Beta Volunteer Post

[holmesticemods]

"Watson," said he, "if it should ever strike you that I am getting a little over-confident in my powers, or giving less pains to a case than it deserves, kindly whisper 'Norbury' in my ear, and I shall be infinitely obliged to you."

— The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Because even Sherlock Holmes sometimes needs someone to look over his work.

If you're available to beta or Britpick for someone, please leave a comment with the following information:

Email: (or other preferred contact method)
Types of fanworks you can beta: (fic, art, graphics, vids, etc.)
Fandoms: (Doyle, BBC, Elementary, 22nd Century, etc.)
Pairings: (it's helpful to name what you are willing AND not willing to work with)
Ratings: (if you will or won't beta explicit sex, graphic violence, etc.)

If you have any other limitations or areas of expertise, please feel free to include them! Suggestions include fic length, time constraints, availability, areas of special knowledge, or particular strengths or weaknesses.

If you need a beta, please check the comments to see if someone is right for you. (Show a care with your anonymity, please, and refrain from leaving public comments that suggest what you're making for the exchange.) If you can't find who you need in the comments, please email the mods at holmesticemods@gmail.com, and we'll help you find someone.


Also! We recommend sherlock60's Round 5 Discussion Posts. scfrankles spent over a year compiling historical linkspams on topics inspired by the original canon stories, and then generously shared what she learned with all of us. I highly recommend the collection for anyone needing inspiration or background for Victorian- or Edwardian-era fanworks!

Comments

[smallhobbit]

Email: initial contact via Private Message on DW
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Principally Doyle and BBC, although happy to beta others.
Pairings: Everything except incest
Ratings: I can count limbs for explicit sex, and would consider graphic violence, but please contact me to discuss first.
Strengths are SPAG, and spotting continuity errors. I'm happy to britpick if you already have a regular beta, and have a reasonable knowledge of Victorian England.

[eliza_underscore]

Email: Private message via DreamWidth
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Canon, Mary Russell, Elementary
Pairings: Any gen or platonic pairing, Holmes/Watson, Holmes/Irene (non-Elementary) Sherlock/OC, Joan/OC, Holmes/Russell, Russell/OC, NO Mycroft/Joan and prefer not Sherlock/Joan
Ratings: no explicit sexual content, but anything else is fair game!

I think I'm best at catching OOC, especially with Russell, and I'm pretty good with grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. I probably couldn't help much with the case fic-y parts of case fic. I speak American English but I have some familiarity with British English; I could also help with writing in a formal style. I'm Chinese American, and I'd be happy to sensitivity-read for Joan!

[firecat]

Contact method: firecatstef at gmail dot com or private message on DW
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Doyle, Elementary seasons 1–5, Mary Russell #1–11, Granada (let me know if I should review specific eps), A Study in Emerald
Pairings: Any
Ratings: Anything except fat hate, feeding/stuffing, weight gain kink

Length: up to 20K
Turnaround time: 48 hours for up to 10K, another 24 hours for each additional 5K

Strengths: I've been a professional editor for many years but this would be my first time beta'ing fic. Good at SPAG, sentence- and paragraph-level flow, continuity, consistency. I've been reading ACD and a few other Victorian-era writers since childhood and have broad general knowledge of Victorian England, can probably find ways to research details. Native American-English speaker with some knowledge of British English.

[darkrivertempest]

Email: darkrivertempest@gmail.com Or DM, either one works
Types of fanworks you can beta: Fic
Fandoms: BBC, Richie-Verse, House cross-over, Doyle
Pairings: Sherlock/John, Mycroft/Lestrade, Lestrade/Sherlock (I'll beta most anything if those ships are endgame)
Ratings: Pretty flexible - I won't beta daddy!kink, BDSM, incest or watersports/scat, but otherwise I'm game!

I'm American, but have lived in the UK, and also write for the Harry Potter fandom (so there's a lot of Brit-picking there), and I feel very comfortable with British idioms/slang, etc. I love the Oxford and AP Style comma equally, so the preference is yours. SPAG, continuity, and flow of the story are my strengths. Darker aspects are no problem as far as content.

I have written for the Sherlock fandom... a long time ago, in a galaxy far... very far away, but I'm more than content to beta/read in the fandom these days. If you are interested, drop me a line via DM or email.

Beta Volunteer

[disheveledcurls.livejournal.com]

Email: Find me on Tumblr (disheveledcurls) or ask the mods for my email!
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Elementary, New Russian Holmes (although I know much more abt the former than the latter)
Pairings: Willing to work with pretty much everything except Joan/Mycroft and/or Sherlock/Moriarty.
Ratings: Willing to work with any ratings but I'm too squeamish to beta for the following topics: explicit drug use, hardcore BDSM, rape/dubcon/noncon. However, I don't mind reading non-explicit discussions of drug use/addiction and sexual assault insofar as they are part of character storylines or backstories.
Additional comments: Sadly I'm not able to Britpick as I'm not British myself; but I am a pretty thorough beta reader otherwise! I don't mind long fics as a general rule but given my current timetable, I'll beta for anything under 5000 words. If you're unsure whether I can help you, feel free to reach out & ask me anything!

[nottoolateforthegame]

Email: nottoolateforthegame@gmail.com
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Most familiar with BBC; happy to help with other fandoms, though.
Pairings: any
Ratings: all, but I can't do mcd or abuse between Sherlock (Holmes)/John (Watson)

[(Anonymous)]

Email: Email to marta-dot-fandom-at-gmail-dot-com
Types of fanworks you can beta: fic
Fandoms: Doyle, Granada and BBC preferred. I can also help with other 'verses if my limited knowledge of the canon isn't a problem.
Pairings: any pairing or characters. I prefer to beta gen, slash, or femslash over het
Ratings: I prefer not to beta beyond the Mature/"R" rating, but will consider Explicit/NC17 beta requests on a case-by-base basis

Also worth noting- I am a native English speaker but American not British, so if you are in need of Britpicking I probably am not the best choice.