Creating Custom Beta Readers

Overview

The 5 built-in beta readers cover the most common feedback areas, but sometimes you need something more specialized. Custom beta readers let you create a persona tailored to your exact needs — a reader who understands your genre, speaks in a voice you find useful, and focuses on the aspects of craft you care about most.

All users can create custom beta readers. Once created, your custom readers appear alongside the built-in personas in the beta read session picker. Subscribers can also publish their readers to the marketplace.

The Creation Wizard

The beta reader creation wizard guides you through a 5-step process:

1. Intent — describe your ideal reader, or choose from boilerplates.
2. Persona — define the reader's name, voice, and focus areas.
3. Details — set temperature, token limits, icon, and color.
4. Portrait — optionally generate an ink portrait.
5. Publish — set visibility and save your reader.

Access the wizard from the Beta Readers page by clicking Create Beta Reader.

Step 1: Intent

Start by describing the kind of reader you want to create. Write a description between 10 and 1,000 characters explaining their specialty, perspective, and what kind of feedback they should give.

For example: “A romance genre expert who focuses on emotional tension, chemistry between characters, and whether the romantic arc hits the expected beats. Speaks with warmth and encouragement but isn't afraid to point out when a scene falls flat.”

You'll see a model selector with a cost estimate. The AI uses your description to generate the persona details in the next step.

Boilerplate Starters

Not sure where to start? Click the Boilerplates button in the text area to choose from 6 ready-made reader descriptions:

Each boilerplate includes four structured sections: Personality (who this reader is), Feedback style (how they structure their response), Voice (an example of their tone), and a sample quote showing how they'd actually sound. Here's what the Plot Detective boilerplate looks like:

Obsessed with story logic and structure. Tracks every promise
the narrative makes and checks whether it delivers.

Personality: Methodical, detail-oriented, slightly obsessive.
Keeps mental notes on every character's motivation, every setup,
every timeline reference.

Feedback style: Categorized by issue type — plot holes, dropped
threads, motivation gaps, timeline errors. References specific
passages. Distinguishes "definitely wrong" from "might confuse
careful readers."

Voice: "On page 12, Elena says she's never been to the coast.
On page 47, she navigates the harbor district from memory.
Either she's lying (lean into it) or this is an oversight."

Step 2: Persona

This is where your beta reader takes shape. Define the following:

• Name — give your reader a memorable name. This appears in the session picker and on feedback cards.
• Tagline — up to 120 characters. A short description that captures what this reader does.
• Description — up to 1,000 characters. A full explanation of the reader's expertise, approach, and what kind of feedback they provide.
• Voice — up to 500 characters. Describe how this reader communicates. Are they formal or casual? Encouraging or blunt? Do they use metaphors, or are they precise and clinical?
• Focus areas — tags that describe what this reader pays attention to (e.g., “pacing,” “dialogue,” “tension”).
• Category — choose from the 6 focus areas: Narrative & Plot, Character & Emotion, Prose & Craft, World & Setting, Pacing & Engagement, or Genre-Specific.

Voice & Personality

The Voice field is one of the most important parts of your beta reader. It controls the tone and style of the feedback. A reader with a warm, encouraging voice produces fundamentally different feedback than one with a terse, critical voice — even when they're analyzing the same text.

Here are some example voice descriptions:

• “Speaks like a seasoned editor at a literary magazine. Precise, thoughtful, occasionally dry humor. Always explains why something works or doesn't.”
• “Enthusiastic and supportive, like a writing workshop partner who genuinely loves your work but isn't afraid to push you. Uses lots of specific examples.”
• “Blunt and efficient. No fluff. Lists issues in order of severity. Doesn't sugarcoat.”

Step 3: Details

Fine-tune the technical settings that control how your beta reader operates:

• Temperature (0.3–0.95) — controls how creative vs. predictable the feedback is. Lower values produce more consistent, structured feedback. Higher values produce more varied, sometimes surprising observations.
• Max tokens (512–8,192) — sets the maximum length of the reader's feedback. Higher values allow more detailed analysis. A good default is 2,048–4,096 for most readers.
• Icon — choose an icon from the built-in library. This icon appears on the reader's card if no portrait is set.
• Accent color — a color that identifies your reader visually in the session UI.

Step 4: Portrait

Optionally generate an ink portrait for your beta reader. Portraits are purely cosmetic — they appear on the reader's card and in the session picker, giving your reader a visual identity.

Portraits use the same 5 art styles available for character portraits: Classic, Sketch, Editorial, Dramatic, and Stylized. Each portrait costs 15,000 Genesis Tokens.

This step is entirely optional. You can skip it and your reader will use a default icon instead. You can always come back and generate a portrait later.

Step 5: Publish

The final step sets how your beta reader is shared:

• Visibility
  • Private — only you can see and use this reader.
  • Public — published to the Marketplace for other writers to discover and use.
• Prompt visibility
  • Hidden — other users can use your reader but can't see the underlying persona prompts.
  • Visible — other users can see how your reader is configured. Useful for educational purposes or encouraging community remixing.

Start with Private visibility while you test your reader on your own projects. Once you're satisfied with the feedback quality, switch to Public to share it with the community. See Publishing Your Creations for general marketplace publishing guidelines.

Tips for Building Great Beta Readers

• Be specific about the voice. The Voice field is what makes a beta reader feel like a distinct person instead of a generic AI. Spend time crafting it.
• Focus on one thing. The best beta readers have a clear specialty. A reader who tries to cover everything gives shallow feedback. A reader who focuses on dialogue gives deep, actionable dialogue feedback.
• Test with your own writing. Run your new reader on a chapter you've already revised so you can evaluate whether the feedback is useful and on-target.
• Use boilerplates as foundations. The 6 intent boilerplates are excellent starting points. Pick the closest match, then customize the persona to your needs.
• Pair custom readers with built-ins. Your custom reader covers your niche need. The built-in readers cover the fundamentals. Use them together in sessions.
• Adjust max tokens based on purpose. Structural analysis readers need more tokens (4,096+) to cover plot and pacing thoroughly. Prose-focused readers can often work well with 2,048 tokens.
• Write a strong description. If you publish your reader, the description is what convinces other writers to include them in a session. Explain the reader's specialty and the kind of feedback they provide.