Ehrlin Publishing was one of our earliest beta testers, and also one of the first customers to sign up for a paid plan after we launched. Their history and success, with millions of copies sold to date, is tightly tied to beta reading, so we were naturally curious about their thoughts on using beta readers. This interview with the editor Elin Westerberg is the first one in a series of interviews with the publishers and authors who use BetaReader.io as part of their workflow, so stay tuned for more!
Tell us a bit about Ehrlin Publishing. Who are you and what type of literature do you publish?
– Ehrlin Publishing is a small publisher with big ambitions. We publish books that we believe help people in various ways, which often puts us in categories such as Personal development, Health, Mental illness, Mindfulness, and similar. At the core of the publishing house are the innovative children’s books The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep, The Little Elephant Who Wants to Fall Asleep, and The Tractor Who Wants to Fall Asleep, by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, who also is the founder of Ehrlin Publishing.
How important (or non-imporant) would you say that beta reading is to you as a publisher?
– Because we want our books to inspire thoughts and change in behavior, beta reading is extremely important to us. It gives us the opportunity to, before we publish, see if the manuscript is received according to our intentions, and reassures us that the published book will render the desired results for our readers.
How many beta readers do you draft for a typical project?
– Between 30-40 readers are normally enough to start seeing trends and to get a good response.
What do you typically look for when beta testing a manuscript?
– That we found the right tone, style and content for the target audience, and that no obvious mistakes have slipped through.
Did you get any insights from your test at BetaReader.io that affected the final result?
– Yes, primarily we could confirm that some of the things we were already hesitant about were also caught by the readers. It gave us more confidence to trust our gut feeling and showed us in which direction we needed work to improve the script.
What are your best advice to publishers and authors who consider starting to use beta readers?
– Listen to the feedback, but remember that you cannot satisfy everyone. Some of your readers will have views that you do not agree with, but when several people pay attention to the same thing, it is probably time to change something.
Would you recommend other publishers and authors to use BetaReader.io?
– Yes! It is a user friendly platform that saves you a lot of time compared to managing the beta reading process manually. And you get everything gathered in one place – reading data, feedback and email addresses – which simplifies the communication with your readers.
Ehrlin Publishing is a Sweden based international publisher, known for successes such as The Rabbit who Wants to Fall Asleep: A New Way of Getting Children to Sleep, A feeling of Me: Mindfulness for Children, and PeriMenoPower. They got hooked on BetaReader.io when testing Jag dog och fick liv igen, due to be released in Swedish in May, 2019.