How many of you would like to read a Mapping the Edge story before the rest of the world sees it?

How many of you would like to improve a story by providing feedback directly to the author?

Hopefully some of you just yelled, “Me! Me!”

I’m working on a project that will ultimately lead to a collection of short stories. Each story is intended to stand alone, while still serving as one of the chapters in the book.

To make this project a reality, I need some beta readers, people who are willing to read a completed (but unpublished) story, and comment on what works and what doesn’t.

You don’t need to fix or re-write it. In fact, if something isn’t working, it’s on me to fix it. I just need to know what you the reader feels is ineffective or unclear, and perhaps why you think it’s not working for you.

I will even provide a guideline to help in your review. Committing as a beta reader doesn’t mean you’ve signed up for all stories, or even that you’ve signed up at all. It’s a way of telling me that you enjoy reading, you have opinions on what you read, and you’d be interested in reading one, two, or all.

If you’d like to become a Mapping The Edge beta reader, send me an email to MappingTheEdge@gmail.com with the subject line: BETA READER and we’ll talk details.

Warning: Some of the stories for this series contain intense, troubling and traumatic events. In advance of each story, I will send my beta readers a story summary with trigger warnings. The trigger warnings will list any subject matter with potential to cause an emotional reaction. That reaction may be part of the story’s intent, but it doesn’t mean that the story is for everybody.

The advance info will give you the chance to say, “Awesome! Send me the story already,” or, “No way, freak! Leave me out of this one,” and it will mean that I won’t wait around for feedback that’s not coming, because the story contained a don’t-go-there-with-me topic.

One last thing. If you decline this opportunity, just remember, you void the right to complain whenever your favorite cool character gets whacked, or worse, he/she never exists, because you didn’t tell me that something was missing from the story you just read!

Well? Are you in or out?

MappingTheEdge@gmail.com, subject: BETA READER