Manuscript Assessment

We are excited at the prospect of working with you. As the most individually nurturing organisation for writers in the business, we look after our clients in the long term and our relationship with you does not end when you complete your work with your consultant.

We’re here to help you understand the strengths of your manuscript and to give you tailored advice on what to do next…

What is Manuscript Assessment?

Our Manuscript Assessment Service is designed for writers seeking professional, high-level feedback on their work before submitting to agents or publishers.

Your literary consultant will read your manuscript carefully and provide a detailed editorial report highlighting both its strengths and the key areas for improvement. This includes feedback on core elements such as structure, pacing, characterisation, voice, and overall impact.

The report is followed by a phone call or Zoom meeting, giving you the opportunity to discuss the feedback in more depth and gain clarity on your next steps.

The aim is to help you see your work with fresh perspective, while giving you a clear and realistic sense of its readiness for submission.

What is a Developmental Edit?

A developmental edit is a comprehensive, in-depth editorial service designed for writers who are ready to take their manuscript to the next level.

Where a manuscript assessment provides high-level feedback, a developmental edit goes much further – working directly within your manuscript to offer detailed, practical guidance on how to strengthen your writing.

Your literary consultant will engage closely with your work, providing in-text commentary throughout the manuscript alongside a full editorial report. This feedback focuses on the core elements of your writing, such as structure, pacing, character development, narrative voice, clarity, and overall coherence.

The aim is not only to highlight areas for improvement, but to show you how to address them — giving you clear, actionable direction within the text for you to use as you revise your manuscript.

This service is particularly valuable for writers who are preparing their work for submission and want to ensure it is as strong, polished, and publishable as possible.

As part of the process, you will also have the opportunity to discuss your editor’s feedback in a one-to-one consultation, allowing you to ask questions and gain further clarity on the next steps for your manuscript.

What is different about your manuscript assessment service?

 We offer a personal and highly tailored editorial service, working with a close-knit team of experienced literary consultants who are carefully selected and known to us.

Whichever service you choose, you’ll receive thoughtful, in-depth feedback along with the opportunity to discuss your work directly with your consultant. We believe this conversation is a vital part of the process — giving you clarity, confidence, and a clear sense of your next steps.

We take a genuine interest in the writers we work with and the progress of their manuscripts. Many of our clients choose to continue working with their consultant beyond the initial assessment or edit, whether through further editorial input or mentoring. Many progress to our Literary Agent Submission Service.

Jacqui Lofthouse and Jacqueline Smith are also available to answer any questions you may have at any stage, and we’re proud to offer a supportive community for our writers. This includes access to our private client group, as well as the option to engage more deeply with our wider programme of resources on writing, editing, and publishing.

A Selection of our Editors

• 

  Lindsay Hawdon

• 

  Rosalie Love

• 

  Jon Magidsohn

• 

  Glynis Kozma

Lindsay Hawdon

Lindsay Hawdon is a former Sunday Times and Telegraph travel columnist, a writer of fiction and an Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University.  On leaving school, she spent three years travelling around Europe, Africa and India, hitching rides and sleeping under canvas.   She has since travelled to over eighty countries.  Her travel column “An Englishwoman Abroad”, began in the Sunday Telegraph in 2000 and ran for seven years.

Her articles for The Sunday Times, “Have Kids Will Travel” followed a year’s trip travelling solo with her two young boys around South East Asia. Their most recent trip, featured in a monthly column for the Independent called “The Rainbow Hunters”, took them around the world to find the origin of colour, raising money for the charity War Child as they travelled.

She has had numerous short stories published and in 2015 her first novel Jakob’s Colours, which was shortlisted for The Authors Club First Novel Award, was published by Hodder and Stoughton.  She is currently writing her second novel. Lindsay also works as an Associate Lecturer at Bath Spa University, runs a writer’s workshop now in its third year, and has a wide experience of editing and proofreading.

Interests:  Travel, adventure and nature writing.  All fiction especially literary, women’s fiction, crime, thrillers, commercial fiction and experimental.

To buy Jakob’s Colours from Amazon click here (affiliate link)

Testimonials

Perhaps the most unsurmountable hurdle of all in writing is self-doubt. Is it good enough? Am I wasting my time here? Is this some delirious dream I am entertaining?  Reaching out to Jacqui and her ‘The Writing Coach – Literary Consultancy Service’ has finally enabled me to drag myself some way out of my entrenched self-doubt and the sincere yet constructive criticism offered by such an acclaimed consultant.  Jacqui herself is constantly so personal and supportive, you can feel she actually ‘cares’ – so rare in this modern world.  My consultant for my novel – Lindsay Hawdon – a rare find: a competent blend of heartfelt encouragement and critical clarity that I now know was the missing piece from my writing process.  I can fully recommend The Writing Coach’s Literary Consultancy service.”  Steve Robinson

As a new author, I found the support from The Writing Coach invaluable. My coach helped me to find my ‘voice’ and a style of writing that was genuine for me. I equally found my coach’s challenge on some of the concepts in my book helpful in refining and improving my ideas. With this foundation, I was able to complete my book within 3 months and I’m happy to say my book is now published and available globally. I highly recommend The Writing Coach. Gavin Bryce

Work with Lindsay

Rosalie Love

Rosalie is an editor and literary consultant who has the knowledge and expertise to help you perfect your manuscript.

Rosalie has a first-class degree in English Literature from King’s College, London. She started her career in the publishing industry in 2015, and has worked for both independent and multinational publishing houses. Whilst Commissioning Editor at independent publishing house Blackbird Digital Books, her first commissioned title Valentina achieved great commercial success, resulting in book-prize nominations and features in the media. She has subsequently worked in the Education division of Cambridge University Press, and has continued to work closely with authors throughout the editorial and marketing process.

Her strengths lie in her eye for detail, her passion for stories, and her ability to spot what makes a book a success.

Testimonials

The Writing Coach was recommended to me by a friend, and through this website I discovered the services of Rosalie Love as a copy-editor. It was a wonderful experience to have Rosalie provide an independent eye on the draft of my book, and she gave it the final polish that it needed, ready for publishing. The final draft very much still felt like it had ‘my voice’, but with all the correct phrasing and grammar. Rosalie was incredibly thorough, and had great insight. I would high recommend her services. Sarah Presley

With Rosalie’s guidance as copy editor I have been able refine my work, and feel confident to go on and self-publish. I would recommend her services to anyone who is on the brink of publishing. Debbie Etherington

Work with Rosalie

Jon Magidsohn

Jon Magidsohn is a writer and musician originally from Toronto. He is the author of the memoir Immortal Highway. His writing has been featured in The Guardian, National Geographic Traveller, Yes & No Magazine, Hippocampus Magazine, Full Grown People and Today’s Parent among others. His album of original songs, A World Without Corners, was released in May 2020.

I believe that if you can crack writing via memoir; if you can fully explore the path toward writing the story of your memory, digging deeply enough to show your truth – the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ – then you’ll be equipped to write about anything.

To buy Immortal Highway from Amazon click here (affiliate link)

Testimonials

Jon’s varied life experiences have brought him to a place of deep connection and understanding of human beings. Working with him is a life-enhancing experience and doesn’t feel like ‘work’ at all. He is consistently constructive and positive in his critique. His words ‘be fully expressed’ and ‘write fearlessly’ will stay with me for a long time. It is a joy to have him as a coach. – Dr Sangeeta Mahajan, Consultant Anaesthetist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Blog: www.kidsaregifts.org and website: www.sangeetamahajan.org

Work with Jon

Glynis Kozma

Glynis Kozma works with two types of clients: those who want to develop their writing around their interests and passions, as writers of non-fiction books or features, and clients who want support with their motivation, time management and confidence.

She is the author of two non-fiction guides for parents and has written features for The Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph and Independent, as well as a wide range of consumer magazines and websites. As a qualified coach for over twenty years, she uses this experience to nurture and develop clients’ creativity.

Her areas of interest for her writing include education, family and health. Glynis is a fully qualified coach and a member of the Association for Coaching. A former teacher of English in secondary schools, Glynis now coaches and mentors writers.

With non-fiction, Glynis begins by helping her clients source ideas for a book often around their own life experiences, interests or professional expertise, then they move on to prepare a full proposal. With her contacts in the media she is able to offer insight into what publishers look for and how non-fiction authors can raise their profiles to become the ‘go to’ person for their subject. Writers who want to learn journalism will be guided on how the industry works, how to find suitable publications to pitch, and how to write attention-grabbing pitches.

I love working with clients who want to share their passion in their writing or who need support to fit writing into their busy lives and build their confidence. Two of my former clients, who are now published authors, wrote self-help books: one on sport/exercise based on their considerable experience and the other as a parent whose child was born with a medical condition; she is now the founder of a charity to help other parents. You don’t have to be an expert to write non-fiction; you can become one if you have the passion. Similarly, if you have always wanted to share your opinions or experiences with a wider audience, learning how to write for the media is another route. What could be more satisfying then seeing your byline in a national publication? If you’d like support with any of this, I’d love to work with you.

To buy Leaving Home from Amazon click here (affiliate link)

Work with Glynis

What is the editorial report?

The editorial report is a detailed, written assessment of your manuscript, providing professional feedback on its strengths and areas for development.

It includes commentary on key elements such as structure, pacing, characterisation, voice, and overall impact, along with clear, constructive suggestions to guide your revisions. For a full-length manuscript, the report is typically 7–10 single-spaced pages.

What is included in developmental editing?

In addition to a full editorial report, developmental editing includes detailed in-text commentary throughout your manuscript using tracked changes.

This allows you to see exactly how your work can be strengthened at a line-by-line level, with practical, actionable guidance you can apply as you revise.

What does the editorial report include?

Your editorial report provides detailed, professional feedback on your manuscript, including:

• A summary of our overall response and clear guidance on next steps, including market awareness
• An outline of the manuscript’s strengths and areas for development
• Feedback on key elements such as structure, pacing, characterisation, voice, and narrative technique (for fiction), or content, style, structure and positioning (for non-fiction)
• Notes on your synopsis (if submitted)
• Comments on presentation and layout
• Specific, constructive suggestions for revision — this is the core focus of the report
• Particular attention to any questions or concerns raised in your New Client Form

For a full-length manuscript, the report is typically 7–10 single-spaced pages.

Can I see a sample editorial report?

Yes – we’re happy to share an example. Please contact Jacqueline Smith at jacqueline@thewritingcoach.co.uk to request a sample.

Is there an alternative to the editorial report?

Yes. As an alternative, we offer shorter bullet-point notes combined with a 90-minute telephone or Zoom consultation.

Where feasible, in-person meetings may also be arranged for an additional fee.

Can manuscript assessment be combined with coaching?

Yes. Many writers choose to continue working with us beyond their initial assessment or edit.

You may wish to explore our Full Mentor Programme, or begin mentoring after receiving your manuscript assessment or developmental edit, depending on your needs.

Can you help with submissions to agents and publishers?

Yes. We can assess the opening chapters of your manuscript as part of our manuscript assessment service.

If you would like support with your submission package — including your pitch or covering letter — we can provide a tailored quote. Please contact jacqueline@thewritingcoach.co.uk for further details.

How do I get started?

You can book your manuscript assessment or developmental edit using the button below.

Once booked, we’ll be in touch to arrange timings and next steps. You’ll also receive a New Client Form, which allows you to share details about your manuscript and highlight any specific areas you would like feedback on.

Do also fill in the contact form if you have any of the following queries:

• If you would like to see a sample of a Reader’s Report
• If you would like us to tailor a combined literary consultancy and coaching package

What are your formatting requirements?

Please format your manuscript as follows:

• Times New Roman, 12pt
• Double spaced
• A4 pages
• Page numbers in the footer (centred)
• Paragraphs indented (rather than separated by line spaces)

What is your turnaround time?

Our standard turnaround time is approximately 4–5 weeks.

We can’t wait to be in touch with you and find out more about your writing work!