I've come to a point in my latest creation where I need some new eyes on it. I used to do this on Facebook, but as I am no longer playing Facebook, that won't happen. So I'm making a general call-out here to see if anyone would like to beta read for me on my newest novel. This one's a bit different in that it's an adult horror story rather than my normal YA. This one has some violence and gore, and plenty of sex (though most of it is not shown - you see the lead up and the aftermath).
The tentative title is Bound Souls, and, at the moment, it clocks in at just over 82k words. This one would be best classified as a horror story with plenty of love thrown in. Aaron Welch, a 36 year old horror novelist, falls madly in love with 18 year old college student Hannah Bailey, who more than returns the feelings. Those feelings, for both of them, seem too powerful to be real, especially since Aaron is still dealing with the death of his wife and infant son five years prior. Things intensify when Jenna, the ghost of his wife, is suddenly back in the house. And if that's not enough, there is an evil presence that not only wants to destroy Jenna's soul from even existing, but then wants to do the same to Aaron and Hannah. Find out how all their souls are bound together.
So there's the lowdown on what it's all about. Interested in giving it a beta read? I don't ask much of my beta readers. Basically, I'll send you a MS Word .doc (or .rtf if you prefer, another format, or I can even make it a .pdf if you really want), and then I'll send you a half dozen questions or so to answer. Nothing hard - basically stuff like "Did you view the characters as realistic?" "Were there any major bumps that drew you out of the story?" "Did you enjoy the story overall?" Things like that. If, instead of my questions, you'd like to send me your beta review your own way, I'm thrilled with that, too. Anything to make sure I'm on the right track here with this story. I'm also not looking for line edits - I haven't yet done that, so there are probably typos and such I haven't yet caught. If you'd like to point them out, I'd be happy for it, but it's not necessary. At this point in the process I'm mostly worried about plot, characters, and such. I'll spend plenty of time line editing later.
I likely won't be ready to send this out until at least the beginning of January, and more likely closer to the middle of the month. I'm asking early so I can get some takers. My hope is you'll be ready to send it back to me in 4 to 6 weeks. And if you do beta read for me and complete my questionnaire (or your own version of it), I'll send you a copy of the book when it's published, be it a paperback, e-book, or whatnot (still too early in the process to promise anything concrete).
If you have any questions, or want to offer your services, please email me at ericjkrause@gmail.com. You can also, of course, comment here on this post, or hit me up on Twitter at @ericjkrause. It would be nice to set up a beta reading group to help each other out, but for now, this is the route I'm going. Any takers?
