beta-reading for fun and completely no profit

[arcanetrivia]

Do you have absolutely all of your work beta-read? If not, when do you not?

This question comes about because I noticed that alisanne has all of her drabbles betaed (by sevfan), and that seems unusual. I've seen a number of other people say that they never bother to have drabbles betaed, while they do most/all of their other stuff. I suppose with a piece that short she's just having someone check it quick for errors of mass stupid, but still.

I never have my drabbles betaed. In fact, a lot of my stuff (as though there were a lot! ha!) has never been passed through a beta because I regarded it as highly non-serious, just written as a lark, or sometimes literally as a joke (e.g. "Potion-Induced Comma"). I certainly don't beta the stuff I write about silly summaries, which often is long enough to get a "drabble" (<200 words) or "ficlet" (200-1000 words) tag. Not that crack/humour can't be done "for serious", just that that wasn't what I thought I was doing.

So. What are the factors that would cause you to pass up having something betaed, if anything? Just curious.

Comments

[nehalenia.livejournal.com]

I used to have all my stuff beta read but not so much now. It kind of depends on what it is. If it's a PWP that I'm trying to just whip out, or if I know exactly where I'm going with the fic and it isn't too long, I might not have it beta read. My SPAG is pretty good -- tho it's always good to have stuff proof-read and I do try to have that done -- but I find the times I really need my betas is when I'm having trouble with the story idea, or the style, or the POV, or something's off and I can't figure out what it is.

Me, I wouldn't bother on a drabble, or even a small ficlet, but then, I usually don't write short pieces.

As a general rule, I like to have all my stuff beta-read, but if I'm sure it's the way I want it, or I'm on a deadline and simply won't have time to make any changes, I'll send it on without a beta.