get feedback from people who are usually the ones, not the aggressors, but the people who are being the aggressives. Is that, I don't even know if that's a word. It sounds like it is, right? So get feedback from people who have been in the situation, who are on the receiving end of microaggressions and racial disparities or racial issues and make sure that even, yeah, even your fantasy races are not accidentally harming someone. These days, I mean, we've heard so much about books that come out later and we're like, oh, Harry Potter has some really harmful things in there. Had JK Rowling gotten sensitivity readers, she might've been able to avoid that or she did it on purpose. So that's, that's another thing. But do you want someone to say, oh, you did that on purpose? You know, you were obviously writing about a race right now and trying to pretend it wasn't. You don't want to piss off people if that's not what you want, right? If you want to piss people off, then you do you. But if you're really trying to be sensitive and not hurt people, get sensitivity readers.
Now these are a little harder to find and we'll be honest, it might be, you might have someone in your life who you can say, hey, I would love for you to read this. And whether they say they want money or not, I would offer to say, I would love to pay you for your time. And literally the fact that you're putting yourself in this position, because that's asking a lot of someone, you can just literally search online, a sensitivity reader. There are people who will already share that they are happy to be paid sensitivity readers for certain books. So you can just hire them and ask people, ask other writers, hey, have you used a sensitivity reader? Um, do you know of any, who can I hire for this? But there, I believe there are some like, you know, databases and some lists and there are some editors or people who offer beta reading services or sensitivity reading services. So sometimes editors will say, I also do sensitivity reads. If you have a story that includes X, Y, or Z, I would be a good person to read this. Sensitivity reader, I would say to use them. This could vary really. I think it would make sense to use them towards the end. Say, Hey, I've done a lot of stuff. This is where this is the story. Um, I want to make sure that I'm not harming anyone in the telling of the story. So they can let you know before you pay an editor, I would say do it before you pay an editor, or at least before you move into copy editing, proofreading, or before you pitch your book, see if you can hire sensitivity reader.
Now you might have pitched your book and maybe you have an agent or editor and you're with a publishing house. I would ask them if they have anyone who reads their book. So a lot of publishing houses do actually have sensitivity readers. They go to, I would make sure that they have one, um, at least one, but maybe a few and maybe even make that part of your contract. Like, Hey, they pay for the sensitivity readers, not me. I would have that be like one of your later steps to make sure that you have done that before it's published. Now, if your story heavily involves something where you're like, I really don't know if I'm getting this right, then do it earlier on because you want to make sure if it has, if it literally impacts the way you tell the story and the way it evolves, then it's good to know earlier. Now you might not know that. So you might find, you might do a sensitivity read towards the end and be like, Oh shit, I have a lot to change. That would suck. But you know what would suck more? Pissing off a bunch of people and really hurting someone. Right? So let's just avoid that.
So it's going to be up to you and how you feel about your story, but at least get it before like copy editing and then listen to the advice. Please. Like, don't just hire someone and say, I want your feedback just so you can, you know, check the box. I did that. So use opportunity to listen and learn. If you are being faced with something like shit, I did not know I was doing that. Use opportunity to learn. Don't ask them to teach you beyond what they've provided. Go and do the work yourself and be sure to do the work, you know, so you're not harming people. That's not why we don't write stories to hurt people. And if you do, then you're probably not listening to podcasts like this.
All right. So this was a long episode. I do apologize for going so long, but I just had so much to say about this. So we've talked about the differences between beta readers, critique partners, sensitivity readers, when you want to use them, where you're going to find them and some of the pros and cons of each. I hope that this has helped you understand another aspect that can be so overwhelming about being a writer. There are so many things we have to think about all the time. It is not easy. And feedback and this huge, you know, umbrella of constructive criticism, feedback, and like what to do, how to use it, who do you get it from is a lot. I hope that I have helped you move through this another in just a with a little more confidence and awareness. And now you know how to move forward with your book. If you listen to this episode and you haven't listened to the one before where I tell you how to sort through the feedback, then I highly encourage you to do that because episode 20 really helps you. Okay, this is the stuff that people have said. This is what I do with it. So I really encourage you to listen to that episode if you have not yet. And if you're someone who gets a little, you know, can be maybe sensitive, I am a sensitive person, then you might want to listen to episode 19, which is navigating feedback, 10 rules for not losing your shit. That might help you a little bit if you're like, I'm struggling.
I really appreciate you listening today, listening to this podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, I have to ask, please subscribe, please post a review or at least just a rating. We'd love that. It means so much to me. And I do have this freaking crazy goal of I want to reach 10,000 writers by this time next year. So right now as I'm recording this, this is August, 2023. By August, 2024, I want to have reached 10,000 writers. So if you can help me do this, that would be amazing. I really want to help writers for free. This is how I get to help people for free. And so if you share the podcast, if you subscribe, review it, rate it, it would mean the absolute world to me. And you know what? If you do any of those things, just send me a screenshot. You can DM me at Katie McCoach on Instagram or even Twitter for now. Send me a note, email me, go to my website and then send me an email that you've done this. Send me a little screenshot and I'll send you something, some fun little freebie in return. So I really appreciate you. And until next time, writer, keep growing.
