Who we are
BetaBooks is now cared for across a long distance. Pam and Pedro are separated by countries, time zones, and very different daily routines, but the work is pointed in one direction: keeping this app useful and human for authors. Pam brings the support, care, and patience. Pedro brings the engineering and design work that keeps the app steady. After working with Andrew at two other companies, Pedro eventually found his way here too. Together, they are carrying forward a tool that started with Andrew and Paul and still has a lot of good work left in it.
A little about Pam. She’s a musician: singer, piano and penny whistle dabbler, and professional French horn player. She played with the North Carolina Symphony for 5 years and taught for a bit at UNC before moving to San Francisco to pursue full-time motherhood. She knows about making a career as an artist: creating, crafting, persisting in the face of rejection, collaborating and connecting, all of that. She is currently writing her first book and reads Sanderson novels in the 5 minute gaps she can find throughout the day (it takes a VERY long time to finish one of his books when reading this way).
A little about Pedro. He currently works as a Software Engineer at Mercury. Before becoming an engineer, he spent years as a designer at a textbook publisher in Brazil, where he also translated, wrote short children’s stories, and helped create learning material. All four of his children learned to read using that material, which is still one of the things he is most proud of. That mix of design, writing, and engineering is what he brings to BetaBooks: a love for software that is useful, carefully made, and respectful of the people using it. Outside of work, he enjoys getting outdoors for trail running and camping with his family.
How BetaBooks began
BetaBooks began in spring 2016, when Andrew wrote his first novel and tried to organize a beta read the usual way: email threads, attachments, changed chapters, and scattered notes. It did not take long for the practical problems to show up.
Readers had trouble opening files. Andrew had no simple way to know who was actually reading. Useful feedback got buried in his inbox. And once he started sending revised chapters, he had to wonder which version each reader had seen.
Those became the first Beta Woes.
Paul was one of the people Andrew had asked to read the book. When Paul asked how the beta was going, Andrew started explaining all the little frustrations that were getting between him and the writing. Finally he said it made him want to build an app to fix it.
“I’d call it BetaBooks.”
Paul liked the idea so much that he refused to keep reading until Andrew built it. That was Paul being Paul, but it worked. Andrew could write the code, Paul could help shape everything else, and Pam was there from the beginning, cheering, supporting, and eventually taking the helm.
Where things stand today
Andrew and Paul built BetaBooks because they understood a real problem authors face: sharing unfinished work is hard, and managing reader feedback should not make it harder. That original care is still the foundation of the app.
Today Pam and Pedro are carrying that work forward. Pam stays close to the authors and readers who use BetaBooks. Pedro takes care of the code and quiet maintenance that keeps it steady. The team is smaller now, but the goal is the same: help authors get their work in front of readers, learn from the feedback, and keep going.