Sign up for Age of Swords Beta is closing

Hey all, Robin here.  I try to help Michael (who is really slammed right now) in making posts. For instance, he wrote one for SDCC, that I have to look over and copy edit before posting. But I also need to get this announcement out so people don't miss a deadline.

I'm closing the sign-up for those who want to be beta readers for Age of Swords (Book #2 of The Legends of the First Empire).  In general, we get many more people requesting to beta read than I could ever process, so there will be more people turned down than accepted.  To help you decide let me explain a bit about the process.

1. There is a sign-up form. Where I ask questions about whether you are a veteran Sullivan reader, or new to his works, also age, gender, whether English is your native language, and a host of other questions. The purpose of this is so I can develop a good cross-section of readers.  

2. I'll comb through the entries and narrow the list down. People will then get a write up telling them what to expect (but I'll give you the short form here). If they feel they still want to be a beta reader after finding out the expectations then they'll get a copy of the book in any number of ebook formats.

3. Some will provide feedback on a chapter-by-chapter basis, others will do so on a "reading session" basis (several chapters at once) answering questions about what they liked, didn't like, were confused by, etc.  They will also rate each chapter on a scale of 1 - 5 on things like plot, character, pacing, and overall enjoyment.

4. After completing the book, they'll do one last survey that will be used to give their impressions as a whole.

5. Finding typos or grammatically errors are not a requirement of the beta (we're not looking for free copyediting support) and because it is an early edition, there is likely to be several mistakes in the book on those scores. But, if you do happen to run across something then certainly noting them is helpful.

That's it in a nutshell. I had planned on closing the sign up on 7/31 but then I didn't get his post up until now.  Since I'm late in posting, you can be late signing up.  I'll close the doors for good on Wednesday.  

Thanks all, and I'll try to get Michale's SDCC post up soon.