Looking for two or three beta readers for a 60k cozy mystery — where do people find them?
First novel, cozy mystery, about 60,000 words, draft is clean but I've never used beta readers before. Where's the best place to find a few reliable ones who actually finish and give useful notes?
1 answer
For your genre specifically, cozy mystery has active communities that are gold for this. Start where cozy readers already gather: Goodreads genre groups, the r/cozymystery crowd, and Facebook groups for cozy readers (not writers — you want readers). Post that you're looking for a small number of betas, say what you're offering (usually a free finished copy and a mention in the acknowledgements), and be specific about the time window. A few practical filters that save heartache: ask for a short sample response on the first three chapters before you hand over the whole thing — it tells you fast who actually gives usable feedback versus "I liked it." Three finishers who deliver on time beats ten who ghost you. And give them 3–4 pointed questions rather than "what did you think" so the notes come back useful.
Abhishek Aggarwal
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