Why Beta Readers Are Important

I know what you're thinking 'ah, having my work BETA read isn't important, I've checked it over myself, I don't need anybody else,' and I'm very sorry to tell you that actually, BETA's are really important. They read your work through and give you a second opinion, make sure you haven't left anything out or gone off track, check spelling/grammar mistakes, all of it. They're invaluable to writers, I should know, I suffered for years without one.
I've been writing whatever I could for years, and I've been posting it, otherwise this blog wouldn't be here, and I was rereading through everything before I posted it. But I always missed something, because inevitably we all miss mistakes when we're reading things we've written, and I never had it pointed it out to me. Usually, the case was that I would find the mistake, weeks after I had posted the piece of writing somewhere, and I would spend the rest of the day kicking myself for missing an apostrophe or completely screwing up a sentence. What makes this worse, is that I'm dyslexic, which affects my spelling and grammar terribly. I'm truly awful with it all, and I always feel paranoid, no matter how many times I check a piece of work, that there's a mistake in there. This is where my BETA comes in.
I have two separate BETA readers, for two separate stories. For fan fic, I have a wonderful woman called Nita, who reads through two chapters at a time and tells me every time I've put a wrong word in somewhere. She's brilliant, and picks up everything I miss on my own reads. For original fiction I post on Wattpad, my best friend Charlie BETA's for me, mostly because she has read all my original work, and a lot of my fan fic, and understands my brain process, so when I get complicated, she can see where I'm coming from. She also gives me a kick up the bum to get me to post said original fiction too, because I sometimes get too chicken to post it, but that isn't what this post is about, so I digress.
Anyway, the reason why I allow them to BETA my work is so I have the peace of mind that what I am posting makes sense and has everything spelled correctly. Without it, I would quite frankly, suck, and would push away potential readers with all my mistakes and sometimes complicated ideas. So when I have them read my work, I know that it is exactly how I want to present it. Everything makes sense, there are no overly complicated sentences, no words are spelled incorrectly, all the correct grammar is in place. It's all there, and I don't have to worry myself silly about it and distract myself from writing the rest of the story.
That is why BETA readers are so important, so you can have peace of mind about your own work, you can know for sure that everything you post is clear and easy to understand. Having misspelled words and grammatically incorrect sentences puts readers off, as they have to spend half their time deciphering what you have written. For them, they want to come in and read, not rewrite the entire piece of work! So if you have someone there who can do that before you post up your work, you're more likely to keep people reading, as they can simply enjoy your work without rewriting it. It's a win win situation for everybody!
There is generally only one problem with this, finding a BETA reader is hard. Nita offered to do the job for me months ago, and I asked Charlie because I was doing a similar thing for her. So I was lucky with finding my two, for others it will be difficult. But, there are ways to find BETA's, so don't fret!
An easy way to find a BETA if you are on Wattpad is to simply go into the 'Improve Your Writing' section of the discussion boards and look around for a dedicated thread to help. If you can't find one there, start a thread up yourself, asking if anybody would like to do it! Wattpad is filled with people who want to help fellow writers, so you're bound to at least be pointed in the right direction!
If you are on a different site, then you can put a message at the bottom of your piece, asking if anybody would be kind enough to BETA for you. That isn't as guaranteed, but it can't hurt to try!
Writing forums are generally also a good place to look. Though with all these methods, I should say that you may have to offer a BETA for BETA deal. So you read through someone else's work, and they'll do the same for you. It's an easy enough thing to do, and a good, free way to read someone else's work before anybody else!
But if you really are stuck for finding BETA readers, there is one website which will do half the work for you. It's called Hemingway, and it's a completely free website which helps improve your writing. You just have to copy and paste in your work, and it'll check the entire thing, and highlight every mistake you make. It'll point out hard to read sentences, passive voice (a bad thing for writing) and other such mistakes. And while it can't tell you if you've forgotten to add something in or you've gone off track, it'll at least help you make your writing easier to read, and that is something!
So don't sit back and think you can simply write and post, try and find someone to help you with your work, you'll become a better writer for it, and keep readers too. BETA's are a great recourse - never skip out on them!