There are tons of reasons as an author to appreciate your beta readers. Here are some of the most important things my beta readers have contributed.

• Their positive comments and reactions to things give me confidence and help me keep going
• The questions they ask open my eyes to what isn’t working and to new possibilities
• It’s always fantastic when they catch a typo!
• They help me clean up my manuscript before it goes to the editor, so that the editor has a cleaner manuscript and can delve a little deeper/do deeper work because the majority of surface-level issues have been addressed already. Those won’t distract her.
• They help me find balance between mentioning things TOO much to help situate the reader and assuming, wrongly, that the reader is likely to remember this or that particular detail when they won’t necessarily remember it
• Their suggestions, even when I don’t take them, help get my mind working in new ways and can alert me to possibilities I wouldn’t notice otherwise, because they’re coming from a different perspective

Beta readers are wonderful! Have you ever been a beta reader?