Looking for Editor(s)/Beta Reader(s)

[NaughtyPaladin]

Hello all,

I know this is a long shot for a number of reason, but I am looking for a (hopefully) long term editor. I have multiple ongoing stories multiple chapters long, and plan to keep writing and publishing as long as people keep liking what I produce. I like to think my work is generally pretty good, but I do need someone to help me when autocorrect rears its ugly head (when I write on my phone) or when I fumble a word (writing on my computer). I also generally get a fair amount of incorrect comma usage (I promise, I am working on it).

I have had a few editors in the past, and I hope I still have one (communication seems to have dropped, but I'm still hoping to hear from him) and have had three who have stepped down. One stepped down because the content of my stories was outside her comfort zone (one of my stories had incest and a bit of watersports). One simply ghosted me and stopped replying (hoping that has not happened with my current editor, but we'll see). The third stepped down for personal/spiritual reasons. I like having two people beta reading/editing for me, because that way more gets caught and different perspectives sometimes catch things that would otherwise slip through. I know I'm hoping for a lot from an editor, but I hope my stories are good enough it is enjoyable work editing, and I try to be a fun author to work with. I know the content issue with one of my first editors was unfortunate, and we did have some misunderstandings there, I'm trying to be better.

I have six ongoing stories, and I could go for either an editor/beta reader who works on all of them, or individuals who work on chapters for a particular story when it comes round. I kind of do round-robin publishing, so if you only worked with one story, you'd have a break until I came back around to that story. As for the content, it kind of varies based on the stories. The thing I know will turn a lot of people off is length. Some of the stories I write have pretty lengthy chapters. I saw the suggestion that when looking for editors to add word counts to help editors know if they have time or not, or if the work is even worth their time. Since these are ongoing works, I figured I give you the shortest chapter, longest chapter, average chapter length and numbers of currently written chapters, as well as the content warnings for those sensitive about subjects. As well as for the one I am currently publishing the exact numbers as well as my next one I have queued up. So here is that information:

A Hero's Rebirth:
Shortest Chapter 16,624
Largest chapter 75,999
Average 42,522
# of Chapter 8
Content: Harem story, fantasy setting, elves, magic, combat war, etc. Contains depictions of death, slavery and some (lightly touched on) torture. I'm not going for shock with gore, but there is violence. The Main character does not rape, and I don't think there are any nonconsensual scenes in this one. Contains most kinds of sex, including anal, oral and vaginal.

Currently about to publish a chapter that could use another lookover.... has 75,999 words... so yeah, this chapter is the longest yet. But as the average says, these chapters are all pretty long...

A Very Friendly Neighborhood:
Shortest Chapter 7,851
Largest chapter 13,423
Average 9816
# of Chapter 6
Content: Loose harem story, polyamory, "Real world", begins with non-consent themes for the male MC, but he warms up to things. There are less consensual scenes later with female characters. There is cheating, impregnation, interracial and virgin sex. Mature and young(er) women, with the MC being in his mid-twenties.

Art is My Favorite Class:
Shortest Chapter 3,716
Largest chapter 10,384
Average 7090
# of Chapter 8
Content: Starts off with dumb/gullible/naive/ditz getting tricked into sex, videos and pictures, expands to include her friends, as many as can be convinced to join. Has a few non-consent, drugged/drunk, and naive/gullible "tricked into it" sex scenes. Contains anal and deepthroating.

Hypnotherapist:
Shortest Chapter 2,525
Largest chapter 12,610
Average 6972
# of Chapter 13
Content: Mind controlled sex. Lots of it. If you qualify being hypnotized and convinced to have sex as non-consent, this is a lot of that. Though there are multiple scenes implying that the "victims" are simply being freed of their inhibitions and doing it willingly. Contains/will contain: Cuckolding, cheating, impregnation, virgin sex, and anal sex.

Too Good To Be True
Shortest Chapter 1,623
Longest Chapter 15,610
Average 7,726
# of Chapter 30
Content: Starts with non-consent then moves into a more romantic, polyamory setting with a fairly sizable harem in the modern day. Has the works: Incest, Watersports, anal, deepthroating, titty-fucking, virgin sex, group sex... and I'm sure I'm missing some.

What Happens in the Dark:
Shortest Chapter 6,415
Longet Chapter 22,247
Average 12077
# of Chapter 6
Content: A little twisted, this story basically revolves around kidnap, rape, and mind break. Has (obviously) kidnapping, rape, psychological trauma (Stockholm syndrome, etc.), virgin sex, anal sex, deepthroating, bondage, toys, group sex, toys, forced orgasms, and the works.

Have a chapter of this one ready for editing: 15,564 words.

I do not go into male-on-male activities, and while female-on-female hasn't appeared much, it is likely to appear more often. I don't do scat/poop anything, other then mentioning perhaps that a toy/penis needs cleaned after anal. Watersports is rare, but I have done some with it, and it may be referenced more. Most of my work is more male dominant/female submissive, but there is some Male+Female Dominant/Female submissive. I don't find Female Dominant/Male submissive appealing, so it probably won't find its way into my work much... but thinking about it, there is some of that in A Hero's Rebirth, with the Shadow Elves....

I hope that gives you all the context you need... If you want to either reach out to me through messages if you are interested, or reply to this message, I'd be happy to start a conversation. If you message me, I try to respond quickly, but the email I use for this tends to get caught in filters and sent straight to the spam folder... so watch out for that...

Thank you so much to anyone/everyone who reaches out. I appreciate your time for even reading this post.
~NaughtyPaladin

 

[StillStunned]

Just so you know what you're asking: a professional editor gets through about 1000 words an hour. It's mentally exhausting, too. My personal maximum per day is about 5000 words; any more than that in long term leaves me shattered.

You're asking someone to volunteer weeks of their time and energy. I'm not saying you shouldn't, but don't be surprised if you don't get a response, or if you find someone and they give up after one chapter. I think lots of volunteer editors here underestimate the amount of work it involves.

 

[NaughtyPaladin]

Yeah, I know it is a lot of work. For clarity though, I know some people go over editing like they are scrubbing a tile floor with a toothbrush, and I'm not looking for that extreme. I mentioned commas because that's something most people I've worked with could catch pretty easily. It's the reason I put "beta readers/editors" in there. If you have a solid grasp on things, and just read over it looking for things that stand out, break immersion, or just don't make sense, that's enough for most people. Do I still have people going "ah! How crass! He used a comma instead of a semicolon there! Doesn't he know anything about grammar?!"... probably. But that's were debate and nuance comes in, and people could debate what type of punctuation should be there all they want and people would still disagree. I don't really need that level of correction. If someone wants to do it, I'll take it (my editor that just stepped down for personal/spiritual reasons was a semicolon crusader) but I'm happy just with "yeah, that's not how you spell that word", and "pretty sure Autocorrect screwed you here".

Also, while I know I'm putting out a lot for an editor to work with, all the feedback I've gotten from my previous editors was that the stories were fun to work on and working with me was enjoyable, up until I got ghosted/dropped. Is it possible I've burned them out... possibly (If I did and you are reading this, I'm sorry) but I'm actually worried for two of them, because usually if you were burnt out, your last communication isn't "hey, you got more work for me, I'm looking forward to the next chapter." Unfortunately, as most people here use pen names for obvious reasons, once someone just stops responding, I don't have a whole lot of options for seeing if they are physically okay. Given the lack of contact, I just have to give them some time and move on.

I know my last editor to step down had a spiritual moment and is stepping away from erotica in general, so it wasn't personal.

And I just posted the monster chapter. So that would be a "you can look at it if you want, but looking forward is more important." So, I'll have chapters of the much smaller stories that need editing/beta reading, and if a person doesn't want to handle the (frankly massive) chapters of A Hero's Rebirth, they can just work on the more reasonably sized ones. I completely understand if I send an editor/beta reader a chapter and they say "um, this is too long, I don't have time or brain for this right now." Heck, I usually take a while to produce once of these chapters (my readers are complaining it took me 5 months to publish this latest chapter of A Hero's Rebirth), so taking your time with editing as you have time and mental energy/capacity is fine by me.

I try to be reasonable to work with. And if anyone wants to give it a shot, as I've said, I understand if it doesn't work out with an editor. Anyone willing to edit, or even try to edit, already has my respect. It is a valuable service, and I appreciate those willing to volunteer it so I can keep producing this free content.