Over-the-shoulder of how I use beta reader feedback to iterate my books

February 10, 2022 · writing

The messy middle of writing a book tends to be a fairly private, behind-the-scenes activity. Until eventually, and somewhat magically, appears a finished book.

I put out a new draft just a couple days ago, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to give an over-the-shoulder of how I think about (and work with) the normally invisible world of beta reader feedback:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FVQY-3UlXE

When product people write a book, they intuitively run an iterative, exploratory product process using tools like: reader conversations, writing in public, beta reading, iteration, and so.

Different authors lean more heavily on different tools, and some have been quite successful with very little beta reading. But for me, beta reading is the single most crucial (and lengthy) part of the process.

Probably 80% of the time I spent on a book goes into iterations with the help of beta readers. (Eventually transitioning into paid early access and pre-sales.)

Now here’s a mind-blower: did you know that the traditional publishing industry does exactly zero of these iterations? Instead of seeking to understand their actual readers (i.e., customers), they rely exclusively on the opinions of editors and experts. That would be like doing your customer development with a bunch of journalists instead of with your actual customers. No surprise, then, that most nonfiction fails. 

Bad process, bad results.

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