You are invited to become part of a crowdsourced Beta Reader group, the first of its kind!
The group is to review the Up From the Depths zombie apocalypse series by J.R. Jackson.
Scenes, chapters, and chapter excerpts will be posted to the group and members will have a chance to read and make comments on how to make those excerpts, and the entire series, better.
This is the first time that something like this has been done [that I’m aware of]. You, the readers, will have actual real world input into an unpublished series and the author will literally be able to hear from those same readers and provide edits, additions, changes, deletions, etc to make sure that the work is at the level that the readers of the zompoc genre deserve.
Not only do you get access to a new zombie apocalypse novel, you get to be a Beta Reader and provide valuable insight that usually only comes in the form of bad or indifferent reviews once the book is released.
That also means that once this series gets to the point where cover art is created, members of this group will be able to pick what cover is most popular for each book.
This is what the series is about: a zombie apocalypse.
Seriously, there is a zombie outbreak, not the usual contrived, cliche type of outbreak. No space aliens, no returning space probes, no rogue comets/asteroids, no 10,000 year old alien thawed out, nothing that Mystery Science Theater 3000 would make fun of.
No. The cause of the outbreak is more based in the real world.
There is no central Main Character, the MC as it were. There is an ensemble cast with a core element of main characters. That means that there are several characters spread all over CONUS (Continental United States. This abbreviation is also in the Glossary page of this group) and small sections of the world, one character in the UK.
There is a relatively heavy military thematic element to the series as it takes a look at various US military units, before, during, and after the outbreak.
Due to the inclusion of those units, there will be a glossary of terms and abbreviations posted to the group (separate page so you can have that tab open while reading any excerpt) that will allow you to be more informed about what is being done, used, or spoken about in the various scenes. That does not mean that the series is rift with these terms but the average reader is not that well versed in military terminology or what some might call ‘Mil-Speak’.
To any active, prior, or retired service members, any insight into the interaction between military characters that would increase detail would be greatly appreciated. I have some knowledge on how units might operate and interact with each other but I’m sure there’s some details missing that could be added in to make those scenes containing that interaction more true to life.
To clarify how this group works, there will chapters, chapter excerpts, scenes, and sequences posted from the various books, in order, so you won’t be reading something from book 5 when there was something previously posted from book 1. Each topic posted will be identified as to what book it came from. That way we’re all on the same page and the same book.
All the topics posted will be in order starting from Book 1, Denial Measures and moving all the way to Book 6, Secondary Objectives.
Your task, should you decide to participate, will be to review the posts and make comments on how they could be changed to provide more balance between plot and character, more detail to let the reader know what’s happening, resolve any obvious plot holes, make sure there’s continuity, and provide information on how to make this series better.
If you feel you can do that as a member of this group, then sit back, buckle up, and prepare for a trip through a zombie infested world that will blow you away.
To view the chapters in order, what that means is the most recent posting will be the first posting, you may have to change the sorting options. That can be done under the ‘Sort by’ then select the option that will help you get the chapters in numerical order.
If you’d like to participate, or check out the group before making a decision, just click on the link provided.
UP FROM THE DEPTHS BETA READER GROUP ON ZOMBIE FIEND
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