Manuscript Critique

Description

The first goal of our manuscript critique services is to provide candid, constructive, and thorough feedback on your manuscript’s condition and its literary and commercial potential. The idea isn’t to callously judge a work or its writer but to give you a professional book editor’s perspective on what works, what doesn’t work or could work better, and what you might consider doing to give your manuscript the best chance of marketplace success. This feedback helps inform your revision process and bring clarity to specific goals and objectives intended to improve the quality of your story and its writing.

The second goal of these services is to assess your manuscript’s editorial needs and what kind of further help, if any, would be most beneficial after you’ve revised with your editor’s feedback in mind. Once we’ve read your manuscript, provided written feedback, and discussed that with you by phone or email, you’ll have a much better sense of where your work stands in relation to relevant industry standards, what you need to work on, and what editorial course may be appropriate.

Manuscript Critique may:

• Highlight sections that require more detail to lend weight to the narrative;
• Point out scenes that disrupt the momentum of the narrative;
• Identify repetitive stylistic problems;
• Address weaknesses in the plot, such as scenes that lack tension, settings that aren’t fully realized;
• Point out illogical or unbelievable parts of the narrative;
• Show which specific events, actions, or turning points don’t work and how they may be altered to enhance the character’s development.