Send copies to beta readers
Each reader gets their own copy with their name on every page. If a copy turns up somewhere it shouldn’t, you’ll know whose it was.
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
He waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner.
* * *
“Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.”
Toolkit & Exports
EPUB 3
Every export and every check in one menu: print PDF, EPUB, Word, manuscript format, KDP preflight and more.
How to do it
- Open Share a copy. In the Toolkit , choose Share a copy .
- Add your readers. Type each reader’s name. Press Enter to add another. Their name is the watermark on their copy.
- Choose how they get it. Pick EPUB or PDF for a file they keep, or Link for a page you can turn off later. A link can have an expiry date and a password.
- Share it. Click Share with 3 readers . Files download one per reader, and links appear in the list, ready to copy.
Which to choose
- EPUB for someone reading on a phone, a tablet or an e-reader.
- PDF for someone who wants to print it or scribble on it.
- Link when you want control. The reader opens the book in their browser, on a page that shows your name and the title first. You can see whether they’ve opened it, and turn the link off when you’re done. Tick Let them download a watermarked file too if they’d rather read offline.
Notes from readers
Tick Let them leave notes when you make a link, and your reader gets a Leave a note button while they read. If they select a line first, the note quotes it. Notes land in the Comments panel of the chapter they were reading, under the reader's name, with a dot on that chapter in the sidebar. Click a quoted line to find it in the chapter.
Readers don't sign up for anything, and Galley keeps nothing about them except the note and the name you gave the link. You can switch notes on or off for each link afterwards.
Managing links
Every link you’ve made is listed under Links in the same window, with whether it’s been opened. You can copy it again, turn it off so the page stops working, or delete it. An expiry date ends the link at the close of that day, in your time zone.
Good to know
- A watermark doesn’t stop anyone copying the words out. It tells you whose copy it was, which is usually enough to stop it happening.
- The copies are made from the book as it is now. If you revise, send a new copy.
- For an editor who works in track changes, export Word instead, and bring their edited file back with Import manuscript in the Toolkit.
Next
How many readers to send it to, and what to ask them, is in sending your novel to beta readers. The other files you can make are in preview & export.