Affiliate Spotlight: Emergency Beta Service

Posted by Saluki in Affiliate Spotlight | 1 comment

This month our featured affiliate is a new and awesome site: Emergency Beta Service.  EBS is the brainchild of two awesome ladies, Rags Stone and Detochkina. We are so excited about EBS here at MVF that we wanted to give Rags and Detka a chance to talk a little bit more about their site. And, in the fairness of full disclosure, I’m a beta for EBS. So, without further adieu, I bring you the lovely Rags Stone and Detochkina, creators of Emergency Beta Service.

Saluki: What brought the two of you together? How did you come up with the idea for EBS? What are each of your roles?

Rags: Well, Detochkina and I have been friends for a long time now, and we’ve worked on various projects together.

Detochkina: Yes, some of them are rated R.

Rags: (laughs) Sh-sh!

Detochkina: (blinking innocently) What?

Rags: (shaking head) Not now, not now. Anyway…. The idea for EBS came to me one day as a friend of mine asked me about a comment one of her betas had made, which she didn’t quite understand. She wanted to double check with me, as I’ve beta’d for her on many occasions. It wasn’t the first time she shot me a tweet, or the first time she pinged me on chat to ask me grammar related questions, and she wasn’t the only one approaching me. So I randomly asked on Twitter “Emergency Beta Service? Does that exist? Should it?” and Detochkina liked the idea so much that she roped me into developing it further.

Detochkina: Well, isn’t it what friends do? (eyes Rags lovingly) I needed to keep you busy.

Rags: Lol, like I wasn’t busy enough! If I remember correctly, I was in the middle of midterms when we started brainstorming…

Detochkina: And I was starting a new position at work. Things were…. interesting. (laughs) Didn’t stop us, did it?

Rags: Never! (chuckles)

Detochkina: That’s because we really believe in the Emergency Beta idea and we’re happy to help the writers. I always wanted to pay back to all the incredible people in this fandom who keep extending help to me while I’m writing.

Rags: (nodding) EBS wouldn’t be the same without Detka – in fact, I’m not sure it would have turned into anything if it weren’t for her. We discussed all the aspects of this service at length, trying to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t, and she made sure to keep me grounded in my ambitions.

At the moment, Detka handles the PR side of things; she is in contact with affiliates, and she develops plans to get us noticed. There are a couple of great things in store for the site, all of it her ideas.

I work more with the betas; I arrange the schedule (with the help of my awesome betas), I take a couple of shifts throughout the week, and I try to be available for the betas in case they need me. I also have been working a lot with the site, both setting it up and working on the graphics.

Detochkina: Rags is super organized and keeps us all in check. I am also amazed by her Photoshop skills. Have you checked our website? Emergencybetaservice.blogspot.com, most of it is her doing.

Rags: Aww, you flatter me!

Detochkina: Just giving the credit where credit is due. Speaking of credit. We also had a tremendous help from Dr_Twilight_PharmD who did a great job with the graphic design of the slides on our website.

Rags: Despite having two different roles within EBS, Detka and I discuss most things going on behind the curtain among ourselves, and we’re constantly thinking of ways to optimize this service as much as we can.

Saluki: Tell us about the Emergency Beta Service.  How does it work? What should an author utilizing it expect?

Rags: Consider EBS your writing companion. We provide almost instant gratification. As you are writing, you can tweet us questions, you can fill out a form – for the more complicated, lengthier questions – and you can add our EBS email emergencybeta@gmail.com to your contact list if you want to chat about your question with one of the betas available at the time.

Detochkina: The concept of Emergency Beta is to answer writing related questions quickly (our policy is to answer a question within three hours of receiving it) and be as informative as possible within given format (Twitter, chat, website/email).

We take pride in the fact that we not only fix commas and help with the right descriptions and sentence flow, we actually provide explanations each time we answer the questions. And we are in awe with our Betas.

Rags: We are! Our Betas all come from different backgrounds and bring an incredible variety of skills and knowledge to the table. All of them are very able and willing to answer any kinds of questions thrown at us. They are simply amazing!

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

Rags: We accept submissions from all fandoms, and in fact, you don’t even have to be writing fiction. This service is basically for all writing related questions, so you could just as well be writing a letter to your boss, a book review, or a post on your blog, etc. If you have a question about finding the right phrasing, or if you want your commas in the right place, anyone is welcome to use our service.

Detochkina: Yes, our idea is to help any writer out there, not just within a single fandom.

Saluki: How does someone become a beta for your site?

Rags: We have a link to the beta application, located both on the front page and in the Meet the Betas section. Simply fill out a form , and we’ll give you a short test to complete. Nothing too complicated. We do ask that betas must be older than 18 years old.

Detochkina: Have you checked the the“Staff” page on our website? I am ecstatic by the caliber of our betas!

Rags: Yes, we have had an amazing amount of responses so far, so we are fully staffed at the moment and not accepting new betas, but please fill out the application if you are interested. We will hopefully need more in the future.

Saluki: What are your goals for EBS?  Do you ever envision branching out into a full on beta service?

Rags: We want people to think of us as their writing companion. We have a couple of ideas in development which we’re not ready to share at the moment, but know that this service is not in its completed form.

Detochkina: Cue Detka with her crazy, ambitious ideas!

Rags: (chuckling) Don’t let me stop you. Ideally, people will keep us in mind when they write, whether they have our form ready to fill out when they’re stuck on something, or have Twitter open to shoot us a quick question to @emergencybeta in case they run into a problem. They’ll be able to ask us their question and keep writing right away, as their problem is being dealt with while they continue.

Detochkina: Consider how much easier you’ll make it for your full-time beta if you use us as you write!

Rags: Exactly!

Detochkina: But to answer your question, at this point, we are only focusing on developing and branching out as an Emergency Beta Service. Although we don’t mind giving an occasional shout out to the world when we’re asked, and helping an author to find a full-time beta.

Saluki: Is there anything else you want our readers to know about your site?

Rags: As long as we don’t find entire chapters in our inbox, feel free to ask us as many questions as you’d like throughout the day.

Detochkina: Yes, you can throw anything you want our way: a teaser, a summary, a stubborn sentence that refuses to flow. Need quick help with a plot pointer? We are here and thankful for you trusting us with your work!

This is an amazing service open to all writers, whether you write Twilight, SVM, or heck, any other fan fiction genre you can think of.  Even better, if you are working on Original Fiction - EBS is there to help you as well. They are well staffed with experienced betas and are available from early morning until late at night, so no matter when you like to write there will be someone there to answer your question.  I really urge everyone to check out their site and don’t hesitate to send them an email!