But right now readers aren't starting fan clubs dedicated to your work.
Your books get good reviews. Readers say "I enjoyed it." But they don't rave. They don't name their pets after your characters or miss their subway stop because they couldn't put your book down. They finish your story and move on to someone else's.
A Breakout Manuscript Review gives you a custom infographic and a strategic revision plan so you can see exactly what to change to turn more of your readers into obsessive fans who need your whole catalog and put you on their autobuy list.
Are you...
- Getting good reviews but not passionate buzz or word-of-mouth sales?
- Suspecting something could be better with your pacing or structure but uncertain what changes will make the biggest impact on readers?
- Worried your lead character won't inspire the kind of reader obsession you're after?
- Hitting a ceiling in sales or reviews despite doing everything right?
- Expanding into a new genre and want to know your new readers will love you as much as, if not more than, your current ones do?
- Writing a more complex project (series, ensemble casts, braided timelines) where the gap between working and 'OMG, WOW!' feels harder to close?
- Publishing work you're proud of but not seeing the reader response that you were expecting?
What You'll Get
A Breakout Manuscript Review diagnoses where your manuscript sits on the Breakout Novel Pyramid now and what steps to take to move it up.
Story Foundation: Identify where elements of the story are strengthening your core thesis and where they're quietly working against each other. Your protagonist, antagonist, genre, premise, and message need to pull in the same direction at every level: globally, across each act, through subplots, down to individual scenes. When they do, readers feel the consistency even when they can't name it. When they don't, your story must work harder to imprint on readers. Written feedback shows you where the alignment holds and where it's quietly working against you, from your global story down through every act, subplot, and scene.
Reader Immersion: See which parts of your Invisible Story are making readers cancel plans and which are giving them permission to stop. Immersion comes from your lead characters, your cast as a whole, and the genre-specific forces that make your story world feel three-dimensional. It also lives in how your sequences are structured: whether each scene is the inevitable next step, whether the path closes in around your protagonist until the only way out is through. Your custom Breakout Story Infographic maps those genre-specific forces at the sequence level so you can see exactly what's holding readers and what's releasing them. Written feedback covers how immersion is working at every other level.
Reader Obsession: Find the details and moments that already have obsession potential and strengthen them further. Obsession happens when your novel reveals something about human nature readers haven't seen articulated before. This unique insight can be formed in many ways. Because the premise is distinctive. Because the lead character has traits readers haven't seen represented. Because the situations the main characters face are unique. Because the logic behind your characters' behavior reveals something readers hadn't considered, but recognize as true the moment they read it. Written feedback identifies the details from your global story down to individual scenes that already make your novel unique compared to others in your genre and shows you how to push them toward the kind of reader experience that ends in a 17-part TikTok.
How a Breakout Manuscript Review Works
Whether you're leveling up your indie career or strengthening your manuscript before you query, a Breakout Manuscript Review gives you a clear picture of where your novel stands and exactly how to close the gap between the story you wrote and the one that turns readers into superfans. Including a literal picture. A custom infographic of your manuscript, built by someone who's spent decades translating complex concepts into visuals that make the next step obvious.
You start by submitting your manuscript along with a story survey — a chance to share your intentions, goals, and how you feel about the story as it stands. The survey pinpoints the untapped potential already in your story — the intentions and choices that haven't fully made it to the page yet — so the feedback is tailored to your vision, not a generic prescription for how the story should work. Your custom story infographic and written feedback are developed together during and after the manuscript, so everything connects. You'll have at least a week to review the infographic and feedback before a call to walk through your strategic revision priorities and next steps.
Is a Breakout Manuscript Review right for you?
| This IS the right fit if... | This is NOT the right fit if... |
|---|---|
| You write adult, new adult, or young adult romance, romantasy, mystery, thriller, action, suspense, science fiction, or fantasy | You write literary fiction, nonfiction, children’s, middle grade, horror, women’s fiction, or family saga |
| You’re multi-published with an established track record | You’re writing your first or second novel |
| Your Breakout Novel X-Ray overall score is 70 or above and your Story Foundation score is above 50 | Your overall X-Ray score is below 70, or your Story Foundation score is 50 or below. Get the free Story Foundation prompt for your plot type instead. |
| You’re ready to revise based on diagnostic feedback | You’re looking for line editing or copyediting |
Writing in a genre you’re new to? Schedule a diagnostic session and we’ll decide if a Review or Fiction Ignition is the right next step.
Investment
Standalone novels (up to 100k words)
$1800 - $2700 USD
Your exact investment depends on the complexity of your story and how many independent story threads the infographic needs to map. Payment plans available in 3 or 6 installments
Epic fantasy, romantasy, and other epic length novels
Priced based on scope. You'll receive a quote as part of your free Breakout Novel Diagnostic Session.
You know what it feels like to be consumed by this story. A Review helps you give that experience to more of your readers
Developmental editing requires trust.
You may have worked with an editor before and walked away with generic feedback that could have applied to anyone's manuscript. Or recommendations to reshape your story into something that felt like the editor's vision, not yours. Either way, you left without a clear path to reader obsession.
A Breakout Manuscript Review works differently because experienced authors don't need generalities. You need precision feedback that turns a novel readers finish into one they won't shut up about. What that takes is someone who can see the distance between the story on the page and the one that their loved ones get tired of hearing about.
That's what a Breakout Manuscript Review delivers. Written feedback and visuals that show you not just what to change, but exactly how each change serves your vision and turns more of your readers into fans who put you on auto-buy.
If you've plateaued and you're ready to make the next jump, your next step is a free Breakout Novel Diagnostic Session.