Tips and Helpful Links
Read your own writing out loud to detect errors you would normally skim over if simply reading it in your head.
If you are typing your work, downloading an e-reader or putting chunks of text using the copy function into, for example, google translate or Hemingway Editor, can help with processing your piece in a different format. The latter is also a useful editing tool, as the name foretells.
This will direct you to a beta reader database that I myself am a beta reader on. You can email betas (some are free and some charge a fee) to look over your works, and you can also find book reviewers on this website.
Unless you enter a contract with a beta reader, the beta is not OBLIGATED to continue reading your piece, or even to BEGIN reading it. Be polite and listen to what your betas have to say - keep tabs on what the majority of your betas critique, as this may mean you have to make some changes to your story (which is expected in this career path - your first couple drafts are not final drafts).
If I feel I am being ignored or dismissed as a beta, I will stop reading for that particular author. Therefore, be RESPECTFUL, both as an author and as a beta. It is hard to put your "babies" out in the world to be examined. BEING A WRITER IS HARD.
