I want someone that will read the entire book and give advice not on editing but in the plot. Like help me find weaknesses so I can sew them up and get the plot nice and ready for a final draft I don't mind paying for such a service but I don't know where to go or how to find someone that's not just a scam for us eager and inexperienced writers
That sounds like a developmental editor. I've always thought of an alpha reader as like maybe the first person, maybe someone you have a close relationship with that reviews an early revision. But I'm knew to this, so maybe someone else can confirm. Edit: I guess Alpha readers do what you want, and if you don't know any personally you can find them on sites like Fiverr. There's obviously a risk so I'd look for reviews. Someone just made a thread about there positive experience with beta readers from Fiverr, you can maybe find that thread and message them individually.
Alpha readers are people who look at your work before its polished, in many cases on a chapter by chapter bases while you are still writing...some do it for pay via sites like fiverr while others will do it free as a critique exchange via things like our collab board to be hgonest witrh most forms of editting you get what you pay for - neither alphas nor betas are experts necessarily and you need to take their 'advice ' with a big pinch of salt a structural or developmental edit will be more in depth, assuming you get a good editor, but it won't be cheap
Yeah, the alpha is usually a spouse, close friend, or family member--for me, my dad--who reads your shit as you're writing it--or at the virgin first draft phase--and can offer intimate feedback because they know your personality, style, strengths and weaknesses and can offer that personal, early-game redirect before you get bogged down in details, genre expectations, and other distractions.
