You're looking for a beta and/or sensitivity reader? Let's see if we're good fit.

I'm a self-published author with five books out and had two short stories accepted for anthologies. Another story won second place in a short story contest.

I've judged the Book Bloggers' Novel of the Year Award for three years and the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition one year. Judging these competitions gave me the opportunity to read the openings of many books and see the quality of the books that moved on to semi-finals and finals.

Books I'd love to work on

I read a lot of books in the young adult and adult age categories but I've been enjoying more and more middle grade books too.

Genres I enjoy reading:

Cozy fantasy
Fantasy romance/romantic fantasy
Paranormal Romance
Urban fantasy
General fantasy
Contemporary fantasy
Space opera
Mysteries (in all genres)
Contemporary romance (not erotica)
Retellings/Mythology/Folklore

Books I won't accept

Books that include body horror, physical torture, rape, excessive gore, extreme violence against pets, pet death, suicide, overly sexualised characters (from the writer's point of view or a character's point of view), zombies.

Books that glorify or promote racism, transphobia, homophobia, queerphobia, albeism, sexism.

I'm not the right beta reader for horror or grimdark fantasy.

Sensitivity Reading Expertise

I'm a mixed race woman of colour with Dutch and Indonesian ancestry. I've lived my whole life in the Netherlands in a moderately sized (for the Netherlands) city, although the area we lived in was overwhelmingly white during my childhood years.

I live with several invisible illnesses that affect me physically and cause me daily pain and fatigue. We can discuss this in more detail if you're looking for a sensitivity reader for chronic pain/illness.

While I'm a ciswoman, gender studies was a large part of my university degree and I experienced my fair share of sexism in my professional life before I wasn't able to work a day job anymore.

Rates

I charge a flat fee for shorter work. The flat fee for short stories up to 10k words includes two rounds of feedback.

For any work above 10k words, there's a starting fee for the base wordcount of that category. Every thousand words above that will be charged with an additional fee, rounded to the nearest thousand.

Any book above 150k words can be discussed.

I do take on books later in the series if I've read the previous book(s), if it's a second book, or if it's a third book in the series and the word count of each previous book doesn't exceed 100k.

I might require more time if I need to read more books to prepare for this one.

If your book is a standalone withing a larger series or universe, please mention it in your query. I understand if you want a beta reader who isn't familiar with the series/universe. If that's the case, I'll make sure to note anything that is or could be confusing in the comments.

Payments must be done through Paypal.

Let's work together!

If all of this sounds good to you, send me a query at [tessa at narratess dot com] with following:

• the blurb of the book or a summary, whichever you have already
• the first chapter so I can get a feel of the story and your writing (if you want a sample of my beta reading on this chapter, add this as a request)
• a list of content warnings
• the total word count of your book/story
• your timeline

Note: Don't send me your first draft. Do at least one round of self-edits/revisions. If I think your manuscript is not ready for beta reading, I will let you know.

I will respond with a quote if I want to take on your project.

If I don't think it's a good fit, I'll contact you with a reason.

I will add a comment:
When my suspension of disbelief is broken.

When I'm emotionally affected (I laugh, cry, get annoyed).

When a sentence or paragraph doesn't flow well.

When something is inconsistent with the worldbuilding or event that happened before.

When I'm confused about something.

When a character does or says something that's not in line with my expectations up to that point.

When a scene doesn't feel right (doesn't do what it probably needs to, feels like filler, out of place, wrong pacing).

When I love a line or paragraph.

I won't:
Mark any typos, grammar or spelling mistakes.

Fact check.

Suggest rephrased sentences (I might suggest rephrasing for clarity but will never do it for you).

Change your or your character's voice.

For sensitivity reading I will pay close attention to the areas you hired me for.

I will add notes about my own experiences or what others have shared with me when applicable (either the character experiences something or doesn't experience something when I would).

While I mostly approach this from personal experience, I will do my best to fact check when necessary.

I'm happy to expand on any of my sensitivity reading comments but sometimes it's hard to cram all of knowledge into a comment box.

I will add a comment:
When my suspension of disbelief is broken.

When I'm emotionally affected (I laugh, cry, get annoyed).

When a sentence or paragraph doesn't flow well.

When something is inconsistent with the worldbuilding or event that happened before.

When I'm confused about something.

When a character does or says something that's not in line with my expectations up to that point.

When a scene doesn't feel right (doesn't do what it probably needs to, feels like filler, out of place, wrong pacing).

When I love a line or paragraph.

I won't:
Mark any typos, grammar or spelling mistakes.

Fact check anything other than my suggestions.

Suggest rephrased sentences (I might suggest rephrasing for clarity but will never do it for you).

Change your or your character's voice.