Last updated October 2024

Hiring a Developmental Editor

If you've completed a draft of your manuscript and are seeking feedback, one option is to hire a highly experienced developmental editor like me. I'll carefully read your pages at my rate of $100 an hour, think about them, jot down thoughts, conduct some online research, and then have an in-depth 3-hour phone discussion with you about where your book is strong, where it appears to have issues, and how it can be improved. By the end of our conversation, we'll typically have created a mutually agreed upon "battle plan" for next steps. If you'd like to go this route, please email me at hy@hyreviews.com with your phone number, and a day and time most convenient for you to chat for around an hour so I can learn about your book and answer any questions you might have.

Finding Writing Groups

Another option is to use writing groups, which are typically free (though they can require a substantial investment of time and effort). You can find a list of 41 popular groups by clicking here and a more recent list of 19 popular groups by clicking here.

Finding Alpha & Beta Readers

Alternatively, you can send your manuscript to one or more critiquers who will read your book with the aim of identifying where it appears to need fixing or improving. At the first draft and/or early stage drafts of your manuscript you'd use alpha readers; and toward the end of your book's development you'd use beta readers. For an article that goes into depth about working with alpha and beta readers, please click here.

The following are some sites that can help you connect to alpha readers and/or beta readers:

Absolute Write Water Cooler—Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Buddies: A long-established forum for authors to meet beta readers.

Allegory Critiques: "An invitation-only platform to allow authors to critique each other's novel-length fiction...To receive a critique, you must have already critiqued at least as many words as your novel contains. This is our 'word credits' system. For example, if your novel is 50,000 words long, you must first critique one or more novels by other members whose word lengths, when totaled together, meet or exceed 50,000...Critiques are shared only with the author and are never published on this site."

Beta Readers and Critique Partners (Facebook): "This group is about helping each other to be better writers. You can offer to be a member's beta reader/critic partner." As of May 2023, this group has over 26,000 members,

CP (Critique Partner) Matchmaking: A bit like a dating service for alpha and beta readers, attempting to connect you to writers/readers who understand your genre and tastes well enough to give you genuinely useful critiques.

Nathan Bransford—Connect With a Critique Partner: A forum that allows you to freely advertise for the precise type of alpha and/or beta readers you're seeking.

My Writers Circle—Review My Work: "Post a sample of your work and ask for polite, honest feedback from your circle members."

Beta Reader Group (Goodreads): "A place to connect writers with Beta readers." Goodreads is enormous, and home to a very wide range of writers and readers, so consider exercising extra caution until you get a solid feel for the people you encounter here.

Finding Book Reviewers

Once your book is completed, you're going to want reviews for it. I've devoted a separate webpage to this topic, which you can read here.

I hope this page ends up being of some help to you. If you spot any errors, or if you know of a resource that belongs here, please feel encouraged to email me at hy@hyreviews.com.

For help with any kind of book, please visit BookProposal.net.

Email: hy@hyreviews.com