I'm looking for serious test readers who would be willing to read part of my novel, but I'm worried that some might "steal" the text.
What should I do?
(7 votes)
Loading...I often read books and write stories myself. So I have a question: If you're writing a conversation between two people, and they take turns saying something, can you leave out the accompanying sentence, or do you still have to add "said," "meant," "asked," and "explained"?
I'm 15 years old and have loved writing for many years. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to finish a story yet. Either I didn't like the way I wrote and started over until I lost motivation, or I had so many ideas that I put too much pressure on myself and didn't write at all. My…
There's a Frenchman in my story and I don't know what name to use.
like with the books from Impress I mean
Hi, I wanted to ask how you can best and most clearly structure a character for a figure in a story you are writing. And are there programs that have been created for this? LG
You could only send a part. With 10 test readers, you could send every 1/10 of your text. So you would have to write 9/10 yourself if you wanted to steal your text. And that he then has exactly the same thoughts on history is unlikely.
I like being ready as a test reader!
I would see the difficulty that you can’t judge a lot if you only have a tenth of the text. How can I judge whether a middle part makes sense if I do not know where the story began or where it will lead? Some weaknesses, such as the style, can certainly also be made, but things like logic holes can be felt so hard.
Mhh… right. One could make an agreement which provides for a penalty payment and a waiver if the text is stolen. Anyone who is trustworthy would agree to that.
You can ask for specific groups in Wattpad, e.g. SupporttGroup.
Or post in Storyban and ask for feedback. There it is difficult to copy it and whether someone makes the effort to write it down, I doubt.
But don’t necessarily expect someone to read everything – except it likes. And help with others.
You can’t rule out 100 percent, unfortunately, that someone takes whatever from your text, but you can secure a little. If you send the text by email, I would cancel the sent messages. You can also make a written agreement with the test readers in which they confirm that they will not accept your texts.
The risk of a test reader stealing, but I guess it’s not that high.
On Facebook there are groups you can search for test readers. You could also look around in writing forums, so you might find someone.
I don’t know if there are pure test readers. However, you still give such writings to a corrector anyway, and its work includes the test reader and no corrector would ever “klauen” the work of a author.
There are already, for example, Facebook groups where you can search for it. Unlike the corrector, they are not paid. Test readers are more readers who then give feedback. Some authors use them before they get to the publisher’s application, as a good test reader already notices a lot that you can mimic before submitting the manuscript. Selfpublishers also like to use test readers to get a first impression of whether the story is good for readers. The feedback can then flow into the further revisions.
There are some good writing forums. There you can also find attractive test readers. But you must not forget that “right” test reading/beta reading is a lot of work and should only be done by people who have a little idea. People who are just curious and have not written anything good (!) are not helpful.
Reading a part doesn’t make sense, because you can’t make an assessment of the whole story.
The fact that a text is stolen can already have happened, but is rare. Most people who write have enough own ideas.
There are two possibilities. Either you leave a copy at the notary, which is quite expensive. Or you send the story to yourself by enrollment and keep the letter/package without opening it. If someone steals your story, you will have the proof that you were already in possession of the manuscript on the basis of the unopened letter and the postmark.
In any case not family or friends – they would not be honest with criticism or would anyway praise it.
Ask friends if they know someone who trusts them and who do not know you or do not know that it is from you.
I’m more than ready to be your test reader.
What genre does your book have?
Fantasy,Horror,historical novel….?
Why don’t you give the text to your relatives and friends?
Are you afraid they don’t make any criticism?
The problem is that my parents don’t say anything bad and the friend I gave it may now begin to take some things out of my text.
With him there is now a character with the same name as with me and whole sections of the text are very similar.
That’s a bit disappointed.
Then, of course, it’s understandable that you’re worried that you could steal your texts. I’d like to talk to the friend first if it’s really unconscious. You can only say something like “Hey, I noticed that your figure X has the name Y, which I had first with my figure XY, would be great if you think of another name for a character” or so, and to the other text passages it would be nice “Maybe you still had my story in mind unconsciously, but there and there it is already very similar”.
I can understand.