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?

Manuscript Assessment is a service to writers who need honest and constructive feedback on their writing work, prior to submission to agents and publishers. As the publishing market becomes increasingly competitive, the role of our literary consultant is to help you ensure that your manuscript is as good as it can possibly be, before you consider sending it out. We work with fiction and non-fiction writers as well as poets, playwrights and screenwriters.

The literary consultant reads your work, annotates your manuscript with their full response and provides a written report, outlining the strengths of the work and areas for further development. This is then followed by a phone call or Zoom meeting to discuss their feedback.

The intention is to enable you to look at your work through fresh eyes and to give a realistic sense of the manuscript’s readiness for publishing.

What is different about your manuscript assessment service?

 We offer a personal and exclusive manuscript assessment service. All of the consultants are known to Jacqui personally and we are a close-knit and dedicated team. Where you choose the written report, we offer a 45- minute follow-up telephone conversation to answer any outstanding questions, so you get to know your consultant – and they are available for further work with you, should you wish to progress to mentoring.

Jacqueline Smith and  Jacqui Lofthouse are available to speak with you, should you have any questions about the process at any stage. Jacqui take a personal interest in your success. In addition, we have a private Facebook group for Writing Coach clients to enable you to discuss your publishing journey with like-minded peers. You also have the option of becoming a member of our community, where you have access to lessons on editing and publishing too.

A Selection of our Editors

• 

  Lindsay Hawdon

• 

  Rosalie Love

• 

  Jon Magidsohn

• 

  Paul Roberts

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

Paul Roberts

Paul Roberts is an experienced and established editor and mentor who specialises in non-fiction. He has been published many times by Routledge, Kogan Page, Wiley and Profile Books (as The Economist). He has written for magazines and professional publications as diverse as the Independent, Evening Standard, Maxim and Viz comic. As a reviewer, editor and teacher of creative writing, Paul has supported developing writers for many years. And, like most people he knows, he has a novel nearing completion.

Paul has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Creative Writing and knows that writing is an act of continuous improvement. He uses editorial and mentoring services himself so he really understands how important the relationship is between mentor and mentee. The creation of a book can be a big challenge. As a qualified counsellor, Paul also brings some empathy to what can sometimes be a demanding process. He will help you to progress your project, whatever it may be, and will also help you to develop as a writer with a writer’s mindset and discipline.

Paul has lots of experience across a huge range of non-fiction genres including autobiography, memoir and travel. He enjoys self-help books, especially those which focus on business or management.

Work with Paul

What is the Reader’s Report?

The Reader’s Report is a detailed, written report, which gives full editorial comments on the work submitted. It includes a summary of the work’s strengths, as well as constructive suggestions for improvement and editing. The report for a full-length manuscript will be between 7-10 single-spaced pages. We also annotate the manuscript with comments, usually via track-changes. Please note that this is not a full editing service, although we can quote for full editing.

The Reader’s Report includes:

• A summary of our response to the work and our objective advice on next steps as well as advice on the market-place
• Notes on the synopsis (if submitted) and its effectiveness
• An outline of the work’s strengths and weaknesses
• Comments on layout and presentation
• For novelists – notes on characterisation, dialogue, plot, point of view, narrative voice, pace and other technical aspects of the writing
• For non-fiction writers – notes on content, style, voice, structure and market-positioning
• Specific and constructive editorial suggestions on how to improve the work. This will be the focus of the report.
• Particular emphasis on any points raised in your New Client Form

If you would like to see a sample copy of one of our Reader’s Reports, please contact Jacqueline Smith – jacqueline@thewritingcoach.co.uk and she will forward an example.

Is there an alternative to the Reader’s Report?

Yes, we also offer the alternative of shorter bullet point notes and a 90 minute telephone/Zoom consultation. For an extra fee, where it is feasible, we can also offer in-person meetings.

Can Manuscript Assessment work with Coaching?

Yes. You may wish to consider the Full Mentor Programme as an alternative. However, if you wish for your full manuscript to be read before beginning on-going work with a mentor, you can simply begin mentoring after you have received your manuscript assessment.

Can you help me with the package I send to agents and publishers?

Yes.  We can assess the first three chapters of your work under our Manuscript Assessment Service. If you wish us to also work on a pitch and submission letter etc, please ask for a tailored quote – email jacqueline@thewritingcoach.co.uk

The report will then detail exactly what needs to be done to ensure that the work really catches an agent’s eye.

I want to go ahead and submit my manuscript to you. What do I need to do now?

You can book your manuscript assessment using the button below

Please fill in the website contact form in addition to purchasing your assessment. We will then be in touch to organise a date for reading and return of the report. A New Client form will be sent to you before the work begins so that you can provide full details about your work and background along with any particular questions you have for your consultant.

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

Please use the following layout for your manuscript:  Times New Roman 12pt, double spaced, A4, with page numbers in the bottom footer, centred. Where possible, please indent your paragraphs rather than using double line spaces.

Our standard turnaround for literary consultancy is 4-5 weeks.

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