This is precisely what I think a beta should be--as you said, along the lines of a professional editor who unfortunately doesn't get paid. If people just want their piece to be spellchecked and grammar-checked, then they can run their own damn spellcheck. Or at least make it perfectly clear when they send a preliminary email to a beta that all they want is for it just to be checked for spelling/grammar.
When I started offering my beta skills, I had people like you in mind to be my betaees--people who were good writers and who genuinely wanted to improve their work by collaborating with another semi-knowledgable person and working out the kinks of a piece. Sadly, I was very, very disappointed. I have yet to find a betaee like this, let alone a beta like this.
I've been searching forever to find a beta who will do these kinds of things--not just check my grammatical/spelling errors but also to work through a piece with me and work with me on flow, characterization, and just plain tell me when something just doesn't sound right.
The apathetic authors who send me their writing A)Just want me to correct S/G errors and B)Don't take my suggestions when I do. It's [having even my spelling corrections ignored, among other things] seriously soured me on betaing, although I do it still. But I've almost stopped trying to look for flow/characterization/etc. problems in people's work, and have myself been reduced to just the S/G checker.
Public Service Announcement: People, be kind to your betas! They do know what they're talking about!
Sorry for rattling on. There's a bunch of beta-induced rage in me. *hides*
no subject
This is precisely what I think a beta should be--as you said, along the lines of a professional editor who unfortunately doesn't get paid. If people just want their piece to be spellchecked and grammar-checked, then they can run their own damn spellcheck. Or at least make it perfectly clear when they send a preliminary email to a beta that all they want is for it just to be checked for spelling/grammar.
When I started offering my beta skills, I had people like you in mind to be my betaees--people who were good writers and who genuinely wanted to improve their work by collaborating with another semi-knowledgable person and working out the kinks of a piece. Sadly, I was very, very disappointed. I have yet to find a betaee like this, let alone a beta like this.
I've been searching forever to find a beta who will do these kinds of things--not just check my grammatical/spelling errors but also to work through a piece with me and work with me on flow, characterization, and just plain tell me when something just doesn't sound right.
The apathetic authors who send me their writing A)Just want me to correct S/G errors and B)Don't take my suggestions when I do. It's [having even my spelling corrections ignored, among other things] seriously soured me on betaing, although I do it still. But I've almost stopped trying to look for flow/characterization/etc. problems in people's work, and have myself been reduced to just the S/G checker.
Public Service Announcement: People, be kind to your betas! They do know what they're talking about!
Sorry for rattling on. There's a bunch of beta-induced rage in me. *hides*