Last weekend, I patted my next novel “Separation” on the butt and sent it out into a little slice of the world, letting my beta readers explore the town of Alessandra and its various characters. Hopefully, they’ll enjoy the read, and won’t ultimately tell me to toss my computer in a fire and start over from the beginning.

Short of that, I feel like it’s important that my beta readers have some direction when they start diving into my story. I don’t want to simply hand the story to them and h...