Clinician & Publishing Beta Readers — Trauma/Psychology Nonfiction

Clinician & Publishing Professional Beta Readers — Trauma/Psychology Nonfiction Manuscript ** This is a beta-reading assignment, not a copyediting assignment. Upwork has no beta-reading category, so this is posted under Copy Editing. Please read the description before applying. ** DESCRIPTION I am hiring 3 independent paid beta readers with professional backgrounds to read a completed, unpublished ~110,000-word narrative nonfiction manuscript in the psychology/trauma category. This is a cold-reader evaluation, not an editing assignment. For this phase of the book, I am not seeking proofreading, copyediting, developmental editing, fact-checking, ghostwriting, endorsements, testimonials, or public reviews. I want to know what happens when knowledgeable readers encounter the book on its own. POSITIONS SOUGHT 1. Trauma-focused mental-health clinician — A licensed therapist, counselor, psychologist, social worker, or comparable clinician with meaningful trauma experience. 2. General mental-health clinician — A practicing clinician who does not need to specialize in trauma. 3. Psychology/health nonfiction publishing professional — An editor, publishing professional, book reviewer, or similar professional with substantial experience in psychology, health, behavioral science, or serious nonfiction. You do not need to fit more than one. Please identify which position you are applying for. WHAT YOU WILL DO You will read the manuscript, pause once partway through for a short check-in, and then complete a final feedback questionnaire. Midpoint check-in: three questions, five minutes, submitted after you finish Chapter 22, “Seeing the Possible Self”. I will confirm receipt but will not respond to the substance — by design, so that my reactions don’t shape the rest of your read. Final questionnaire: ten questions shared with all beta readers, plus four questions specific to your professional vantage. Expect to spend 40–50 minutes writing. You will receive the book itself, including its normal front matter and introductory material, as a watermarked PDF. You will intentionally not receive advance explanation of the book’s thesis, intended message, target audience, comparable titles, or what I hope readers conclude. I want an uncontaminated cold read. I want your reader experience first and your professional judgment second — in that order. This is not a fact-check and not a peer review. You do not need to rewrite or fix anything. NOTE ON CONTENT This manuscript deals directly and in detail with trauma, grief, violence, and loss. You know your own capacity better than I do — please consider whether reading this material by the project deadline is right for you right now. COMPENSATION Fixed price: $400, paid in two milestones: • $100 on submission of the midpoint check-in • $300 on submission of the completed final questionnaire DEADLINE Midpoint check-in due: Sunday, September 6, 2026 Completed read and final questionnaire due: Sunday, September 20, 2026 CONFIDENTIALITY This is an unpublished manuscript containing private and sensitive material. Selected readers must sign a confidentiality agreement before receiving the manuscript. Readers must agree not to: • share, forward, reproduce, publish, quote, or distribute any manuscript material; • give manuscript material to another person; • upload any portion of the manuscript to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or any other AI system, chatbot, language model, summarization service, transcription service, or third-party analysis tool; • use AI to generate, summarize, or draft the beta-reader feedback; • retain manuscript copies after the project is complete. Feedback must come from your own reading and reactions. What I am not looking for at this stage of the process: Please do not apply expecting to provide: • developmental editing; • line editing; • copyediting; • proofreading; • fact-checking; • ghostwriting; • marketing strategy; • an endorsement; • a testimonial; • an Amazon, Goodreads, or other public review. I am not hiring readers to tell me the book is good. I am hiring readers to tell me what happened when they read it.