Today I wanted to talk about finding beta readers and why you should. As you know, I finished writing my first novella, Finding Forever, back in September 2016. Taking the advice of all the editors I know, I let it sit on my computer for at nearly two months before I went back to begin editing. After my first round of edits, my inner critic was on overtime constantly whispering in my ear about how bad it was, how no one would like it, how I would fail, etc. I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew I could rely on the members of my writers’ group to read and comment on my work, but was that going to be enough?
Amanda J Evans is an award-winning Irish author and writing coach. Amanda writes adult romance that often crosses into paranormal and fantasy. Growing up with heroes like Luke Skywalker and Indiana Jones, her stories centre on good versus evil with a splice of love and magic thrown in too. Her books have all won awards and her novella, Hear Me Cry, won the Book of the Year Award at the Dublin Writers Conference 2018. Amanda is also the author of Surviving Suicide: A Memoir from Those Death Left Behind, published in 2012.