The woes of finding a beta

I wish I knew how other people do it. Sometimes they seem to have more than one. My betas, assuming I find some at all, tend to flee the horrors that is working on my stuff after two chapters, tops. Not that I'd blame them. I'm sure they have good, acceptable reasons. But understanding that doesn't solve my problem of not having betas.

I know my grammar is less than perfect; I'm writing in a third language, after all, and all I ever had were three years' worth of English lessons. I hate posting my stuff un-betaed, but what can I do? People are so eager to nitpick on grammar errors, but they don't seem half so eager to offer to beta. Surprising - NOT.

In any case, today I broke down and posted a request at the SoA Yahoo Group for my Halabor stories. I'm uncomfortable posting un-betaed Tolkienfic, more so than in the case of any other fandoms, perhaps because I respect the source more than anything else. I'm curious whether it will help. The SoA crowd is the most open and supportive of all fractions of the Tolkien fandom, prehaps I'll get lucky. If not, it won't be any worse than it has been for years by now.