Manuscript/Concept Development

Manuscript development—aka manuscript assessment—is an editor’s evaluation of your manuscript as a whole, from its strengths and weaknesses to the overall quality of the writing to its publishing potential. 

Concept development is for a writer in the early stages of their project, or who is struggling somewhere along the way and needs help figuring out, conceptually, where to go next. You may have a complicated, hole-filled outline, or you may be stuck on Chapter 10 and don’t know in what direction to head.

Wherever you are at with your project, we are here to give your manuscript a diligent read-through and to give you professional, serious feedback. This service does not include any line edits or comments on page- or paragraph-level issues, but looks broadly at the overall text and addresses what the editor sees as the big-picture issues. What you receive are clear, honest and detailed notes on the overall premise, organization/structure, plot, pacing, character development, voice and anything else that sticks out. Our role is to read your work as a publisher or agent would, foreseeing any fatal flaws and building on the inherent strengths. If your manuscript is in an earlier stage, we are here to suggest directions in which you might take the narrative, threads that might be left behind or pulled in, characters (and darlings) to kill—this can become more of a collaborative process if you so choose.

Included with our detailed notes is a one-page summary of the manuscript which may be helpful later on, if and when you seek to publish.