Beta-Readers, how do you land clients?

[deepsudhan]

Hi all,

I recently joined Fiverr as a freelancer providing services for beta-reading and reviewing books (especially helping debut authors) in the genre of romance or romantasy (Esp. dystopian). I am an avid reader who reads about a book or two and reviews it on Good Reads almost every single day. I have been one of the top #10 reviews from India on Good Reads almost consistently this entire year and have been in the top few active reviewers worldwide as well. 

I am new to Fiverr and the space of freelancing and I am struggling to understand how to get my initial clients. Any help or leads in this regard would be really helpful! Thank you!

[deepsudhan]

LANDED MY FIRST CLIENT, GOT A 10$ TIP AND ALSO 5 5-STAR RATING AND AMAZING FEEDBACK!!!!!

[deepsudhan]

Hi everyone,

 

I have noticed that beta-reading is one of those niches that has a lot of sellers and I was wondering how one lands buyers for these gigs? I read a lot of books and consistently review a lot on GoodReads. I don't have a constant community or following but nevertheless, the reach of my reviews is high. So, I am not really sure what the best approach is for buyers to take notice of my work amidst so many others and reach out to get their books beta-read. Looking forward to learning more!

Cheers!

[imagination7413]

On 12/8/2024 at 10:43 AM, deepsudhan said:

how one lands buyers for these gigs?

I don't. 

Preface: 1) I have a day-job, and I'm not reliant on Fiverr as a source of income. 2) I haven't updated my beta gig in years, and I am aware of the growing competition on Fiverr. 3) I'm well aware I could probably get more freelance work if I put more effort into finding my own clients. I don't currently market myself, nor go out of my way to seek people who might be interested in such services. 4) I'm picky about what I read (I will NOT beta rated R, underage, or non-con, and I have a distaste for extreme gratuitous profanity), that's why Sellers specialize. 

All that said and out of the way: I've gotten ten Buyers for my beta service since I put the gig up in October of 2019 (two of which came from the now-defunct Buyer Request). 

On 12/8/2024 at 10:43 AM, deepsudhan said:

beta-reading is one of those niches that has a lot of sellers

Yes, and no. The basics of economic supply and demand does demand some consideration. On one hand, "3,500+ results" isn't that many compared to a LOT of service categories on Fiverr (supply), but on the other hand if you look at the search results, there are not many reviews overall per-gig (demand). And, while Buyer Request had many, many issues, it did give some idea of the demand for a particular service, and comparatively to many other services requested, beta-reading did not have many inquiries. 

Near as I can tell, "Beta-Reader" as an official category has only existed since March of 2019. https://www.fiverr.com/categories/writing-translation/beta-reader (Source: Wayback Machine archives of that page don't exist prior. Archive also shows that the Beta Reading category in Jan of 2024 was listed as 3,100+ services available.) When I joined, I think there were fewer than 2 pages of results in that category. 2020 alone caused many categories to double in size, some tripling. For example: this post from Jan '21, and when I search for "voice over" now it says 21,000+ results. Interestingly, the search results for "proofreading" is 17k+, and "translation" results is 30k+. 

Which actually leads into another factor: AI. Over 2023, the market was flooded with both Sellers and Buyers who tried to sell AI stuff, or wanted AI stuff fixed. 

EDIT: You need to remove your external contact info from your gig. It's a direct violation of the Fiverr Terms of Service.