Media Masterclass
One hour session on the basics of publicity. Run for groups of six to eight ideally. Pay what you want after the event.
One person session on your specific issues. £50/hr.
Manuscript assessment.
Payment
I ask for payment in advance through Paypal. These are introductory discounted rates.
For a full manuscript assessment
Novels and non-fiction £400 for first 100,000 words and £4/1000 words thereafter OFFER PRICE £300/ £3/1000
First 10,000 words of a novel – £150 (most useful when you haven’t finished the book) OFFER PRICE £125
Short story under 5,000 words – £100 (£5 each 1000 above that)
One hour discussion of your writing and publishing aims (Zoom) – £50
I will review/assess:
Novels – fantasy, science fiction, contemporary and historical, thrillers, YA. Try me. (Whole manuscript – recommended – or first £10,000)
Non-fiction – depending on subject.
I offer Zoom meetings to discuss your writing and publishing issues.
Fiction manuscript assessment
I can talk through your goals and the different routes to publishing.
I can review your agent querying process and documents
I do write to commission. I can show examples.
I do other work for hire.
I have thirty years’ experience as a communications professional so honestly, suggest a project and I’ll quote if I am suitable and interested.
I do talks and workshops for groups.
I will usually offer advice looking at:
Structure/ plot and genre level
Chapter, scene, paragraph, and sentence level.
On characters, world-building, etc.
You can suggest areas of particular concern – but I will still look at everything.
It is not a proofread! My partner will proofread if you like.
10000 words assessment
This will show me many of the positives and negatives in your writing and your set-up. It may flag up some problems in the whole book.
What it cannot do is show the problems of the whole book – plot and character development. Getting these right is crucial.
Non-fiction book assessment
I worked with a scientist on their two popular science books. Depending on the subject I’m happy to help.
Will it hurt?
The report I give is intended to be honest and constructive. It will emphasise the positives. Don’t be discouraged.
I started super-defensive about my work. But it was getting good feedback and learning the truth in it which helped me improve. It’s a natural reaction to be upset or annoyed sometimes by comments on your work – I still feel it sometimes myself.
However, it’s an essential part of the writer’s journey to see what other people think of your work. If you are published, all sorts of people will comment. Hopefully you will be working with an editor at some point, and they don’t hold back either.
I strongly recommend reading the report, then setting it aside and musing on it for a couple of days. You will find that you are more objective reading it again.
Learning to work with the feedback
It is your book. It is up to you what you do with feedback.
You learn your own understanding of what works, developing your own inner editor.
For Our Child of Two Worlds, my editor identified a need to heighten drama in one strand of the book. She gave me three ideas, which I hated. I came up with a solution that met her advice and yet developed and worked within the story. It was a big step forward.
Within the fee, I will briefly explain feedback which is unclear to you.
Content warnings
We should discuss if your work contains graphic scenes of torture, sexual assault, excessive gore, animal cruelty etc. This depends heavily on context. I write books which have grim elements but unremitting dark is not my scene.
My offered suggestions.
Sometimes I say, you should recast this sentence something like this, and write a suggestion to show my point. You can probably find a better way of doing it. It’s not to claim the suggestion is brilliant writing.
Practicalities
The document should be submitted in Word, 12 point Ariel, Times New Roman, etc.
I will provide a written report and I may also track changes in your document. I will endeavor to do this within six weeks, (or as I inform you at submission) and I will inform you if I am behind.
The report includes a brief summary of the plot as I see it.
Commissioned story – let’s discuss.
Times are hard. If your annual *household* income is, like mine, under £19k (60% of UK median income) I will reduce these by 15% from full price. I may also know some routes to get a cheaper or free assessment from other people.
Confidentiality and copyright
Assessment services. Your work is confidential. I will not pass it to any third party or describe it on any public platform without your written permission.
I have no interest in stealing your ideas. You accept that I may have work in progress that may use similar ideas, characters, locations etc and that any such occurrence is a coincidence. (For example, odd as it may seem, two novels were published in the last year which are ‘a lesbian witches reimagining of the Great Gatsby’.) I pitched a plot idea on Twitter as a joke and within five minutes was sent a link to a published work using it.
This report is *my* copyrighted work. You cannot publish my report, quote from it, or otherwise use it to market your work without my written permission. There are professional ethics issues here.
Being professional
I will behave professionally and courteously to you. If you behave unprofessionally towards me, I reserve the right (i) to terminate this agreement immediately and/or (ii) decline to refund any fee paid.
I reserve the right to refund your money and not provide a report, and if I wish, to do so without giving a reason. I will have decided I cannot provide the report you require.
I will be open about any relevant commercial interests I hold.
Disputes.
I accept payment by PayPal so that we can use their dispute procedure. For the avoidance of doubt, me providing the report requested meets our contract. Whether you like it or agree with it is irrelevant.
Version control: v3.0 21/08/23