How To Be A Good Beta Reader

Hey! So many bloggers have their stories and projects out for beta readers right now and this post has been stewing for a while, so here it is!

DISCLAIMER: At everyone who has beta/alpha read any of my stories THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU
I mean, it is about beta readers. But I'm not talking about any of you :D

• DO. WHAT. THE. AUTHOR. TELLS. YOU
  Should be simple right? Sometimes the author already knows what a problem is. And the rougher the draft, the more visible problems there are. Your job is to help point out things that the author might have missed. If they tell you, "Hey! I added a chapter halfway through so the chapter numbers are off after chapter 12! And I haven't edited yet so just ignore typos!" and you go and point out the chapter change and edit all the typos?
   
• But on the typo note. I have friends who basically CANNOT see a typo and not do something about it. Talk with the author and sort it out. If you give them a heads up, maybe they'll be fine with it and there will be no hard feelings or people upset. But you need to communicate with the author! TALK TO PEOPLE. It solves problems.
   
• On a further note of DO WHAT THE AUTHOR ASKS, if they ask you to focus on a couple points DO IT. If they ask you to look at character development and worldbuilding and you ONLY fix typos? BAD. (I'm just really going crazy with the typo example here, lol) It's ok to do things the author didn't explicitly ask you to do! But you're there to help the author.
               
• You are there to provide criticism yes. But that's not all you're there to do. You're there to provide FEEDBACK. That means criticism yes. (And if I had to pick between the two, I'd rather have just the criticism) but you also need to provide feedback on the things you liked and the things that worked well!
  If you only criticize, unless the author has the strongest self-confidence EVER, they'll end up feeling discouraged with the story. They'll end up thinking you don't like the story at all or that it's not working and they should just give up the story and start something else.
      
• Feedback on the good parts of the story will help build the author's confidence in the story. And it can be helpful when describing the characters or pitching the story!
  If I'm trying to describe a character as roughish and none of my readers say anything about his character development or his behavior in scenes than I might end up sitting there thinking, "But did he actually come across as roughish?" Because the last thing an author wants to do is be one of the people who describes a character as one thing (so devious! so clever!) and then have readers jump into the book with those expectations and not get them.
   
• But every author is a different person, at a different stage of their writing journey, writing a different book and at a different stage of writing said book. SO JUST ASK THEM AND THEN DO WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO DO.

Y'all know what my favorite part of this post is going to be? All the authors who will comment and throw in their two bits and add advice! And then all the people who have beta read throwing in their advice! FREE ADVICE! 

MK