#mermaiddiaries

Seventeen-year-old Ellie dreams of mermen. She writes fanfiction about them and spends time in underwater kingdoms in her imagination, trying to escape the sad reality: she is an orphan. And not only that, but she’s bullied every day at school -she’s a nerd, she hates sports, she loves books and she used to be overweight. What’s not to bully?

One day, the bullies go too far. They try to drown her, but at the last minute an otherworldly creature shows up in the water. He keeps her breathing and tells her to live: “How will you be able to save anyone if you can’t even save yourself?”

She thinks it was a dream, but the emerald-eyed merman boy who rescued her appears in her school the next day. Is he really the exiled prince of an ancient kingdom that’s on the brink of utter destruction? And is he asking her to save him? Or is something far more sinister and deadly lurking in the water that surrounds her little Greek town?

When myth and reality collide, can love save their lives?

What readers say:

A story that makes your heart grow.-M.B, a reader

Loved it! I loved the author's development of character, plotline, and conflict in each of her books. I read ALOT of YA, with similar genre appeal, and M.C. Frank writes with such a uniquevoice, making her novels more compelling and engaging than most others. Thankyou for sharing your gift! -Zuleyka Martinez I really liked the refreshing twist on mermaids and mermans. -Zahara Porter I LOVE IT TO DEATH!!!!!!! Like oh my, that was good, scratch that, amazing! The plot was absolutely fantastic and the characters are so wellwritten they felt real. I love the fangirling like yassss and the part abouther being bullied. It was so heart warming and realistic, I love it. Please write more! -Brynn from Swoon Reads Great story, witty main character and some steamy love. I couldn't waitto finish reading, and have now stayed up way past my bedtime trying to finishthis book! -Tandrence This book reminds me of Fangirl, although I enjoyed this more. -S.C.M. I so very love how the book promoted the strengths of a bullied person,bringing out the positive. Too often we see characters turning to self harm andeverything else negative once things start looking bad. Salt for Air, however,gave a strong message that things can be different, a message which I believemust have come from true experience. [...] I can't believe I read the whole story in just two days (some 70% of it in oneday!). -Kristina Vallaste, author OMG!!!!! DEAD!!!!! I LOVEDTHIS SO FREAKING MUCH!!!! SO CUTE!!!! -Lucky Penny This is excellent. M.C. Frank has a wonderful, strong voice. Ellie isincredibly drawn. Loved this story...more, please? -Katie Kaleski, author of The Now or Never Moment

Salt for Air is perfect for fans of:

·         Greek mythology

·         Kdrama - esp. The Legend of The Blue Sea

·         Mermen/mermaids

·         Hate to love romance

·         Action-adventure mature YA

·         My Mad Fat Diary

·         Books about readers or writers of fanfiction (see Fangirl, Eliza and her Monsters, etc)

·         Impossible romance

·         Cool siblings relationships

·         A hint of drama

·         Epic battles with a tiny bit of bloodsplatter sprinkled

·         Sea monsters

·         Fairytale endings

·         The girl rescuing the boy for once

·         Not super-slim girls dealing with their bullies and their self-image

·         Girl friendship & Girl powers

·         Modern Greece - beaches - ruins - sunsets

         Anti-tropes

         Dragons

·         I think I should stop

“If you die for me, I’ll kill you.” -Salt for Air   ©2018 M.C. Frank

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Songs are such an important part of Greek culture, and of my life. I have been submersed into music since the day I was born. My multi-talented father wrote songs and performed them; he could play the piano brilliantly, as well as the guitar and the accordion. My mom hasn't had any musical education, but she (like most Greek moms) used to sing us to sleep, or to comfort us when we were sick or sad.

Growing up, my sister and I had piano lessons and spent hours and blood and tears learning our scales and Bach and Czerny. But when we wanted some music for fun, we used to sing along to Greek, English, French and Italian songs of the 70s with passion. It was one of our favorite things to do while we did jobs around the house. I still can't listen to Abba without smelling furniture polish. When my little brother was born, music exploded in my house. After the "dreadful" toddler years passed and the Disney songs got (somewhat) unstuck from our tortured brains, my brother and I would jam to the most unlikely music genres you can imagine. From Simon and Garfunkel to Alice Cooper, from contemporary Greek rappers to Queen. (And it gets worse, but I will spare you.) We almost broke my bed dancing on it, and we completely broke our parents' last threads of patience while shrieking to Cocaine Blues. My brother was a little bit too young to be singing "The Wall" (he was seven) and I was a little bit too young to be screaming to "Bye Bye Love" (I was twenty). But we made it work. And it was beautiful (although not the kind of beauty that's seen with the naked eye. But we knew, and that's all that mattered.)

Now, years later (we won't say how many, but it's many), I don't have as many opportunities to embarrass myself while listening to my favorite songs with my siblings, although I do have a few, of course. (Also, I can embarrass myself while listening to the Script in the car with the dude, and believe me I do.) But I have to write. I love writing, but it's not always easy. Especially not when I'm writing about a girl who's being bullied to within an inch of her life, or about a boy who is a very very long way from home. And that's where the music comes in.

This playlist I'm going to share with you isn't the soundtrack to a mermaid story with Greek mythology heroes and monsters thrown in. It is that, of course, as it's literally the soundtrack to Salt for Air. But it' so much more. These are the songs that inspired me, that kept me company and that put my feelings into words and melody while I was writing Ellie and Ky's story. I will explain a little bit more about a few of them, but I know that music is a very personal thing, and every song speaks differently to each of us. Anyway, here is the playlist for Salt for Air:

1. Addict with A Pen (twenty-one pilots)

This song perfectly describes Ellie and her love for writing, as well as her fragile emotional state at the start of the book. It also has a lot of references to water, and it was like the "theme" of the story throughout. Every word fits perfectly.

2. Yellow Flicker Beat (lorde)

Song for a girl warrior who has been hurt (a LOT) but she is now fiercest than her enemies? Yes, please! That is what this entire book is all about, to be honest (no major spoiler there, just a wink).

3. Wonderwall (oasis)

There are a ton of references to this particular song in the book, as it's one of Ellie's favorites. I love it too, as it's a song about the comfort that love brings and the pain of being alone. It expresses me perfectly.

4. Arms (christina perri)

All the feels.

5. Fake Love (bts)

Where to start with this one? Nowehere, that's where, because the reason why this song is a perfect fit for SFA is a huge spoiler. What I can say is that Ellie is a huge K-drama fan (as am I) and she is not such a great K-pop fan (although I am) and a few readers have said that they instinctively wanted to listen to this song while reading, because it's vibe goes so well with the book. I completely agree. Not only are the lyrics of the song spot-on for a particular part of SFA, it captures the feeling of heartbreak and unrequited/betrayed love perfectly.

6. The Last Day On Earth (kate miller)

I'll keep this short, because it's sad (and kind of not). This is the song that I cry to whenever I think of my dad and miss him so much I can't breathe. So that's why this is here. It's all about reuniting with someone who love and have lost, someone you never thought you'd see again.

"In my head I repeat our conversations over and over till they feel like hallucinations you know me, I love to lose my mind."

Yep.

7. Head Above Water (avril lavigne)

This song is so beautiful it makes my heart ache. Avril's voice could always do that to me, from the start, but now there's the depth that only suffering can give to a person and to art, and it's like I hear Ky sing those words about the ocean and falling asleep too young... My heart.

8. Breathing Underwater (metric)

The perfect song to put me in the mood to write about mer creatures.

9. More Than Life (whitley)

There aren't many love songs in this playlist, but this one fits perfectly. You'll know why once you read the book. (My lips are sealed.)

10. Changes (slim & the law)

If SFA is about one thing other than sadness, it's about changes. Whether it's mermen growing tails in bathrooms, sirens taking flight or [SPOILERS] turning to monsters.... It's about changes. And I just love this song, I loved it even before I wrote the huge transformation scene in SFA that I used it as inspiration for.

11. Fierce (Jesus culture)

As I said, there aren't many love songs here, but this book is mainly about love, so that's where this song fits. It compares love to a tidal wave, and I can't stop picturing little Ellie being swallowed alive by a love-wave. She has been alone for so long... No one should have to survive without love. I just hope she gets what she needs soon (I'm lying, I totally know if she finally gets it or not).

12. Unconditionally (katy perry)

This is so hard to talk about, because it's about a relationship in the book that is a major spoiler. But if you listen to the song, you'll know you want to learn everything about this relationship asap.

13. Faded (alan walker)

We're wading in sad waters again, but this book is full of twists and turns and surprises. The truth is, grief feels like you're fading away, like you're lost and no one can help you, and that's exactly what this song captures beautifully. And it keeps saying "under the sea" which was perfect, because I wrote the last fourth of the book with this song in mind.

14. Keep you Safe (sleeping at last)

I discovered this song while looking for something that would describe Ky's feelings for Ellie when he begins to fall for her. I stupidly showed it to the dude, and he proceeded not only to "dedicate" it to me, but to sing it to me multiple times a week, and keep playing it in the car whenever I'm in it. So now it makes me cry. Also, he's totally stolen it away from Ky, who had it first, but then he reread SFA (the dude, not Ky, sadly) and left little notes in the margins about how he loved random things so he's totally forgiven. (He always does this to me.)

16. No Longer Slaves (jonathan david & melissa hesler)

This is the war song of SFA. I won't get into details, but there's a war going on in the book and sure, it's fine when Ky first tells Ellie he's exiled and about to die, but she doesn't feel too connected with the "war", wherever it is. That's until the war gets kind of real and appears bloodily in her school's bathroom. This song is also about being a "slave to fear" which (fear) is another issue that SFA tries to tackle. I don't know if you know this (I hope you don't) but grief and loss have a tendency to take the shape of fear over time. And that's something that you have to fight against, or it will swallow you alive. I love this song's rythm and fierceness, as well as its message. I listen to it at least once a week, to remind myself to fight the good fight with the right weapons. It also talks about adoption and true fathership, which describes Ky so well, it's as if it was made for him.

17. Nyxtwse Nyxta (katsimixaioi)

Finally, a little Greek song. Most Greek love songs talk of lost love or opportunity, and this is no different. However, it's one of the most beautiful and emotive my language has to show, and the two brothers who sing it are exceptionally talented. Its title asks the night to descend, so that it can cover everything that's wrong in the world with its darkness. I think it describes my land and my people perfectly in its lyrics as well as its melody. It's also featured in a particular scene in the book, where Ellie and Ky are driving around after midnight, and a radio is playing in a balcony over their heads. (Athens is a town that never sleeps, there's always a car driving around and a radio playing, no matter how dark the night gets).

So I'm leaving you with this and all of the other songs, under a gentle starry sky, with the sounds of a broken but busy Athens settling down to sleep and the waves of the Aegean sea lapping gently in the background. And maybe, just maybe, that's the most perfect music of all for Salt for Air.

If you want to listen to these songs as you read SFA, here they are.

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Read the MERMAID DIARIES

Doing this tag for Ellie, the nerdy heroine of my Greek mythology mermaid fantasy, Salt for Air. 

I was tagged by the lovely @rosecorcoranwrites to do the Character Flaws Tag

 Rules: Bold the flaws that apply to your character.

absent-minded | abusive | addict | aggressive | aimless | alcoholic | anxious | arrogant | audacious | bad liar | bigmouth | bigot | blindly obedient | blunt | callous | childish | chronic heroism | clingy | clumsy | cocky | competitive | corrupt | cowardly | cruel | cynical | delinquent | delusional | dependent | depressed | deranged | disloyal | ditzy | egotistical | envious | erratic | fickle | finicky | flaky | frail | fraudulent | guilt complex | gloomy | gluttonous | gossiper | gruff | gullible | hedonistic | humorless | hypochondriac | hypocritical | idealist | idiotic | ignorant | immature | impatient | incompetent | indecisive | insecure | insensitive | lazy | lewd | liar | lustful | manipulative | masochistic | meddlesome | melodramatic | money-loving | moody | naive | nervous | nosy | ornery |  overprotective | overly sensitive | paranoid | passive-aggressive | perfectionist | pessimist | petty | power-hungry | proud | pushover | reckless | reclusive | remorseless | rigorous | sadistic | sarcastic | senile | selfish | self-martyr | shallow | sociopathic | sore loser | spineless | spiteful | spoiled | stubborn | tactless | temperamental | timid | tone-deaf | traitorous | unathletic | ungracious | unlucky | unsophisticated | untrustworthy | vain | withdrawn | workaholic

Tagging: @charvaughn-writes​ @authorjoeypaul @ekinsellaauthor @readcommendations @glorious74​ @justanotherwriteress​ @velutluna​ @sophialikestowrite​ @maxgraybooks​ @friesian-girl​ and anyone else who wants to do it! I can’t wait to read your posts.

Ellie aesthetic, created by @mcfrank_author . Please do not use without credit.

The following isn’t part of the tag, but since the release of Salt for Air is right around the corner, let’s celebrate it by explaining its main character’s faults in detail, shall we?

We shall.

Here is what I bolded on the list above, along with a little explanation of how this applies to Ellie, a seventeen-year-old fanfic writer, who has been bullied most of her life.

Addict --> Have you heard of the song “Addict with a Pen”? Ellie is “addicted” to good books and writing. She is borderline clinically addicted to one or two fandoms as well, but aren’t we all?

Anxious --> Ellie is a very good student, or she used to be before her life fell apart, but she’s suffered from anxiety attacks since the bullies started to attack her viciously in Elementary School. She’s been struggling with anxiety at school a lot, and it’s seeped into the rest of her life.

Bad Liar --> I’m sure Ellie would see that as something to be proud of rather than a flaw. She was raised by the best dad in the world, and he taught her by example how to be a decent human being.

Blunt --> Ah, another “flaw” that Ellie is proud of. She tells it like it is, even if she is incredibly shy. Her inner voice never sugar-coats things, and when she’s given the chance to give her opinion, you’ll get nothing but the truth from her. It won’t be put in the nicest way, but the truth it will be.

Cynical --> She is extremely cynical, but who wouldn’t be, after the life she’s been through? However, she tries to be optimistic and brave.

Delusional --> Ellie believes she is delusional for a good part of the beginning of Salt for Air. I mean, who wouldn’t, when a hot dude claiming to be an exiled mer prince shows up in your bathroom and demands that you help him save his kingdom? Is she though? Well, I can’t tell ya. The book is coming out sooooon though.

Dependent --> She grew up with a single parent, and having few friends, because of the all the bullying she went through, so she was somewhat dependent on him. With her dad being gone now, however, that’s a moot point.

Depressed --> Ellie is not clinically depressed. (I have reserved that questionable honor for the MC of one of my future novels. How exciting.) BUT, she is grieving the loss of her dad and is sad a lot of the time. Well, as sad as you can be when you open your bathroom door and see a guy who looks, smells and feels like the sea. Majestic, gorgeous, and terrifying.

Deranged --> Wouldn’t you feel deranged if you saw a merman in front of you? Ellie does.

Envious --> Ellie is envious of everyone who still has their parents alive and with them. That simple. 

Guilt Complex --> Ever heard of survivor’s guilt? It’s what tortures the relatives of terminally ill patients. She used to wonder why it was her dad who got sick and not her. And even now that she’s accepted that he’s gone (kind of) she still wonders what she did wrong, or what she could have done to keep him here. She knows it’s irrational; it’s the grief talking. But still, it’s there.

Gloomy --> Some nights get really long and lonely. But she’s usually writing furiously on her laptop (about, you guessed it, MERMEN! Fanfiction, no less) to chase the blues away. She’s never one to dwell too much on the morose.

Gluttonous --> She was never gluttonous per se, but she was overweight as a younger kid. It’s one of the main reasons that the bullying started. *sad face*

Gullible --> She has lived a protected life (as every teen should) and hasn’t been exposed to the kind of evil and danger she is going to be in Salt for Air. So yeah, in a sense she is gullible and unaware of the darker corners of this world. However, she is very smart and, for a person who has no one to talk to (at least right now) she... well, I can’t tell you, because SPOILERS.

Idealistic --> I always thought that writers, or most of them, are somewhat idealistic, in the sense that they want to create a world and then put it to rights according to their ideals. Does that make sense? Anyway, I put that into the motivation behind Ellie’s writing. She is powerless to change all the horrible things that have happened in her life, but when she sits at her laptop... the weak win and good triumphs. And isn’t that what we all seek?

Insecure --> She is extremely insecure about herself, due to years and years of being told that she’s “fat” and “gross” and “should just die”. She’ll never let it show, though. Never.

Melodramatic --> Ah, the drama. She is, very melodramatic, even though she keeps accusing Ky of it. But gosh does she enjoy it.

Moody --> She isn’t moody now, but she used to be for a long period of time, due to all the tough times and ups and downs she went through with her dad’s illness. She’s stronger now, and much more stable in her moods, even though she doesn’t realize it.

Naive --> She’s as naive as a normal seventeen-year-old girl. She isn’t clueless. But she is still a teen. She knows things. But other things... not so much.

Perfectionist --> It’s a struggle for a perfectionist to deal with things going horribly wrong in real life, and that’s why she tries to be a straight-A student. Or at least she did, back when it mattered. 

Sarcastic --> THAT IS NOT A FLAW. THAT IS HER GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Timid --> She is painfully shy. And guess what? There are few things more conspicuous than walking to school with a merman in two. Just saying. Poor girl, what am I putting you through? *strokes her hair*

Unathletic --> She’s horrible at sports. That, along with being a complete (and proud) nerd, not to mention a whovian, has resulted in major bullying. She doesn’t get picked last. She doesn’t get picked at all. (Which makes the basketball court scene my personal top favorite scene that I’ve ever written in my life.)

Unlucky --> Ummm yeah? And it gets worse.

Unsophisticated --> That’s one of the things I love most about her. She gives zero thought to what she’ll say or how she’ll appear to others. She has about her the sophistication that reading diversely and a lot gives a person (something you can acquire no other way), but she hasn’t reached that point where she will take particular care of the words she picks to use, or how she’ll dress to impress. And when a certain someone tells her she’s effing gorgeous, it’s all her. Until the mirror scene. Someone, please stop me from posting spoilers all over the place. 

Workaholic -->  Most nights, she writes until 6 am and sleeps one or two hours before getting up to go to school. Does that make her a workaholic or an addict? Back to the top of the list again.

S A L T  FOR  A I R  NEWS:  I have been bursting with excitement to share the little mermaid-wannabe girl you see in the photo above, and it's finally time! . This is Ellie from Salt for Air as a bookmark. Like it? She is wearing a coral dress in grecian style and has golden laurels woven around her hair. (Which isn't red, but somehow the light makes it look reddish.) . She might or might not be getting ready to promote a new Salt for Air giveaway, once the current one is over on Aug 31st. Would you like to win her? Let me know if you're interested in winning bookmarks in a future mermaid giveaway!

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Enter the GIVEAWAY

I’ve done this beta-reading process about 7 times already, I thought I’d take this opportunity and share my personal beta reading process, in case it’s helpful to any readers or writers who are unsure how to go about it.

No worries, we can figure it out together.

Here are a few simple steps to follow, if you are a writer or a reader looking to beta read for someone or get your manuscript beta read:

1. Anyone can be a beta reader

Beta reading is the process where a book gets read by a few people before it’s given to the professional editor and subsequently published. These readers are test-readers. They read the book to see if it gets the reaction the author wanted, and to point out flaws. 

So, basically all someone needs in order to be a beta reader, is to be a reader, and specifically a reader of the genre the book is in (it must be something they generally read, and read a lot of -your mom does NOT qualify). But other than that, that’s it. 

Then they share their thoughts with the author, and help them make their book more awesome than it already is.

2. Why they are necessary

Because it costs too much to keep sending all your drafts to the editor. Also, because the editor’s job is not to read your book like a reader and tell you what reaction it will get. An editor edits. A writer writes. A reader reads. So any book will be so much more polished if it’s read a few times over by actual readers before it’s released to be torn apart to be enjoyed by the general public.

2. What a beta reader does - the beta reading process

This is extremely personal to every author and reader, so I am not going to try to post any general info on here. I am instead going to share my own process, taken out of the email I recently sent to my SFA lovely betas. 

This is the way it works for me, and it has worked for years. Every author and reader is different, so I have adapted it a few times as my books came out and I became more experienced. So this is the product of all the wisdom I have collected over a lot of years, a lot of betas (not all of them good - we’ll get to that later), a lot of books and a lot a lot of hard work.

So, onto the email:

Hello lovely betas,

[...}You are the second (elite) batch of beta readers, so I’m sure you’ll catch any mistakes or inconsistencies, or anything else… (I hope there aren’t many at this point, but I did change the story A LOT, so I’m sure there are a few).  I have split the book in 5 batches, and I hope we’ll be able to conclude this within a month –as I said, I need this to be beta read by the first week of August. But of course, if you need more time, tell me, it’s absolutely ok.

Below are the questions. As soon as you read your batch, you can send me an email answering these for each chapter, if you like, and then I’ll send you the next batch and so on. So here is what I need from you:

1.  What you loved. Please feel free to share quotes, or scenes, or anything really that you liked in this section. I need to know what made you love this book, this story, the characters (if anything did). This is the most important and longest answer you’ll send me, because I need people to love what they read. If they don’t, we need to fix that.

2.  What you didn’t like for some reason or other, not in the plot. (For example, I’m not expecting you to tell me you didn’t like the antagonist’s actions, because nobody would, that’s the point. Or if you don’t agree with a character's actions at one point, keep in mind that they probably have to go through character development and then we’ll see if they become better or worse.) This section is not about anything you don’t agree with, but something that you believe should/could be changed because it’s really bad/wrong/you hate it. Or that you think it should be written differently because most people would fling the book at the wall at this point.

3.  What you didn’t understand. What was not clear, or needed more clarification. Just want to clarify something regarding the 'what you didn't understand' section, because I’ve had problems with it in the past, regarding betas.  Don't put stuff that you're wondering about there. I ask 'what didn't you understand?' in the sense that, 'I don't get how they got from point A to B' or 'it's not clear how he got down the stairs. One minute he was on the second floor and on the next scene he's in the basement'.  I'm looking for things that I've overlooked or forgotten to explain, any inconsistencies, any mistakes I may have forgotten to catch. If I conceal stuff in order to make the story more suspenseful, then I really don't want to explain them beforehand, so don’t tell me you didn’t understand why they are acting this way if it’s something that’s supposed to keep you in suspense (that will go in another section). Any inconsistencies or if you didn’t understand the setting or a description could go here as well.  

4.  What surprised you in a good or bad way. In this question I need you to tell me if there are any surprises that kept your interest, and made you go “whoa, didn’t expect that, let’s see what happens.” When I say in a good way, I mean about the story. I’m not asking if a good or bad thing happened, but if the surprise was good and strong plot-wise. If you were disappointed in the turn the events took, if they were underwhelming, I need to know that too.

5.  What’s keeping you in suspense? What do you really want to happen/wonder if or what will happen? What kept your attention/interest? Why do you want to keep on reading? Were you bored at any point? (This is really important).

6.  Any grammatical or other errors you noticed? For example, I got one character’s hair red in one paragraph and then blue in the next (that would be cool, btw lol) or a missing “and” and stuff like that. Just anything you notice would be infinitely helpful in the editing process, but don’t take much time over this part, as the thing will be edited within an inch of its life.

7. General thoughts while you read. Anything to add? Put it here!

Just put down your thoughts in a very informal way, I don’t care how you write them, as long as I get them. Just reply with an email, including answers to the 7points above for every chapter you received. I might email you back and forth with a few questions I might have, but if not, as soon as you send me the replies, I’ll send you the next batch. You can ask me anything, of course, and your answers don’t need to be overly long, just as long as they need to be in order for you to make your point! If anything you write is too short, don’t worry, I’ll ask you for more.

Please don’t reply with “I loved it” because that doesn’t help me at all. Why did you love it? What did you love? How did it make you feel? And so on…

In general, I need to know everything that passed through your head as you were reading, as well as what you took from the story in general (hopefully you took something from it lol).

[...]

IMPORTANT: (Although it goes without saying, and I trust you all.) This material is both copyrighted and confidential (aka TOP SECRET lols). Please do not share anything of what you read with your friends, or with anyone in general. Thank you!

[...] You have to be brutally  honest, don't worry, you won't hurt my feelings ;) On the contrary you will be an AMAZING help in order to make this book baby the best it can be!

Happy reading

M.C.

PS. I'll just be sitting here, dying.

3. What NOT to do

If you are a beta reader, here is what you shouldn’t do (it’s a short list, so make sure you check all the points out):

Your replies can’t be short. “I loved it”, “it was AWESOME”, “that scene is problematic” and so on... One or two-line responses are absolutely no help. We, as authors, need you to explain WHY you loved, WHAT you loved, WHERE you thought the story needs work. Two-sentence replies are no help at all. This isn’t a review. This is commentary.

 Abuse. I recently (sadly) had a beta reader threaten to murder (I kid you not) a character and two lines after that, she said she wanted to slap him, hard. Now this was thankfully the first time I had to deal with something so disrespectful, but I have heard other authors say that betas send them feeback like “this character is stupid” or even worse “your writing sucks”. It is absolutely unnacceptable. No one gets to be disrespectful and abusive to you or your characters, no matter how much they hate them (or you, for some reason). The beta reader’s comments need to be polite and specific. If they hate something, they need to explain calmly why, and state their opinion in a civilized manner. Their job is to help you and your book, and if that’s not where their head is at, then they shouldn’t be trusted with something so intimate and personal as your manuscript.

If you are a writer and one of your beta readers does one of the above things, you might want to consider dropping them. No one gets to abuse or disrespect you or your book. Not even a beta reader.

 Time. This kind of goes without saying, but if a beta promises to send you their feedback and never delivers, or sends it to you days later, then that’s not going to work. We are all human, and not everything can happen on schedule, but you have to treat this as a professional. Ask them if they are going to be able to deliver within the deadline you have given, give or take a couple of days, and if they can’t, move on to the next. Beta reading is time sensitive, because the book has to be fresh in the reader’s mind in order to give feedback. Also, your carreer is time-sensitive, because you are (hopefully) on a publication schedule. So treat the process with professionalism, and the readers will too.

4. Where to find a good beta reader

If you are at the point to find beta readers, meaning you have finished, edited and polished your manuscript several times over, then you have already established an online presence. So, simple as anything, post a request for betas. Explain what your book is about, tell them how to contact you, and within what time period you would like your book read.

After that, email back and forth a few times, to see which ones of the applicants are trustworthy and a good fit for your book. 

That’s it! Super easy.

Readers are so sweet and helpful, it’s amazing. I still can’t wrap my head over how cool they are and how eager to help and built up your confidence and your book.

Also, if you have trouble finding enough beta readers, here is a place where you can choose from among about 500 readers. 

That’s it! Was it helpful at all?

Oh, good.

Don’t forget to ask me anything you want, as always, my ask box is open :)

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Lil writing update on Salt for Air:

I have officially finished editing, and my baby book is now in the hands of my trusted betas. So far, the feedback has been amazing:

Tried to blur out the spoilers, but yay!

I can’t wait to share the release day and official cover with you, as soon my super amazing betas give me the “ok”. Until then, here are some Greek mythology in modern Greece:

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