Manuscript critique can be a misleading term and is often confused with a book edit. While a manuscript critique may yield a general consensus as to whether your manuscript is good or bad, it doesn’t provide much to go on with respect to revising or improving your manuscript. You need more specific feedback than a manuscript critique offers.
Although it’s more expensive, a full scope book edit is far more useful as it identifies your manuscript’s weaknesses for an all-important rewrite.
A book edit provides a line by line examination of your manuscript, offering specific feedback for every aspect of your manuscript, in particular identifying weak areas in need of your attention.
If you only wish to know if your manuscript is in the ball park, I suppose a manuscript critique would suffice. However, the smarter approach is to opt for a full book edit by a qualified honest editor.
As an analogy, a manuscript critique provides a general description of a locale, whereas a book edit tells you how to get there.
But are you ready for constructive criticism?
Sometimes the truth hurts, but the only way to improve your manuscript is to listen to, and appreciate, what an editing professional has to say.
The feedback that hurts the most will more likely improve your manuscript the most.
If you’re not there yet—if you’re not prepared to hear the bad stuff—you're not ready for a manuscript critique or a book edit. Save your time and money and wait until your head is in a better place.
Unpublished authors are easy targets for industry tricksters who play by a loose set of rules. As a result, you’ve likely been exposed to their tactics and perhaps have even come to accept some.
As Stephen King's first editor and publisher, I've obviously been around awhile. Why should you trust me to give you honest advice? Check out my bio and see. Assuming that you are, indeed, ready for the next step and are anxious to produce a marketable manuscript, I offer the following pointers to help you spend your money wisely.
You'll find more info on this controversial topic further into this site. However, at this point I just want to warn you how dangerous this can be. If you’ve already begun your search for book editing services, you’ve undoubtedly been bombarded with come-ons offering free sample edits or full edits at ridiculously low prices. These are both traps that are easy to fall into. Editing is a profession. Highly qualified editors have many years of study and experience to back up their qualifications to serve as your editor. Again, editing, like surgery, is a profession.
Have you ever heard of a surgeon offering sample surgeries?
Is it possible for anyone, or any group of people, to have tested the services of every professional book editor in the world?
Of course not! It therefore follows that, if all available editors haven’t been considered in the so-called “study,” how could anyone advise you which are the best editors available?
These lists are typically comprised of buddies of the list provider or people exchanging favors. Some of the worst editors could be included on these lists.
See more info further in this site.
This is one of the more preposterous ones I've seen. Absolutely not. Rather than discuss it here, I'll refer you further into this site for the full scoop.
Everyone needs an editor, even best-selling authors. Whether it comes to a simple manuscript critique or a full-scope book edit, please use the advice on this website to avoid the pitfalls that inexperienced writers often fall into.The unbiased advice that you'll find on this website is based upon my 40+ years of publishing industry experience.
Michael Garrett's writing advice is right on!— Kirk Polking, former director, Writer's Digest School
Michael Garrett's writing advice is right on!
— Kirk Polking, former director, Writer's Digest School
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