The Harry Potter Writers Guild - Be or Find a Beta Reader

A beta reader is a unique individual that is practically essential for any writer, professional or amateur. They are your unpaid editors, reading your material to find plot holes, characterization problems, grammar mistakes, telling you your sucks or is the best thing they've ever read. A beta reader sees the story before the author "publishes" it on a website, a mailing list or whatever their submission forum happens to be.

Here is a link to the Fan Fiction world's lingo, so that you'll know what to ask for and what to avoid. A Glossary of Fan Fiction Lingo

Here's some tips on being a good beta reader, if you're interested (I swiped them from about.com):

Make sure the author sends their story in a format you like (e.g. Word Perfect, Microsoft Word).
Save a new copy of the story with your comments to send back.
Put all your comments in bold.
Run a spellcheck before you try to read the story. Remember to bold the corrections, or if you're using plain text, put them in brackets.
Read it through the first time making only minimal comments as you go. You'll come back later to lengthen them.
Correct all the grammar problems you see. If you're not sure about something, indicate the problem and say you think there's something wrong.
Mark places that read awkwardly whether they're incorrect or not.
Comment whenever a character "sounds" wrong to you. Try reading the dialogue aloud to see if you sound like the character.
If you have no comments for large sections of the story, delete those sections.
Comment when you're aware of an emotional reaction to the story (e.g. "I'm happy that happened." "That's gross!").
Remember to have both positive and negative comments.
Always be tactful, and phrase all advice only as a suggestion.
After the first read-through, take some time, then read through it a second time.
Put your over-all comments at the top of the story so the author gets them first.
Be honest. If you don't want to beta for the author again, tactfully say so. If you do want to, be sure to say so as well!
Before agreeing to beta-read, know the type of story you'll be getting, and its rating.
If there are a whole bunch of technical errors, you're not responsible for fixing them. Just tell the author there are many.
Use reference guides to check how to spell character names and appropriate equipment for that genre (such as Harry Potter, the right balls in Quidditch, etc.)

If you need a beta reader, please peruse the list of volunteers below. They have their own special criteria of what they will and will not beta. Please be considerate of your beta readers, as many use free time doing this and sometimes, as with us all, time slips away too fast. Work with a beta reader who will work with your strengths and weaknesses.

Beta Reader List

Wolfie
Will beta read just about anything, including slash, yaoi, though some combinations I will refuse (Snape/Dumbledore, teacher/student no matter their ages are the main ones) - good at grammar betaing - will beta most genres including Harry Potter, comic book, most sci-fi, mystery...like I said just about anything.

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Adri
Anything. I like it to be shorter, but I will do longer stories, too. Also, I'd prefer it to be sent in Word format.

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Lee Fleisher
I'm open to beta anything -- longer stories or exercises.

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Corinne
I'll beta Harry Potter Fanfiction rated R or lower, pretty much any genre, I don't do well with strictly humor, or anything extremely gorey.

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Michele Breyer
Anything except slash (I don't mind reading it, I just don't want to beta it!). I've also got a sad thing about good grammer - I'm the one who'll get more worked up about a comma in the wrong place than a mistake about the rules of Quidditch.

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Raven Dancer
I'll beta most stuff; don't like bdsm or teacher/student pairings. Will beta cross-overs, but be sure to give me some background on the crossover! I prefer files to come pasted in an email.

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Larissa
Anything ^_^ I prefer slash. Any rating and any length.

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Matea
just don't let me beta read any of the ff: slash, r/h, d/g, h/g, h/h, r and nc17s and musicals. i don't mind reading mary sues, but not too much. aside from those, i'll beta read just about anything. (Note from webmistress: I'm going to assume the following on her pairings: No slash period, no Ron/Hermione, Draco/Ginny Hermione/Ginny (or is that Harry?), Hermione/Harry, No NC17 and you lost me on Musicals so I'm going assume songfics.) JUST STRAIGHT FICS.

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Jenamin
Harry potter Fanfics only nothing over pg13

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Liana Goldenquill
Fics based on nearly any fantasy series, such as Harry Potter, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, etc. I am unsquickable in terms of pairings, whether m/f, f/f, or m/m, but I will not beta anything NC-17.

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Zoloft
Short story or chaptered, but if chaptered nothing over about 7 page chapters (12 pt times font in Appleworks or Word). No Slash, I don't read it and I wouldn't do a good job on your story. Nothing where Malfoy turns nice, no Mary Sues (I LOVE good OCs though), no songfics, unless it's for a song I like, and that'd be really unlikely. I can't read Word or Works docs on my Mac, but if you post your story somewhere or send it plain text I can beta it that way. Sorry if I'm picky, but this will be my first time Betaing, and I want to do a good job with subject matter that I know. nothing over R rating. Also, I won't patronize your fic if I don't like it. If you don't want any criticism, don't send me your fic.

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Sarah G.
Anything with any rating except slash. I'm an editor on my school's yearbook staff, and our advisor always praises me for my editing skills, and I have confidence in my skills, so, um... yeah. Bring on the fics!

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Snapes Roxie
Anything that has to do with Harry Potter and that theme. My Fav. characters are Snape, Hermonie, Harry, Lupin and McGonagall.

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Mrs. Peel
I will beta anything, no fiction to big or too small (or too strange!). I promise to faithfully concentrate upon spelling, grammar and the general flow and feel of the story to the best of my ability. By the way, just what is the difference between yaoi and slash? I think I like them both!

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Erissa Mann
Preferences are: h/h, stories where Harry is clearly the hero (i.e new powers, tortured/ abused but still saves the day, etc...), stuff like that.

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Nerina Dragonstongue
I'll beta pretty much anything. No slash or R-rated fics please. Thanks :)

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Bitter Bathory
Non-slash stories. I have a good grasp on grammar and characters, and I am very tactful.

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Blue Moon
I'm open to het and SLASH pairings, so long as everything smutty is over the age of consent. I don't mind non-consensual, but would prefer no incest fics. I particularly enjoy anything with Snape, Draco or Lucius in, but will read through most pairings (As said before, please no Fred/George or Lucius/Draco). Happy with PWPs, long fics (Although, please give me bits at a time), Mary Sues, most stuff really.

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Dasani Radcliff
Any story under NC-17. Slash, gore, and suicide, etc are fine, but I don't want to beta a rape story. Any pairings other than Draco/Ginny.

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Candi
I'll read most stories, but I don't like slash. Also, I've got younger sibs spying on me, so try to keep it PG-13. Love to hear from ya!

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Kitty Rose
Anything at all, especially slash. Any pairings, any genre.

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shuntbumps
all slash, all ratings, including: m/m, f/f, BS&M, twincest... nothing squicks me although I do love fluff and angst is my favorite. I refuse to Beta anything with Dumbledore or Hagrid that is Graphic...

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Rainsong
I'm especially interested in beta-reading for Marauders and Lily fanfiction, whether the five characters appear together or the plot revolves around a single character. I'm excellent in spelling and grammar (99% on the SATs!) and I'm pretty sure I've got characterization down flat. No slash please. Drop me an e-mail if interested!

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Arabella
I beta-read everything to do with Harry Potter...from slash to het, strange pairings...G to NC-17, even Mary Sue's (although I can be a bit harsh) The usual story turn over is about 4 pages a day...so you do the math...

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Libiya Skywolfd
I will beta anything that isn't to sappy. Any genre, rating, you name it I will beta it.

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