I do nothing (besides trying to contact them to find out why and show understanding if that’s due to their life circumstances and basically letting it go). Seriously, then why blog about this, you say? Well, while I basically just accept it as an occurrence that I have to be prepared for as a writer, this doesn’t mean that I cannot develop workarounds to this problem.
So what’re my workarounds? Well, firstly, I’m going to ‘over-call’ for alpha/beta readers. Some people set a definite number for how many alpha/betas they want. I don’t except for making it an odd number so that if they don’t disagree in their feedback on the same point on my work, I can always go for the majority. So my ‘over-calling’ is just to put up a request on as many places as I can get my hands on: within my own social circle, on multiple Facebook groups basically as things stand now.
The next part of the workaround is at a more microscopic level, based on a personal observation: those who came on board explicitly for a swap arrangement is less likely to be a no-show alpha/beta. So the take-away is, be prepared to invest in reading others’ work if you want reliable, dedicated feedback on yours.
Is my workarounds a cure for all? No, it isn’t, and I don’t believe in such things existing because everyone is different, unique. I’ve heard of writers going through what a daunting task it is to alpha/beta read with each alpha/beta before they formalise an agreement and that’s a feasible alternative approach to mine. And actually, it’s in relation to this other alternative approach that partially inspires this particular post.
I won’t bore you with details on the actual incident but let’s just say that I think this alternative approach can lead to a misunderstanding that a writer has no trust in his/her alpha/betas before the alpha/beta even has an opportunity to display their reliability through deeds (as I experienced myself when I signed up to be a beta-reader, I end up as a beta-reader for this author eventually but at one point, I seriously felt we had gone off on the wrong footing with each other and I called off my expression of interest) and I never see a value in a relationship or correspondence of any kind where the starting point is already one of apprehension and mistrust. This is just my personal opinion, of course, and heavily influenced by personal experiences. I believe in “to each his/her own.” And if you would like to comment on this particular aspect of dealing with a no-show alpha/beta reader, I’m all ears.
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