Done, mailed to my agent and my editor, and I own my weekend. Which I will spend an inordinate amount of time sleeping through, no doubt.
DONE. And I love it. It was, I think, worth all the pain.
So.
You have the whole weekend to tell me why you should be one of the five people who gets to read the First Draft Beta (knowing there will be spoilers for book one in it, so do keep that in mind.) You do not have to check it for errors, though if you find any, you’re welcome to e-mail me and let me know. It will just be a fun (I hope) read.
I’ll do a drawing on Monday.
Everybody can enter.
ADDED LATER: What I DO need from my beta readers.
Please forgive me for not including this earlier. My brain was still sizzling when I wrote the post.
In this instance the point of the beta is to see if there are parts that you, having not read the first book, don’t get. Scholastic has awesome copyeditors (or at least I got one), and I’ve already sent the book to my editor in order to make deadline, so any real foul-ups that I’ve left in there at this point she’s going to see—no chance of saving face. 
But if you come across things that you simply do not understand because I have made the hard-to-avoid error of assuming the reader would have read the first book first, THAT I need to know about.
Which means that, compared to a regular beta, this will be a walk in the park. You write down the page number where you got confused, and what confused you. And that’s it.
I enjoyed reading THE SILVER DOOR, but iI want to know if there will be a seaqual, if so a suggestion for the title is THE GOLDEN BLUE LIGHT.
I would love to be a beta reader for you.
Your my favorite author.Arlene
My server is, incidentally, on a different time than I am.
Okay. It’s ten AM my time and the drawing is closed. I’ll go ahead and get names now, and announce beta testers in a few minutes.
I should be a beta reader as I am a fledging writer myself and would love to see how you structure your work, and you’ve given me so much over the past few years that I’d like to help you out a little in return
Throw my name in the ol’ hat; I’d love a chance to be a beta reader. I’ve never done it before, and I think it would be a great learning experience
Besides, I’m almost done with Vengeance of Dragons, and I’ll need something else to read while I’ll dig up my copy of Courage of Falcons!
I do think it would be interesting to be a beta tester. Why do I think I would be good at it? Well, I worked as a professional genealogist for a while; you need to keep an eye on details, and spot the ones that aren’t explained, don’t make sense, etc. I got pretty good at it; no one reader is sure to catch everything, but I think my chances are as good as anyone else’s, and better than most. On the downside; if you did explain, I’ll probably catch it. If the average reader is likely to overlook the explanation, I might miss that risk entirely.
I should be one of the five chosen because I didn’t get mad when you didn’t share your Fritos in seventh grade!!! [grin]
I’m so glad I didn’t miss the deadline – my internet has just been revived.
I’d love to beta read for you, Holly.
I’ve got 4 years online beta-reading experience, mostly for online writers’ groups but also some for fan fiction writers (fantasy). I’ve also been part of a “real life” writers’ group that meets every week for 2 years now, and what I do there is also similar to beta reading, except with less emphasis on grammar/punctuation issues; we focus our critiques on the “big picture”.
Wow! A nice long list of potentials here.
I’m throwing my name into the hat, too.
I think being a beta reader would be a benefit not only to me as a writer, but to a member of my critique group who is working on a trilogy.
Crossing my fingers,
~PJ~
I would love to be a beta reader.
I would like a chance to BETA read as well…
Congratulations! I’d love to be a beta reader.
Have a great weekend!
Awesome! Congratulations! I hope your weekend has been restul and relaxing.
Please accept my entry as well.
Fantastic, as another mentioned earlier, you sure are fast. I’d also love to be a beta reader.
Congratulations on finishing the novel! I hope you have a great, relaxing weekend!
I’d love to beta read the novel, though I can’t think of any reason that hasn’t already been cited! It would be fun and a great experience and we have to wait even longer to get your novels over in the UK!
Congratulations, you never fail to inspire me!
I would love to be a beta for this novel, spoilers or no! Being in Iraq has made me an even more voracious reader and I am constantly on the lookout for something new.
I always enjoy your email updates. They keep me continuing to write even when I am completely bogged down with my (seemingly) never-ending deployment. Thanks for the inspiration!!
~Lyn
Squee! A chance to read your work /without/ having to hunt it down first? Living in Aus, your pub’d work is hard to come by. I would LOVE to be a beta
I have a good eye for errors/consistency flaws etc, and don’t mind a bit about spoilers.
As Vanity said though – if betas don’t have to check for errors, what do you want them to look for?
Hope you’re resting well, and enjoying a much deserved break!
As hard as it sounds, I wish I could rip through revisions like you do!
~Inky
Congratulations!!
As an avid reader, I would enjoy reading it, spoilers or not.
I’m always looking for anything to help me improve my own writing.
Congrats Holly! Happy to read for you unless I happen to be doing other cool stuff for you instead.
hm, maybe I should have phrased that “nightmare revisions on my sixth novel”. I dunno, either way seems to work right now.
Congrats, Holly! I’m slogging my way through revisions on my nightmare of a sixth novel, now using some of your techniques which are keeping me more on track (but not stopping me from pulling my hair and gritting my teeth and wondering why I’m doing this over and over–ok, I’m fond of rejections. Not.) You’ve worked circles around me, enjoy your weekend of REST!! I’ll be envying you.
Congratulations! And ditto djmills on watching you work under pressure. It’s both daunting and inspiring! Have a great, worry-free weekend.
Congratulations!!!
You would think that it would get easier each time, wouldn’t you?
I am always available to be a beta reader for you. I have read all your work, and own most of them.
Enjoy a well deserved break. You deserve it.
Congrats Holly! Enjoy your work free weekend!
Congrats. I’m always happy to read your work. I’ll buy it when it comes out either way.
Grats! Just reading your posts on the revision slog made me tired. Get some rest.
Congratulations!!!
Your speed amazes me at times. The writing itself seems to take about as long as you’d expect, but your revisions are inhumanly fast. Then again, your first drafts are probably much better than mine in the first place.
Also, I’d like to be one of the five. I love your work (Corrigan’s Blood remains one of my favorite books, despite my general neutrality towards science fiction and absolute hatred of vampires) and I have an eagle-eye for mistakes, even when I’m only reading for pleasure. Most importantly, I’m only 15, so I’m probably the absolute closest to the novel’s intended age group that you’re going to find. So… please?
Gratz, Holly!
Enjoy your weekend!!
Congratulations on finishing! Hmmmm, I would like to be of the 5, because I am curious to see how much the final version is going to differ from the first draft. But what do you mean by “You do not have to check it for errors”? Isn’t reporting errors the whole point of a beta?
Well done and thank you for taking the time to show all of us how a professional writer handles the pressure of working to a timetable.
I look forward to your comments each morning as soon as I boot up my laptop and connect to the internet.
Relax and enjoy your weekend.
Way to go! Enjoy your weekend!
Oh wow! Knowing how much you had left, this is just incredible. And marvelous that you love it after all the trouble it caused.
Niiiice. Enjoy the rest!
And yeah, I’m new…hiya in general. But mainly, go you! Get some sleep!
Congrats Holly!