I have Are We Still On For Tonight? Dating During the Zombie Apocalypse sitting with some writer friends of mine, waiting for a critique. I usually like to have a few non-writer beta readers as well to give me feedback on the story from strictly a reader’s point of view.

I thought it would be fun to give you guys the chance to become those beta readers—especially since this novella is a gift to all my Hussy Listers, so why shouldn’t you be involved in the beta read? But I have to limit the amount of beta readers I have in order to make feedback manageable and focused.

Let’s start with the rules of beta reading:

1. Can you read the novella (17k words ish) and submit feedback by Valentine’s Day (2/14)? Also, earlier is always better.

2. Can you read through a manuscript that is better than a first draft, but significantly less polished than a final? Manuscripts at this point haven’t gone to a proofreader yet, so they’ll be far from perfect. If that distracts you, then this experience may be more annoying than fun for you.

3. Do you like humor mixed with gore mixed with a sort of idiot protagonist who makes really stupid decisions? If it’s not the kind of book that you’d normally enjoy reading, then its not something you should beta read because…you won’t like it. The best beta readers are not “Yes!” men or women, but they are people who love the genre they are beta reading in and they understand how the best books in the genre should work.

4. Would you be excited to be part of the process? Some people hate beta reading because it makes them part of the working progress of the book and they can sometimes see the man behind the curtain. I can completely understand that, and would like to not ruin the story for those people.

5.Are you not a writer? Writers don’t give the same type of feedback as readers, and they often focus on writerly things. I’ve already got that end covered. I need people who are just readers to weigh in.

6. Will you be able to give honest feedback and specific criticisms? As a beta reader, you aren’t acting as an editor, but you are a sounding board. You must keep the goal of the book in mind and look at what isn’t contributing to that goal. For example, I purposefully wrote a zombie chick-lit novella that revolves around a superficial protagonist. That means she is going to make some questionable decisions during the crisis. That is the point of the experience—this is not a survival guide. A beta reader should point out moments when that person doesn’t seem to be acting in character, not mention that she should have stolen a gun rather than an iPod, because a gun would be smarter. An iPod may be more in-character for this particular protag, so you must keep that in mind when creating feedback.

So here’s the deal, if you think you can comply with/ observe that list of crap, and you want to be a beta reader, email me at evelynlafont@yahoo.com.