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That $60 'beta reader' service on Fiverr nearly ruined my novel
I paid $60 for a beta reader on Fiverr who promised a full manuscript critique in 5 days. They just ran my whole 80k word book through a free grammar checker and called it a day, missing a huge plot hole in chapter 3. Has anyone else gotten burned by cheap editing services and found a better way to vet them?
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nancy82013d ago
Wait, they literally just ran it through Grammarly and charged you sixty bucks for that? That's like paying a chef to microwave a frozen dinner for you. The plot hole in chapter 3 is the real kicker though, that's the kind of thing a real reader would catch in the first five minutes. Elizabeth's sample edit trick is solid, I also started asking for a list of the biggest issues they find in the first 10 pages before I pay anyone. It weeds out the people who just click "spell check" and call it a day.
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Learned that lesson myself, now I ask for a sample edit before paying anyone.
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