This service is ideal for writers who want feedback on their manuscripts before embarking on the structural and copy editing stages of book production.

A manuscript assessment is a great place to start in the early stages of your publishing journey as an experienced editor can identify the initial strengths and weaknesses of your book for rewriting.

This objective appraisal of your manuscript is based on professional knowledge and expertise and provides you with constructive feedback about the suitability of your written work to genre, target audience and publishing goals. 

Manuscript assessment procedure and benefits

Once I receive your emailed Word document, I will read through your manuscript and compile a written report (between 4–10 pages). This report will provide feedback on your writing style and what is and isn’t working well. To do this, I focus on:

• The foundation: point of view, character development, plot and overall MS cohesion.
• The content: whether it is comprehensible to your identified target readership and reader-focused.
• The language: whether the style and tone of the words and the level of language and terminology/jargon used is appropriate for the readership.
• The structure: whether the arrangement of chapters makes sense, the length of the manuscript is appropriate and the text has a logical or cohesive flow.
• The purpose: has the book achieved its intended purpose (to inform, persuade, entertain, enlighten, inspire or educate) for its target audience; will it grab the reader; will the readers relate to the content; will a publisher like it?; is it suitable for independent publishing?

Fees

The fee for a manuscript assessment is $15 per 1000 words.

Additional Information

This service is designed to help you achieve your writing and publishing goals. The assessment is constructive yet honest when providing solutions to improve the quality of your writing to meet these goals. An assessment looks at the big picture and does not identify every weakness, inconsistency or mistake, however. These will be addressed during the developmental/structural and copy editing stages of book production.