It seems there is the one or other author around who either don’t know what the job of a beta reader is. Also, some authors don’t want to pay for an editor and therefore try to ‘use’ the beta reader to get the editor’s job done.

From what I learned in my ‘long’ career of two published books (and a few lined up)… my order of ‘writing and publishing’ is the following:

1.  Drafting
2.  Copying out
3.  personal editing #1
4.  personal editing #2
5.  professional editing (proofreading)
6.  filing for copyright
7.  sending the manuscript out to the beta readers
8.  having the book cover done
9.  possible corrections when getting the manuscript back from beta readers
10.  publishing

At times the corrections, added paragraphs or even pages, demand a second round of proofreading or editing.

Now, what does the beta reader do?

Beta readers are helpful people around you – can be friends, co-workers, family members. They…