Beta Readers...

I've been on an endless search for Beta Readers for my current Work In Progress (WIP).

You know, those elusive, eccentric, intelligent folks willing to read your latest WIP and give honest, constructive feedback? I believe, at this stage, they are harder to find than unicorns and white lions.

I have a few - friends and co-workers who actually don't think everything I put on paper is wonderful. They challange plot points, character reactions and dialogue and story archs. They have no fear confronting why I put a character in a given circumstance, how that character reacts to it and even the language they use to describe their reaction.

Yes, I'm lucky. They are good and evil, wrapped up in a convenient package of honesty, good vocabulary and a semi-rabid hunger for the written word. I'd be lost without them. They've made almost everything I've written better, because of their feedback.

So here's the problem: none of them are in love with the genre I'm currently working in. My current WIP is a romance, and granted my three top Beta's love them a good romance. But this is a Paranormal Romance. It's that P word that has them a little stand-offish. I guess I can appreciate that. And I know they'll read it for me, as long as the romance part is strong enough. But I'm still left with the need for feedback on the Para Parts.

So tell me, fellow readers and writers; where do you search for Beta Readers? What sort of feedback are you looking for from them? How succesful have you been and how much of their input do you incorporate?

Back tomorrow with more for the "A to Z" blog challange! I look forward to your comments and promise to answer every one of them!