Manuscript Reads.
When you send me your manuscript, I pledge to read it within two weeks (unless it’s exceptionally long). My first aim is to respond innocently, as a reader who might pick up your book in a shop, before I switch into editor mode and begin to analyse what may be going wrong and the reasons why. Although I do line-edit when I feel things are unclear, or if there are technical issues which I feel are limiting the reader’s experience, the main concentration of my feedback will be structural.
This means I will talk about the places where I feel the momentum of the story slows, or perhaps where I’m not clear what the character wants or why they are doing what they do. I will look for strands that have been dropped; I will tell you about the expectations raised in me at the start of the story, the questions I want answers to, especially if this has not happened by the end. I will look at how your characters change through the story. I will set your story against structures that have been handed down ever since stories were first told.
After two weeks you receive the manuscript with my line annotations and a separate feedback report (usually around 6 pages). You can then take as much time as you want to digest my comments before setting up a meeting with me (online, by phone, or in person) in which we can discuss anything in my report, and brainstorm ideas for changes and moving forward with the work.
Costs
My fees for Manuscript Reads are dependent on word count, and I will give you an exact quote when I know the size of your work.
But to give an idea, I charge £100 for each 10,000 words, plus another £250 for the time spent writing the report and our post-feedback meeting. So that would mean the approximate fees below:
Manuscripts of around 60K-80K: £850 - £1050
Manuscripts of around 100K: £1250
I am happy to read subsequent drafts at a discounted rate. I no longer read short extracts, except in the case where I have been working with an author over a long period, as I feel I am most useful and effective when responding to the arc of a complete draft.
Synopsis Read
I am also happy to look at a synopsis and give feedback on any elements in the story’s arc which seem to me problematic or under-developed, from this viewpoint ‘outside’ of a manuscript read. In this process, I will make notes directly onto the synopsis, and then we can meet up (in person or online) and brainstorm structure.
This is a useful exercise if you are about to submit a synopsis to an agent or publisher. Or you have become stuck and are struggling to finish writing the story but don’t know why.
The flat fee for a Synopsis Read is £150.
