You’re ready for this novel to catapult you to breakout success.
You don’t just want this book to be good, you want it to stand out. So readers rave about it so much you rocket up the Amazon rankings or land a traditional publishing deal.
You’ve applied all the standard advice. But to stand out, you need more.
A Manuscript Review can help you revise your draft into a singular novel that showcases your unique voice and keeps readers glued to the page.
- Curious how to make the big moments in the story hit readers harder
- Wondering if you’ve got the right balance between your main plot and subplots
- Probing for ways to make your main characters unforgettable
- Wishing you knew how to smooth out the pacing
- Wondering how to make your opening more exciting, the middle more addictive, or the ending more shocking
- Searching for opportunities to make your characters, plot, and story uniquely memorable
- Hunting for someone who can go beyond the standard feedback about conflict and genre expectations and help you turn this manuscript into something that will reach readers’ souls.
Do your daydreams sound like this...
Picturing the day when you are the next viral sensation. When your social feeds overflow with fans gushing about your book, and your inbox is bursting with requests for interviews.
Imagining the moment you realize literary agents are competing to represent you, because you are a hot ticket property.
Dreaming of the day when you get a call from a Hollywood producer who wants to turn your novel into the next big-budget blockbuster.
What if
- Publishing your current story is a career turning point, where you stop chasing opportunities and readers and publishers start chasing you?
- You sell so many copies of this book you can buy your dream house?
- Your fiction becomes so popular you become a household name?
- Hone the gauntlet your protagonist must overcome to succeed in their story goal (and keep readers turning pages)
- Perfect the character arc so readers feel a strong emotional bond with your hero or heroes from beginning to end
- Interweave your characters, scenes, and setting so your story adds something fresh even when the plot covers familiar ground
- Maximize the emotional punch of your plot twists and crucial moments
- Fine-tune your main characters so their choices feel relatable and their experiences come alive for readers
- For stories with villains, hone your villain into a formidable threat who compels your hero(es) to dig deep and enthralls readers
- For romances, hone the romantic heroes so their happily ever after feels hard-won and well-earned to readers
- For mysteries and thrillers, refine the puzzle behind the plot so it keeps readers guessing
How a Manuscript Review Works
Manuscript Reviews are a set of developmental editing services to help you refine and polish your narrative so it’s more likely to catch the eye of agents and editors, and become a novel that readers recommend to friends.
MS Reviews are appropriate for experienced authors who have a professional quality draft of a novel aimed at adult, new adult, or young adult readers. Professional quality means stories where there's a cohesive narrative, populated by well-motivated characters, and scenes with identifiable conflict. These packages are intended for writers working in these genres: fantasy, romance, crime (mystery or thriller), action, suspense, or science fiction.
Manuscript Review packages start with the submission of your draft and completion of a story survey capturing your intentions, goals, and feelings about the story as it stands now. I read and carefully review your manuscript and survey. Then, I prepare detailed feedback celebrating what’s working well, pinpointing areas for improvement, as well as places where your manuscript seems to stray from your intentions, and summarize with recommended next steps. You get a few days to review the feedback. Finally, we meet to discuss everything so you know exactly what to do to make this novel your best yet.
Manuscript Review Breakdown
Manuscript Reviews are split into three levels: Core, Breakout, and Blockbuster. All three service levels include evaluation and feedback on 14 key components. Plus, any issues that pop out on readthrough as critical to the novel’s success or opportunities to help your story stand out in your genre. The Breakout and Blockbuster packages add additional evaluation and feedback on topics beyond the 14 key components. Breakout covers two additional topics, Blockbuster covers five.
The 14 key components are:
Main Conflict
Protagonist & Character Arc
Chief Antagonist or Main Villain
Genre-Specific Expectations
Message or Theme
Plot
Story Start (a.k.a. Act 1)
Story Middle (a.k.a. Act 2)
Story End (a.k.a. Act 3)
Characters
Cast Design
Scenes
Plot Twists
Setting
For each component, you’ll get an evaluation based on storytelling best practices that identifies opportunities to strengthen your book’s ability to grab readers’ attention and keep them turning pages to the end. As well as places where you can heighten your unique perspective and showcase your inimitable voice.
Additional topics for the Breakout and Blockbuster packages include:
Irresistible First Pages: Get in-depth, scene-specific feedback on your First Pages to help them catch the eye of agents and editors, or make readers click Buy Now when they Look Inside on Amazon.
Stunning Ending: Get thorough scene-specific feedback on the pacing and tension of the climax and lead-up to it so readers can’t wait for your next novel.
Sustain a multi-book series: Feel confident that your conflict has enough depth to sustain your series with detailed feedback on the network of supporting characters across multiple novels.
Brilliant braided timelines: Ensure that each timeline is pulling its weight, with an assessment of how each progression is pulling readers forward and how they’re meshing together.
Troubleshooting: Uncover potential solutions for a problem section of the story that just isn’t coming together with detailed scene-specific feedback
Multiple protagonist character arcs: Evaluation of character arcs for up to 4 protagonists so readers will feel invested in each one’s journey
Manuscript specific requests: A customized evaluation of any element of the story that you’ve identified as needing extra attention
Manuscript Review Core: Investment
Includes a readthrough and evaluation of a manuscript of up to 100k words, written feedback on the 14 key components that celebrates strengths, identifies issues, and provides next step recommendations, and a single editorial feedback call
$1800 USD
2 payments of $900
Manuscript Review Breakout: Investment
Includes a readthrough and evaluation of a manuscript of up to 100k words, written feedback on the 14 key components and two (2) additional topics of your choosing and a single editorial feedback call.
$2700 USD
2 payments of $1350
Manuscript Review Blockbuster: Investment
Includes a readthrough and evaluation of a manuscript of up to 100k words, written feedback on the 14 key components and five (5) additional topics of your choosing and a single editorial feedback call.
$4200 USD
2 payments of $2100
Developmental editing requires trust. In the past, you might've gotten generic feedback from an editor. Or worse, recommendations to alter the entire story into something the editor prefers, but that you never intended. Either way, you might have left feeling disappointed and without a clear path forward for polishing your draft.
Forget cookie-cutter advice, and feedback that doesn’t honor your unique vision. With a Manuscript Review package we will focus on strengthening the story you want to tell. You’ll get custom feedback that takes your genre, audience, plot, tropes, and publishing goals into account so this manuscript becomes the sensational novel you know it has the potential to be.
If you’re ready to get custom, personalized feedback that transforms your manuscript into a truly addictive page-turner, schedule your free call today.