Project Team Beta

Posted by Susan in Affiliate Spotlight | 3 comments

At MVF we understand all about the author/beta relationship. Long story short: every writer needs one. Even published authors have editors to help them through every aspect of writing their story. A beta is more than just someone to check for commas. They help guide you through the writing process. I know I have leaned on mine more than once, and I hold her in very high regard because I know my stories wouldn’t be half as good without her help.

It is hard to find a beta, and it can be extremely intimidating to a new writer to ask a stranger for editing help. Enter Project Team Beta! I had the chance to ask Jenn, who heads up Project Team Beta, some questions about the site and how to be involved in, whether as a beta or as a writer. Check it out:

How did you come up with the idea to start PTB?

Honestly, I was frustrated with the amount of poorly written stories. For me, nothing kills a good idea faster than poor writing. I don’t think that just anyone can sit down and write a good story, but I do think that a lot of people have the potential to write something really great but are hampered by the inability to write in a technically or creatively correct way. I wanted to do something to help change that.

Originally, I offered my services to be an independent beta, but I quickly realized that the need for a beta was far greater than the supply of betas—or so it appeared. I was bothered by the fact that so many people were seeking help but not actually finding it. Project Team Beta was born out of the desire to help those people.

How does someone become a beta? Is there a test or a screening process?

One of the most frustrating things for me in this fandom is that anyone can become a beta. All you have to do is say, “Hey, I want to be a beta” and find an author who is looking for help. The problem with this is that being a beta—being a good beta—requires knowledge of the proper use of the English language. Not everyone has the ability to provide that.

To be a beta with Project Team Beta, there is a screening process. After an application is submitted, the applicant must take a beta test. Essentially, the applicant has to edit a piece full of intentional errors. We want to see how many of those errors the applicant can catch, and depending on that amount, the applicant will either pass or not. The errors were carefully chosen based on errors we believe are very common in fiction writing, and they are, in our opinion, errors that any good beta should be able to identify.

What kind of training do you require for your betas?

We don’t require any sort of official training for our betas. As long as they are able to pass our beta test, they are able to become members of PTB. The pass rate for the beta test is somewhere between 40 – 60%.

While a beta is a member of PTB, we do monitor them. If we see someone providing incorrect advice or missing errors, we will be sure to point that out to them. It truly is a learning environment. We want our authors to improve, but we also want our betas to improve. The more you learn about the technical and creative aspects of writing, the better beta (and author) you will become.

How many betas you do you have currently? What is their average number of stories?

Our beta membership count fluctuates quite a bit. Right now, we have just over 150 active betas, which is a bit on the low end for us. We have about 275 active stories in transit and 155 active stories on permanent assignment. This kind of gives you an idea of what we are handling right now, but we have worked with hundreds of other stories and one-shots over the past year.

A beta with Project Team Beta typically does one to three transit chapters per week. We do have betas that request more chapters than that, and we try to accommodate that request. As for permanent assignment chapters, I’m not sure. It all depends on how many authors they work with and how frequently those authors update. I typically beta anywhere from one to five chapters per week. That can include chapters from transit, but it mostly includes stories I work with on permanent assignment or stories I beta outside of PTB.

What is your process?

Once an author is a member of Project Team Beta, they are free to submit chapters to us. This is the first stage for stories that we beta for. Authors submit chapters to Project Team Beta, and moderators or “mods” do all the work to transfer it to a first-run beta and a second-run beta before returning it to the author. During this stage, submissions are sent to any of our betas.

The second stage for stories we beta is permanent assignment. This can happen after several chapters have been submitted to transit; however, it is completely up to the author. The author makes requests to us about which betas they would be interested in working with on a permanent basis for a particular story. At this stage, by sending their chapters through transit, they have experience working with a variety of different PTB betas. After the requests are approved (by a mod and the beta), a permanent match is made, and the story is considered to be on permanent assignment. Once on permanent assignment, authors submit chapters directly to their betas, and betas return chapters directly to the authors. Mods do not become involved unless one of the parties has some sort of issue.

Do you have set guidelines, or do you leave that up to the beta and their author?
We do have an established set of guidelines. They are a combination of our operating rules and our expectations. They are all posted publicly on our website.

One of our main guidelines is in relation to age and content. Basically, authors under the age of 18 can only submit work rated G to PG-13 for editing. In the same vein, betas who are under the age of 18 can only work on content rated G to PG-13. We follow the ratings as established on the Twilighted website.

Another big guideline is that we expect authors to make a continued effort to self-edit. We don’t believe that a beta should simply edit chapters for an author without any effort from that author. Working with Project Team Beta is a process that should help to improve an author’s ability to write, and they should be putting in just as much effort as a beta is to ensure their work is technically and creatively correct.

What do you enjoy most about running PTB?

There are a many benefits when it comes to running PTB, but undoubtedly, my favorite thing is how much I have learned in the past year about writing. I truly am a student at heart, and I love how my knowledge of the English language has dramatically increased over the past year. When I beta for others, or even in my own writing, I often get caught up on little technicalities, and before I know it, I have spent two hours researching the proper use of an ellipsis. It might be hard for someone who doesn’t share that same desire to understand how that might be enjoyable, but I just honestly love everything about the writing process. I know that being involved with PTB has made me a better writer, editor, and employee.

What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned since you started the site?

I think the most surprising thing, for me, has been the massive amount of interest and support that Project Team Beta has received. I mean, I knew there was a need for something like this, but I just never thought or anticipated the amount of people who would want to be part of this or would want to support this. That has definitely been a really wonderful thing for us.

Do you accept submissions for different fandoms, or do you only beta for Twific?

Formally, we only beta for Twific. However, we have arranged beta relationships for authors of other fandoms. There was a time when I considered expanding Project Team Beta for other fandoms; however, I simply do not have enough time to handle something more massive than what we already have going on. If anyone would be interested in setting up something similar to Project Team Beta for another fandom, I would be more than happy to help in any way that I can.

Can you accept submissions from authors who don’t speak English as their first language?

We work with many ESL authors, however, we only beta stories written in English. Well, we’ve never actually encountered an author writing in a different language who wanted our editing help. I’m not sure if we could do it, but at this point, I just know we haven’t.

Make sure to give Project Team Beta a look-see! They have a brand new site that is a little easier to navigate. All of the staff and betas are extremely friendly, so whether you are looking for a beta, or you just want to stop by and say hello, you can do so at their official site: http://projectteambeta.com