Get your first chapter road-tested by our community readers who love your genre.
You've written the opening of something big. Now find out if it lands with readers who could become your future community readers.
On Tuesdays, we open the floor to genre readers who road-test new writers' first chapters, world-building and story setup. They comment and tell you exactly what's working and what needs another pass before you go further.
Availability
When the Tuesday slots are full, there won't be any slots to order until the slots become available for the next year!
What You Get
Here are just some of the benefits to new, aspiring writers who value beta reader feedback.
Real feedback, not just exposure: A professional manuscript critique of a first chapter typically costs £50 to £150. Here, you get crowd-sourced editorial feedback from readers who read your genre.
A beta reader list that's yours to keep: This is the part most writers underestimate. Readers who follow your Test-Drive Tuesday entry can enter to beta-read your finished book. By the time your manuscript is ready, you will already have a genre-specific list of readers waiting for it.
A platform before you need one: Agents and publishers look for writers who already have readers behind them supporting their writing. Every comment, follow, and beta-reader signup on your entry builds the platform you'll need when it's time to query or submit.
How It Works
Submit two pieces:
The Hook: your first chapter of 2,250 words. If your first chapter is shorter, you can combine the next chapter into the first, but you need to find the relevant place to end it as we only accept 2,250 words. It can be less, but no more!
Story Bible: A summary of your main hero and villain who appear in your opening pages, your world's rules, character traits and key lore, around 1,000 words. Keep it punchy — this is a teaser, not a reference document. Readers can use it to orientate themselves, and it attracts more comments feedback.
It must be provided in a PDF and to quality standards, otherwise it will be rejected.
If you don't have a Story Bible, we can create one for you. A Story Bible Starter gives you one front page image and your text styled in your genre's theme, and a Story Bible Plus gives you images for each section.
If you are booking a slot long in advance, you can select to have your Test-Drive later rather than sooner, which you add to the claim form after you place your order.
Pricing
You can choose from these two options:
Test-Drive Tuesday Starter: £175 - Everything mentioned above.
Test-Drive Tuesday Plus: £235 - Everything in the Starter Package, plus Chapter In-depth Analysis (worth>£ 25.00),Readers Newsletter Invite (worth £ 30.00), and a Beta Reader Event Invite (worth £ 60.00).
Optional Extras
You can choose any of these optional extras if you feel they will help your 'test-drive' to have more impact with our reading community.
- Chapter In-depth Analysis: We run this before your test drive, giving you time to polish the chapter. £25
- Alternatively, opt for a shorter feedback report where you can also get time to tweak before your test-drive goes live. £15
- Beta Reader Event Invite: We set up an event asking readers of your test-drive if they would like to enrol to beta read your full story when it's ready. You get this list as a csv to email the readers when your story is ready. You can also invite these readers to follow you on your I Turn Pages profile or anywhere else. £60
- Newsletter advert: We send out an email alerting readers to come along and give you feedback and comments. £30
- Editor alert: We invite editors to give you comments. £15
Please note that on the last two items (editor invite and newsletter invite) we can't guarantee our editors and readers will comment. They normally would, but this extra is to alert them, not to guarantee they will comment.
Your entry goes live on Tuesday on our Test-Drive Tuesday page. Readers comment with feedback on direction, pacing, and what's pulling them in. Anyone who wants to beta-read your finished book can enter your event to become a beta reader when your story is finished.