Beta Readers/Writing Partners Anyone?

Well, I'm slowly climbing out of the holiday fog...5 kids and 8 adults under one roof felt like some Home Alone Christmas awesome. Here's a little peek into the madness:

Now that I'm trying to get back into the writing/blogging world, I wanted to introduce an idea. I've been getting asked the same question a lot lately: How do you go about getting beta readers for your novel?

Aside from friends and family, who often have a biased opinion, it's important to get some external feedback. But who can you trust with your manuscript? One author proposed asking GoodReads reviewers, but that sounded too risky to me, plus GoodReads reviewers tend to be way too harsh...

For me, the best beta readers have been other authors, because they happen to be readers, too!

Of course we all have writing partners, but sometimes our writing partners also fall into that "friend" category and/or they have read your manuscript too many times.

So here's my idea.

If any of you authors out there are interested in doing a manuscript swap (not with me in particular because I don't actually have a completed manuscript right now) I can pair you up or introduce you with someone else who is interested. If you would like to take part, here is a little form to fill out :)

Also, if you would just like to beta read even though you don't have a manuscript, that's fine too!!