Roundtable

Beta readers help you see the story your audience receives.

A beta reader reads a draft from the audience's point of view and tells you where the story engages, confuses, surprises, or loses them. Writers usually seek beta feedback after completing a workable draft but before final proofreading or publication.

What does a beta reader do?

A beta reader responds to the reading experience rather than correcting every sentence. Useful feedback may identify where attention drops, a character's decision feels unconvincing, a reveal lacks setup, or important context arrives too late. Beta readers do not replace copyeditors, proofreaders, sensitivity readers, or professional editors; each role answers different questions.

When should you ask for beta reader feedback?

Share a draft when its beginning, middle, and ending are present and you are ready to reconsider substantial choices. If you already know that scenes are missing or the ending will change, revise those issues first. Beta feedback is most useful when readers can experience the intended story and you still have room to act on what they notice.

What should you ask beta readers?

Ask a small set of questions tied to the experience you want to create: Where did you want to keep reading? Where were you confused? Which character choices felt earned or unearned? When did the pace feel rushed or slow? What did you expect would happen next? Open questions usually reveal more than asking whether the book was good.

Human and AI beta readers offer different perspectives

Human beta readers bring lived experience, taste, genre knowledge, and genuine emotional response. AI beta readers can provide fast, repeatable reactions focused on particular craft questions, but they can misunderstand context, invent problems, or share the same model bias. AI feedback works best as an exploratory step before or alongside feedback from people, not as evidence of how a real audience will respond.

How do you use conflicting feedback?

Treat feedback as evidence about a reader's experience, not an instruction to make every suggested change. Return to the passage behind each reaction, look for patterns, and compare them with your intended audience and purpose. When readers disagree, decide which response is closer to the experience you want the story to create.

How Roundtable supports the beta reading process

Roundtable gives fiction writers a private panel of distinct AI beta readers. Their passage-level reactions and combined editorial report can help you identify questions for revision before sharing a draft with human beta readers. You remain the author: compare the perspectives, test the reasoning, and keep only what serves your story.

Try a reading with your draft

Written by the Roundtable team. AI feedback supports your judgment; it does not guarantee publication or reader response.

Before you bring your draft

What is Roundtable?

Roundtable is an AI manuscript feedback tool for writers. It brings together up to five AI readers with different perspectives, connects their reactions to passages in your draft, and brings observations together in an editorial report.

How does an AI beta reader work?

An AI beta reader uses a language model to respond to your writing from a chosen perspective. In Roundtable, you can give readers different tastes and focus areas, such as character connection, pacing, or plot logic, then compare what they notice.

Can AI feedback replace human beta readers or an editor?

AI feedback can help you explore a draft before sharing it with people. It can also miss context, misunderstand your intent, or give conflicting advice. Human beta readers bring lived experience, and professional editors bring judgment that an AI panel cannot guarantee. You decide which suggestions serve your story.

What can I upload?

You can paste your writing or upload a TXT, DOCX, or PDF file. Confirm the extracted text, genre, and intended audience before starting a reading.

Can I try Roundtable for free?

You can create an account and try Roundtable with free starter credits without a payment card. Credit use varies with manuscript length, reader setup, panel size, and additional reports. The Pricing page explains the current allowances and paid options.

Will my manuscript be used to train AI?

Roundtable does not use your manuscript to train AI models, and we have opted out of training with our AI providers. We send relevant manuscript text to those providers to generate analysis and feedback. Training opt-outs do not mean zero retention; the Privacy policy explains provider processing and storage.

Will my manuscript be published or shared publicly?

No. Uploading to Roundtable does not publish your manuscript or make your feedback public. You keep your rights to your writing, and we do not acquire publishing rights or permission to use it in public marketing. Relevant content is processed by the service providers described in our Privacy policy.

Do you store my manuscript, and can I delete it?

Yes. Roundtable saves your manuscript and feedback in your account so you can return to them. You can delete a manuscript or contact support to request deletion. Active readings must finish before manuscript deletion. Deletion may not immediately remove backup copies, and external providers follow their own retention arrangements. See the Privacy policy for details and account deletion requests.

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