Manuscript Appraisals
Manuscript appraisals are the natural first step in receiving objective, professional input about your manuscript. An appraisal gives you a clear understanding of your manuscript's strengths and the areas that require development, using specific examples to illuminate the path toward unlocking its full potential. We offer two types of appraisal:
General Appraisal — a broad assessment of your manuscript covering structure, voice, pacing, characterisation, and more, delivered as a written report.
Focused Appraisal — a targeted assessment covering the same as the above, but adding another layer through the inclusion of in-manuscript mark-ups/reader notes.
Once you have your appraisal in hand, you'll have a much clearer picture of where your manuscript stands — and whether professional editing is the right next step for you on your path to publication.
Our Appraisal services …
Appraisals
Appraisals offer a broad overall look at your manuscript, outlining its strengths and weaknesses – provided in the form of a report. The report will include a critique specific to your manuscript in relation to areas such as narrative development, plot, voice, tone, writing style, characterisation etc. It will provide an overview of where your manuscript’s strengths lie and where work is required. An appraisal does not include manuscript mark ups, all comments and notes will be included in the report.
Focused Appraisals
This is the same as an appraisal, with the addition of in-manuscript comments (and possibly a few edits). These notes are not comprehensive like a structural edit but will provide an additional layer of feedback and guidance for the author to use in the development of their work. The comments will be responses to your manuscript as the editor reads through your work, rather than offering editorial solutions.
Partially Completed Manuscripts
For authors who have completed a percentage of their manuscript but seek additional guidance before proceeding, we offer ‘Partial Completion’ appraisal reports also.
If you would like to know more, please reach and we can have a chat
Who are our Appraisers?
Our appraisal team are professionals with a vast experience in the publishing industry and in the wider book industry. We have editors who specialise in a number of different genres — this means we should have someone who will suit your manuscript genre and style.
Find out more about our team on our About page.
How we work …
Along with your manuscript, we also ask that you submit a cover letter and synopsis. This way, we can review your submission as a package, considering all relevant content that you would typically submit to a publishing house or agent. We believe these elements are crucial for successful submissions and warrant careful attention. However, we also understand that these documents can be a roadblock for many authors, so if you don’t have these documents ready for submission that’s okay too! While providing feedback on the manuscript itself is our primary objective, we offer commentary on the supplementary documents whenever relevant and dependent on where the narrative is at in its development.
We read your manuscript in full before writing out our detailed reports and we generally like to read manuscripts ‘cold’ (without knowing too much about them beforehand) and write our initial report before reading the submitted cover letter and synopsis. We do this in order to produce an appraisal that is as objective as possible.
Each manuscript is unique and , as such, our appraisals are tailored to your manuscript so that we can provide comprehensive and relevant feedback specific to your work.
Our appraisal reports span a minimum of four pages and outline the aforementioned aspects of your manuscript. All feedback is consolidated within the report (unless you’re submitting for a focused appraisal). For detailed page-by-page notes, you may consider opting for our editorial services. We strive to deliver your appraisal within 4-6 weeks.
It's important to note that the appraisal report is intended to assist you in self-editing and rewriting, rather than promoting your work. Ultimately, it is up to you to decide how or if you incorporate our comments and observations into your manuscript.
What does an appraisal cost?
You can find out more about appraisal fees and charges on our fees page.
We look forward to working with you and your manuscript to help guide you to your next phase of writing and/or publishing and we are here and happy to help answer any questions you may have.
what are the next steps?
We would love to work with you, so if you’re interested in having your manuscript appraised please feel free to shoot us an email to start the conversation or follow the submission guidelines on our How to Submit page.
