Welcome and Rules

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Hi there! In this section, you’ll be able to expand your connections and build friendships with other writers, as well as solicit Betas, Editors, and Critiquing Partners for your written works. This system is new to KHV and might take some getting used to, so we’ve included this guide to get you started, as well as reworked the rules to better fit this new system. So let’s get started, shall we?

What’s the difference between a Beta, Editor, and Critiquing Partner?

These three terms are similar, in that each service provided is a service wherein a person will review a writer’s work, providing feedback and constructive criticism and helping the writer get their work ready for publishing. But the three services are very different, and it’s a good idea to know what you’re looking for when hiring one.

Critiquing Partner

A Critiquing Partner is usually hired early on in your writing, and is someone who will be heavily involved in the creative process, giving ideas related to plot and character development, chapter structure, and writing style. Consider this service almost the same as hiring a co-writer. It’s a good idea to hire a Critiquing Partner if you’ve got the idea for your story, but aren’t sure what to do with it, or if you want someone to bounce ideas off of and talk to extensively about your story as you write it.

Betas

A Beta is usually hired after the first draft of your story is completed and you’re starting your first edit. Ideally, a writer will want ten to forty betas. Right now, such a thing is impossible if you want to hire all your betas from KHV, but in the meantime, we’ll do what we can. Working with a Beta will vary depending on who you are as a writer and what works best for you, but typically, a writer will either give their betas sections of the completed story at a time, or even the whole book at once, and will have their betas read the story and give an extensive review of it. The characters, the plot, the premise, the writing style, everything. Writers take this early review as a chance to improve upon their book, sometimes re-writing entire sections and changing major plot points, which is why this is usually done after the first draft is written but before you’re ready to send to publishers. There will be more on Betas and suggestions on how to work with them in This section at a later date. Until then, feel free to experiment with betas, finding methods that work for you.

Editors

An Editor isn’t usually hired until the story is completely finished and beta’d, and you have the story in a place where you’re ready to send it off for publishing. The Editor is given the final draft of the story, and their job is not to give advice on plot or character development, but to go over your manuscript and correct it from a technical standpoint. Spelling mistakes, sentence structuring, that sort of thing. An editor is meant to be rough, to give your manuscript criticism and help you prepare it for publishing. A volunteer editor is not really a replacement for a professional one, no matter how talented the editor, but not everyone can hire professional editors, so we’ll do what we can to help each other out.

How do I hire one of these services?

There are two ways to hire services for your writing, and we’ve detailed them here to help you get started.

If you’re hiring Betas for your story, you can post an advert in this section for applicants. This advert will look something like this:

Name of book
Genre
Basic summary
Number of betas wanted
Details of the job

Depending on how you handle betas, the details of the job will vary, and it’s a good idea to post them here. You’ll want to include details such as how many chapters you’ll want them to read at a time (if not the whole book), the deadline for when to send you the review, (Will they have a week? A month? Two months?) certain aspects of the writing you’ll want them to focus on (i.e., the characters, the writing, the plot, etc.) and the format of the review you’ll be sending. There will be more on that last bit later in the aforementioned Tips thread.

Along with these details, we encourage you to include applications for betas to fill out, provided by yourself, so that if, by some miracle, you have more applicants than you need, you’ll be able to choose those you feel will provide the best feedback for your work.

As far as Critiquing Partners and Editors, however, a writer won’t be the one posting the adverts, since a story traditionally only needs one or two editors or critiquing partners instead of the recommended ten to forty betas. Instead, individual editors and critiquing partners will be in charge of posting their own pages, for writers to go and find them and be able to locate the best editor or critiquing partner for their needs.

A page for these services could look something like this:

Username
Service offered
Level of experience in the field
Preferred types of genres
Application for hiring

The application, provided by the user, is recommended to include such things as information on the book, the amount of work expected by the author, deadline times, etc. Writers who are looking for these services will be able to seek you out, and you can accept or decline their requests at your judgement.

Prefixes

In order to make this whole process even more efficient, we’ve provided prefixes for each category: Editor, Critiquing Partner, and New Written Work. Betas won’t get their own prefix, as Betas won’t be posting their own adverts, instead only responding to a writer’s request, in an effort to keep the section easy to navigate.

Rules

1. Do not post a thread advertising yourself as a beta. The system we’ve set up should work well for everyone, and too many Beta threads will not only clutter up the section, but will make it harder for writers to find and hire you.
   
   
2. Any works in the Erotica genre or works in the Romance genre containing graphic scenes must be clearly marked as such in the advert thread, warning potential applicants. Works in either of these genres may not be posted in the Written Works section, in compliance with the site’s content rules.
   
   
3. Do not post adverts or submit applications unless you’re willing to follow through and commit to the project. If you sign up to beta a story, put in the work. Of course, everyone reserves the right to leave a project or to ‘fire’ someone from a project if there are legitimate problems or if situations arise preventing you from giving a project the time it deserves, but if you sign up for something, make sure you give it your all!
   
   
4. Do not post actual written works, prompts, or workshops in this section, as those will have their own subsections for you to post in.
   
   
5. Do not charge for services advertised in this section, or solicit payment of any kind. This section is for volunteers only, just a bunch of friends helping each other out.
   -AMENDMENT: You may charge "Munny" for work done in these sections, but KHV is not responsible for user Munny transactions. Pay all Munny you promised, and deliver satisfactory work in exchange, but if something goes wrong for either party, KHV will not be issuing compensation. If you feel you've been cheated out of Munny, contact a staff member and strikes might be given out, but we won't be issuing refunds.
   
   
6. Not so much a rule as it is a plug, lol, but for those of you who are a user on our Discord Server, there’s actually a Writer’s Nook channel for casual discussion amongst writers, and it’s also a great place to post a link to your adverts, when you’re starting a new story or if you’re first starting up as an Editor or Critiquing partner. Feel free to check it out and start chatting; get to know your fellow writers on the site and just have a good time!

Now then! Let’s get out there and get some writing done!