With the Burning Sky Prelude finished, the time has come to move into Phase 2 – Beta Readers!

Introduction

Hello Everyone!

We’re back with a major update! So, a while ago we wrote up a post called Burning Sky Returns. In it, we laid out a lot of our plans for the near future with our biggest project. The first of those plans was obviously the publication of the story’s official “Volume 0,” Burning Sky Prelude in its remastered glory. Before we announced that, however, there was something else we touched on.

Beta Readers.

For the most part, the original post skimped on the details. Now, though, it’s time to officially get the ball rolling. And that means tell you guys err’thing! So, let’s get started with the basic information.

The Basics

What you already know is that Burning Sky, in its current form, spans across seven stories in a shared universe. Stories that will, over time, become more and more connected. Beta Readers will be expected to read 5 chapters of each story and provide feedback in the form of answering a few survey questions.

The purpose of this isn’t to come up with any massive changes to the narrative… unless they’re so egregious as to be distracting. It’s more about determining if the style is working for people, the narratives are easy enough to follow, and the stories are overall doing a decent job of holding interest from early on. Among other things.

With all that said, this entire initiative has a process. So let’s move on to the details of how this is going to work.

The Process

The overall process is incredibly straightforward.

• When the Beta Read begins, we will send out a handful of documents.
  • 5 Chapters of Burning Sky [Story]
  • Burning Sky Questionnaire
  • Blurbs of Burning Sky
• You will be given one week to complete reading the five chapters and answering the questions.
• Send the answered questions back to me in the format of your choosing and I will send the 5 Chapters of the next Burning Sky title.

Simple, no? Of course, that’s far from everything. That abbreviated list leaves too many questions, of course. But that’s the simplified version of things.

Reading Order

First, let’s talk reading order. When the Beta Read stage begins, I will be sending you those documents. For reasons I’m sure are obvious, everyone is starting with Burning Sky: Heroes. As was detailed in the previous post, it is a direct follow-up to Burning Sky Prelude, unlike all the rest. We’re starting people with this one to make sure that story is as fresh in people’s minds as possible when reading the first few chapters of its sequel.

Also. Here’s your reminder. Read the Prelude.

That said, there is no proper reading order after that point. None of the stories rely on one another for context. In essence, the Prelude establishes most of the world’s major concepts, if not explaining them all in explicit detail. So once you finish Burning Sky: Heroes, you’re actually free to jump to whichever series you like.

That’s where the Blurbs come in. While the Blurbs aren’t a part of the Beta Reader Questionnaire, they are being unofficially tested as well. The idea is that you can use those to determine which story you want to move to next. Based on the descriptions, you’ll be able to prioritize certain series until you’re through them all.

Of course, you’re also free to ignore that altogether and just go with the default order. In case you’re wondering, the default order is:

• Heroes
• Dawnbringer
• Prestige
• Odyssey
• Bushido
• Virtue
• Adventure

Your call.

Time to Read

As I specified above, you’ll be given a week. However, this is malleable. To an extent. We understand that people are busy and have things to do. Good lord, do we understand… Thus, we’ve taken measures to be flexible about this.

For any Beta Readers who are in cram mode, we do accept Questionnaire submissions early and can fast-track people if they want to participate, but move through it really quickly. Maybe they’re fast readers. Could be they’ve got the time to kill. Or it’s the exact opposite and they have a little tyke to go pick up after school. No difference to us. We’ve got them covered.

The opposite also applies. This does, of course, need to be conducted in a timely manner. But we’re perfectly open to providing a buffer of an extra week per story, if you believe that to be necessary. If you think you won’t be able to complete the current story in one week, let us know and we’ll give you another one. Also, if you’re late but we don’t hear from you, we’ll reach out and ask if you need that bonus week. If we still can’t get a hold of you, we’ll assume you’ve dropped out. No shame in it, mind. Just want to be clear.

In total, this entire process should take just a little under two months, at its most optimal.

Questionnaire

I’m sure you want to know how to submit your questionnaire responses. It really doesn’t matter. You can put them in a google doc, send them directly in a DM, whatever. As long as I get them and can read them, you’re golden.

Disclosures

To be frank, we don’t really care if you choose to talk about it in your circles, make content out of it, whatever. Heck, we encourage it. The more people we have talking about it, the better. For the most part, that’s up to you. There are some details we’d prefer you keep to yourselves. In those cases, we’ll see to it that you’re informed. Such warning labels will be included with the Questionnaires.

Enlistment

The biggest remaining question is how to get into the Beta Read. For one, we’re still in the process of outreach to selected individuals about this. However, if you want to be a part of the project and we don’t approach you – maybe we thought you were busy or just had no interest in this – just get a hold of yours truly.

You can reach me on Twitter @Voyager_GT or DM me on Discord if we have any mutual servers. Otherwise you can ask me for my handle and I can give it to ya. I’m not posting that right here. The last way to get our attention is by filling out this Contact Form. Fill in your name and Email, then use the body to sound off your interest. Simple as that.

Start Date

Now the really exciting part! The Burning Sky Beta will begin on Monday, November 22. That gives any of you stragglers juuust enough time to read that Prelude and sign up for our little project! We hope to see you then!

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We’re still updating the site and junk while all of this is going on, so bear with us, folks! It’s gonna be weird, but also a lot of fun, I’m betting! Be sure to Read Up! Thanks, as always.

Keep up the Awesome!
Voyager