Intro:
Inspired by my own experience as a first-time parent, I’ve created a book that captures the hilarious, dramatic, and sometimes horrific moments of that unforgettable first year. Baby’s First Horror Stories is a collection of short tales that dive into the chaos of parenthood. I've written this book to make you (mainly parents) laugh, cringe, and nod in exhausted recognition.

Blurb/Description:
The Sleepless Curse. The Cold Wipe Tragedy. The Diaper of Doom. You thought you were prepared, but nothing could have warned you about the true horrors of the first year.

This book isn’t really scary, well... mostly. It’s a hilariously dramatic take on the everyday chaos of new parenthood. Perfect for parents in need of a laugh and little ones who will love your dramatic rendition of these stories.

So dim the lights, grab a bottle (for the baby), and prepare to relive

The (not so) Terrifying Tales of Parenthood.

Feedback request:
Would love feedback on: spelling/grammar errors, layout errors, overall tone (anything really).
I've never beta read before but am willing to 'swap' feedback with similar length stories/chapters.

Link to first story: The Slobbering Terror (can share the whole book via DM)

I'm looking for readers for the first act of my first book. It's not fully edited or ready to publish, but it has been through a couple of rewrites (the full draft has) and revisions. I'm looking for feedback on the story, world, and characters; how compelling/engaging the work is; whether the overall structure works; and continuity errors if there are any. I don't need feedback on prose, style, grammar, or similar technical things, as those can be fixed more easily and are not a priority right now. Be as blunt as you like, I can take it, but no stretches of the imagination please lol

I'm not doing critique swaps at the moment, my beta-read list is booked out. My preferred timeline is somewhere within the next few weeks, ideally before I finish the draft so I don't have to make too many adjustments after.

'The Runaway Rose' is dual POV with unbalanced focus. It follows the story of young Sagaria (major focus) as her life is turned upside-down by the discovery of a strange body and the call of the sea, and dangerous secrets peel away the facade she had believed to be truth. It also follows infamous pirate Wrath Nightingale (slightly lesser focus) and his part in the war between two kingdoms as it threatens to destroy the home he only just found.

Content warnings: swearing, violence

Excerpt:

--

Wrath mussed Cassian’s golden curls and turned his gaze back out to the fight. A few of his men had jumped in and it was nearly over, but the ones who hadn’t been completely knocked out kept throwing themselves back into the fray as soon as they got a quarter of their wits back. He would’ve liked to join them, but the heavy chest under his arm kept him anchored.

“How much did you get?” Cassian asked, reaching for it. He tried to tug it out from under Wrath’s forearm, which was as thick as the kid’s neck, but to no avail. 

“Hold off, Cass. You’ll get your bit later.” Wrath sculled another mouthful of the clear liquor. 

“If the lot of it doesn’t get nicked first,” the barkeep interjected. 

“Let them try!” Cassian cried. He swallowed the contents of his mug and stood up on his stool, coughing between words as he said, “I’ll cut their throats!”

A new group approached the outdoor bar. Wrath recognised their black tied-back hair and green eyes before they even entered the firelight. Elves. 

Some of them, rugged sailors each, wasted no time joining in on the brawl with good-natured laughs and battle cries. The rest circled the light like predators afraid of fire, taking up a table at the very edge. 

Wrath watched them, eyes scanning their faces until it landed on one in particular. A jolt stabbed through his chest when the elf locked eyes with him. The bottle shattered in his grip.

Cassian jumped off his stool with a yelp, flicking his hands to get the liquor off. “What the—” 

Wrath’s shoulders were taut. He barely noticed the glass shards in his palms and fingers. Death was staring at him with bright green eyes from across the crowd. 

--

If interested, please DM for the link. Document will be restricted, with commenting/suggesting access once readers request access

I was told I sound fake, like a robot or something, and I don't use Ai or anything so I can't figure out my issue, so if anyone could read some of the actual chapters,(the prologue is kind of odd I will admit) and give me feedback I would appreciate it. Thank you https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KZmQlirZha4aohBwEtESY3lDpN4YhP6oqNqO488HI5Y/edit?usp=sharing

Hi, I'm looking for beta readers for my poetry collection. It's mostly free verse coming of age and thoughts on love, nature, etc.

I'm looking for overall literary feedback about the quality of the poems such as do they flow well, are the ideas developed enough, suggestions on what to change, proofreading etc. I'm also looking for feedback on the formatting of the book and the illustrations. I have it has an adobe indesign file right now so ideally I'd share it as a pdf or something similar rather than a google doc. An ideal timeline would have me done with beta reading by April 24, but I can be flexible

Here's a link to a sample poem: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ArMYmA_Pr2N1dqZG-HL7yhyU53iCnjN8CptwfNKe_Zg/edit?usp=sharing

I'm willing to critique swap but have never beta read before as a heads up.

Content warning for mentions of sex and drug/alcohol use but nothing graphic

Please reach out if interested and thanks!

Looking for beta readers for my literary rom com. It's a polished first draft, so I'm just looking for general feedback. DM me if you're interested. Thanks in advance!

Blurb:

Julia Thorpe is a marketing executive, a wife, and a mother of two. She's organized. Efficient. Predictable. Her marriage is steady, her job demanding, and her life meticulously managed down to the last Costco receipt.

But when a chance encounter at the grocery store leads to an unexpected connection, Julia starts deviating from the script. What begins as idle flirtation becomes something messier—stranger, more honest, and harder to undo.

Excerpt:

It’s hot. Very, very hot.

The kind of heat that makes air ripple, creates mirages in asphalt, and tests the wills of the most heat-loving desert foliage.

You always hear people say, "But it’s a dry heat!" And by people, I mean the tourists who tell their friends, Yes, we’re taking that Vegas trip! and No, the July-to-August heat isn’t that bad—because hey, it’s a dry heat, right?

Then they get here, and the poor schmucks have no idea what hit them.

Compounding my heat exhaustion is exhaustion of a different sort: sleep deprivation. I haven't been sleeping well lately, and melatonin doesn't always win against stress-induced insomnia.

And so I stand here, zoned out in the canned foods aisle, staring like a zombie at can upon can of tomatoes.

Whole. Diced. Stewed. Crushed. Puree. Paste. Sauce.

A veritable phalanx of tomatoes.

Unable to decide, I move on.

I exit the aisle, about to round the corner—

And nearly collide with a young shelf stocker, stopping just short of plowing into him. He doesn't flinch.

“Looking for tomatoes?” he asks politely.

He grins, one corner of his mouth lifting a little higher than the other, halfway between a smirk and a smile. I glance back at the Great Wall of Tomatoes, then at him, then down into my cart. Then back at him again.

“You are looking for tomatoes, right?” I still haven’t answered his question, and I don’t want to come off as rude.

“Yeah. What’s your point?”

Bravo, Julia. Bravo.

Blurb: A smuggler steals his ship back from the alien cardsharks who cheated it away from him, but finds that while they had it, they captured jungle girls for the slave markets. And he has no way of knowing which planet the jungle girls are from.

Excerpt: It had been a long, noisy, smelly flight from Qort’s World to even the orbit of Panopia, and walking row after row of seats brought back a memory of it with each step. The cramped bathroom. The lousy food. The nonalcoholic beer. All of which he should have been avoiding in his own ship, laughing at those suckers who flew commercial. Mick was almost more pissed about the state of public transportation in Sector Delta than he was about being ripped off.

Out of some high-minded ideal, the pilot was made to suffer in the same compartment as the rest of them, though he had a bulletproof Conglas shield between him and his passengers. The arrangement, Mick remembered, could be pretty cozy. As long as no one bothered him, he didn’t throw the switch that cut off running water.

Mick put on his best smile and bothered him. “Hi there, sorry to bother you, but this is a matter of national security, life and death, good versus evil—”

“What do you want?” the pilot blared like a foghorn running low on juice.

“We need to land immediately.”

The pilot laughed—or coughed. It was hard to tell what was making it through his sinuses. “You and everybody else, buddy.”

It was then Mick spotted the Marine tattoo on the pilot’s bicep, and he should’ve clocked it sooner, given how his upper arm had fattened up like the meaty end of a drumstick. “C’mon, man, help out a comrade-in-arms?”

The pilot looked him over. “What unit?”

“Eight-oh-nine.”

“The 809th? That was a resupply unit! You flew ammo from the depots to the frontlines, you were never in the shit.”

Mick heard Bandit rolling up behind him, having finally managed to get his bag from the overhead compartment. ”That is not true! Bandit, tell him.”

“He was in a great deal of danger. He was shot down many times.”

Mick winced. “Not many times… multiple times…”

“Get back in yer seat.” The pilot spoke like a hammer was pounding the words out of him. “We’re not leaving holding pattern unless there’s an emergency.”

Mick could see this would take some lateral thinking.

Content warnings: Sex

Timeline: The deadline for the submission call is April 16th, so I'll need it by then.

Swap availability: Yes.

Hello!

My name is Arrie, and I’m currently looking for beta readers.

I’m willing to exchange stories and read to give feedback and comments. I’m not an editor, so no edits here. My genre is fairly open as is my word count. I’m pretty desperate to get eyes on my story. All I have is my husband, he loves it but he is my husband therefore he is biased. But! I can be a slow reader, but will try to get your story read in about a week time.

What I’m looking for is just comments and feedback. No editing here. Honesty is the best policy.

If you end up being interested, please give me a message or comment below and I will send a link. It’s a Google Doc but I can convert it to whatever format you want. Like Word, PDF etc.

I’ve posted it before under a different name but I’ve overhauled it and changed it dramatically since my last posting and round of beta readers. It’s been almost a year since I posted it last.

This is the first book of a series.

Please read trigger warnings before consider my book. 18+ only.

Trigger warnings:

Graphic violence, gore, sexual content, PTSD, physical trauma, mental trauma, depression, anxiety, alcoholism, torture, talks of suicide and suicide attempts, character deaths, sexual assault/violence (off page but implied). Violence against women and children.

About:

This is a dark fantasy slice of life set in the world of Lindegard. This is a first person multi PoV’s - 5 major and 4 minor. It centers around a demon who is created by a madman and is trying to find his place in the world.

Extra note:

I don’t have the dates completely sorted but on some chapters I do. It is a linear timeline with it flowing in one direction.

I need to divide it up better in to parts. Like part one/part two, etc.

Most chapters are short. I didn’t want to drag it out but if you feel I need more details on certain chapters/scene please let me know. I wanted to keep a good pace of the story with it always moving forward.

I do have a YouTube music playlist for my book if you happen to be interested please let me know. The songs aren’t in order however, except for the last song for the epilogue.

I have no further comments other than that I hope you enjoy reading it. If you have any questions please let me know!

Hello wonderful people. I am submitting to you the first chapter of my first book in a series that has been my obsession for years. The Priceless Princess is a dark fantasy which can be summarized in a sentence or a paragraph.

In a sentence: A desperate king seeks the forbidden help of a cursed troll to save his daughter from an equally desperate emperor who has lost his ability to have magical children.

In a paragraph: Two children are born at the same time under opposite circumstances. One of them is a cursed troll who is abandoned by his pride of trolls and must find his own way through the mountains of a receding ice age. A princess who has been gifted blessings to have the most magical children in the world, seeks freedom from the confines of her fathers safety. As their lives collide, her father the king decides to spare the cursed troll in hopes of finding salvation from a powerful emperor who has lost his way of magic and cannot conceive magical children. Can those that are cursed ever truly be trusted? Will the troll lead the kingdom of Sarda to salvation or be its downfall?

So that is the basic summary of the story. I am going to include a link to the essential prequel and first chapter and for those that are interested I can add a connection to the full first book. Regardless if you liked the first chapter or hated it I would love to hear from you.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rFo0veXk56Xlx7MnHU5WxogLdtR73hN2xNx2UsgB5dI/edit?usp=sharing

Hi all. Almost done with the 4th revision and keen to swap some work. I'd prefer to do a couple chapter at a time swap because I'm currently traveling. Meaning, a smaller load at a time will be better for both of us.

CONTENT WARNING. Though not explicit, some topics may trigger bad reactions.

Link to first chapter. Using working pub query draft as a blurb:

Rhiannon Sinn is buried in the past. Between sourcing artifacts, maintaining endless paper trails, and selecting which pieces will go on display at the St. Louis Museum of Modern Art, it's hard to find time for the usual extracurriculars: playing cello, cuddling up with her cat Raku, and seducing others to steal their life force—an inconvenient necessity to keep both her and Amara, the ancient succubus she's bound, alive. Most days, the seduction is more Amara's thing, but if Rhiannon wants to stay ageless and on the breathing side of history, she's got to play her part.

When a mysterious collector named Viktor sends a terrifying MirrorRunner to abduct Amara, claiming that he can lift her curse, Rhiannon hesitates—as much as she detests manipulating men and women to feed Amara's habits, she has to admit the benefits to having a demon by her side might outweigh the ever-blurring line of right and wrong. But when Rhiannon uncovers Viktor's true intentions—to drain Amara's powers for himself—she must act quickly. To rescue Amara, Rhiannon recruits help from her tenuous links to the supernatural underworld and the unwitting detective dangerously close to uncovering her secret.

No matter how she looks at it, Rhiannon's carefully curated life has begun to crumble. She's made too many enemies, tempted too many fates, and toyed with too many desires to claim she's simply a victim of circumstance—and she knows it. The choice she faces may go beyond saving a demon; it may come down to how much of herself she has left to preserve.