Hi Blackhat,
First, thanks for checking out my site! Second, thank you for your interest and asking questions!
What length are these novels? They range generally between 100K and 125K words.
Who do you consider your primary target audience (age, gender)? Primary target is adult readers, probably predominantly male.
Who have read your novels so far and what have they said? I have only had a few beta-reads on a couple of novels. Generally speaking, according to them, my writing is not horrible though I do have issues with passive voice and could use some brush-up on my comma usage. I am working to remedy these things, and taking seriously any piece of advice I receive.
I applaud your desire to seek out beta readers. I think you definitely need some outside readers to tell you if your books are working or not. I would be interested in hearing about your writing process and how long it takes you to turn out a finished book.
I actually started writing and continued as a hobby, just for my own enjoyment, with no plans at all to even attempt publishing. After about ten novels in sci-fi, fantasy and thriller, my son urged me to have some others read them so I joined a beta group via one of the online writer groups. I won't say which one (not this one) because it was a horribly negative experience. However, out of the four beta reads I actually got, two of them urged me to polish a couple of novels and attempt publishing. So, I thought I would give it a go and see what happened.
As far as my writing process, I have used several, ranging from having a basic plot idea and letting free range subconscious flow, to full-blown plot and character development in scene-by-scene, chapter by chapter. A full novel, from idea inception to third draft generally takes about six to ten months depending on my workload from my job and at home in the yard.
The fun part about writing as a hobby was that it gave me the freedom to experiment with pushing limits. I made some big mistakes but was so entrenched by the time I was done, it was very hard to hear a beta-reader say "What were you thinking?"
But, I listen, and I edit and make some big changes, and find out they were right - their advice did make a better novel.
James