Book Manuscript
Critiques
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AFTER YOU HAVE STUDIED THE CRITIQUE, you will be entitled to a fifteen-minute follow-up telephone consultation to get answers to any questions you may have. At that time we can discuss the amount and type of editing your book will need, whether it's just a little clean-up with light copy editing, or substantive content editing that takes longer and costs more.
NOTE: If you live in the United States, I will telephone you, but if you live in another country, you will have to stand the expense of this follow-up telephone conversation.
What a Written Critique Will Discuss
NONFICTION BOOKS:
the overall quality of your writing—what you have done very well and where there is room for improvement;
Whether your book is appropriately written for your intended audience and is likely to hold readers' attention;
Your book's structure, and whether chapters and sections are appropriately titled and flow logically, with particular attention being given to how each chapter opens and closes;
How content within each chapter has been presented, and whether it also flows logically and has appropriate subheadings; whether you have provided sufficient information or are assuming knowledge on the part of readers; whether any how-to instructions in the book are clear; whether you are repeating yourself or discussing the same topics in more than one place and need to bring those discussions together;
Supplemental information included in the book (or needed), such as a resource chapter, appendices, or bibliography; sidebars, special tips or quotations; graphic elements or illustrations; checklists or worksheets.
FICTION BOOKS: If yours is a work of fiction, I'll also comment on:
Your book's opening and ending—whether it grabs me at the start, and leaves me satisfied or disappointed at the end; also whether your story has good momentum and is credible;
Your timeline—whether your plot holds together as you move the story along, and whether you always let the reader know when things are happening and are using past and present tenses properly;
Your characters—whether they are adequately described and developed so I can see them in my mind and care about them; also whether your descriptions of places and things are your descriptions of places and things;
Your dialogue, both its style and substance—whether it is appropriate for each of your characters and moves the story along, or whether it is mundane and boring.
[Editing Checklist of Common Writing Errors]
[Back to Book
Manuscript Editing Page]
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