Manuscript Critique Services

Candid, constructive editorial critiques for complete manuscripts, book proposals, and unfinished works-in-progress

Overview of Services

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.

Further information about critique services pricing, turnaround time, and coverage is available via links at right (desktop) or below (on mobile devices) or by contacting our author services director Ross Browne at the Tucson office.

Explore Options

Written assessment of your manuscript’s first 10 pages, addressing craft, market, and overall effectiveness. Includes follow-up consultation with your editor by phone or email.

$75 for first 2,500 words

Editorial memo assessing commercial and literary potential, overall condition of your manuscript, and areas for improvement. Includes follow-up consultation with your editor by phone or email.

$.01 per word for most manuscripts

A hybrid of manuscript critique, developmental editing, and revision guidance via editorial memorandum and margin comments in manuscript text.

$.014 per word for most manuscripts

A high-level market-readiness assessment to evaluate how well your novel aligns with the expectations of literary agents and traditional publishers.

$.01 per word for most manuscripts

Insights From The Web

“Writing is one of the loneliest and most solitary jobs you could have, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. To be able to create from nothing a story that makes people laugh — or even just think — is a talent that nobody should waste.”

Carl Hiaasen