Thursday, January 19, 2012

"Testing 1, 2, 3" Authors and Beta Testing

  As a new author, just freshly out on the book market, I'm a rookie.  Today I learned a new term - beta testing.  Beta testing is when you select a small group to test your product.  I guess you could say it's  sort of like having scientists analyzing the results of their work by using control groups.  Or, a software developer sending his product to a select group of businesses asking them to try his new product out.  It's called the debugging stage.  Well, authors must also have a debugging stage - the beta test.

Alpha Testing -
First, we have what is called the alpha stage.  At this time, the writer asks for her work to be critiqued by her writer's group, family, etc.  (I spent a couple of years in this stage.)

Beta Testing -
Then, there is the beta stage.  This is when the author releases her book without much fanfare.  She is waiting to see what the response is to her book.   What corrections must she make before it goes out with all the toots and whistles.  (I spent too few days at this stage ... live and learn.) 

I highly recommend that writers not skip beta testing.  It is really helpful for producing a professional product.

4 comments:

  1. Why? What happened? Trouble with your Kindle release?

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    1. Hi Susanna,
      Everything went incredibly well with my Kindle release. The conversion process was awesome. I couldn't have been happier with the end product until... my daughter called. Bless her for picking up the error.

      Months ago I had corrected this mistake (there are 52 weeks in a year, not 75. Duh!), but I've also kept all of my revisions. I have lots of revisions! Well, I published the one with the "75 weeks in a year" error. Thankfully, only my daughter, husband, and author friend had bought the book. So, I pulled it out of Amazon, fixed the problem, and resubmitted it. It takes about 12 hours for my story to go back on the Amazon shelf. I believe the process is now finished.
      Thanks for asking.

      Lesson learned: get organized when it comes to computer files! :)

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  2. I'm in the process of having my novel alpha tested. I'm glad you were able to correct your book right away! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You're welcome. It's such a mystery to me, how someone can write a novel. How do they keep the the story flowing for so many pages? Sometimes, I think I see ministories within a story. Then, it seems they're all woven with one common thread. Do let me know when it's done. What genre? What age group?

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