You invested a great deal of time—and emotion—in writing your book. Now, your hope is to convince a literary agent or editor that yours is one of those very few special books that deserve to be published. To accomplish this means overcoming considerable odds. For example, at present most literary agents say that they are rejecting ninety-nine percent of the numerous submissions they receive.
With an experienced eye Mike can evaluate not only the structural quality of your manuscript, but its potential to sell in the current publishing market. In addition, your work is not “farmed out” to anyone. Mike does all of it himself.
Guarantees? There are none in this highly subjective business. No editor, no matter how skilled or experienced, can promise that his/her work on your book will ensure its publication. But Mike will help you make your presentation as professional as possible to give your book its best chance with a literary agent.
Key word: “Professional.” Mike hears it from agents and editors all the time. They complain that the majority of submissions crossing their desks are from writers that did not take the time to elevate all aspects of their work to a professional level. Much of what they see virtually shouts “novice!”
Mike will read your non-fiction or fiction book-length manuscript and provide you with a comprehensive evaluation, including many suggestions for revisions. This review will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the work, including style and content.
For a novel, the evaluation will focus on strengthening key areas. Does it grab a reader’s attention (the “hook”)? Are the characters believable? Is the dialogue powerful, and have you balanced it well enough with your narrative? Have you chosen effective point-of-view characters to tell your story? Is your setting realistic? Have you framed your plot well? Is your pacing consistent? Examples from your own manuscript will be cited to show you where you’ve succeeded, and where you need work.
While this evaluation does not include line editing, Mike will point out repetitive errors to enable you to fix as many of them as you can. He will also indicate the extent of editing that your manuscript currently needs to elevate it to a “professional grade” level. When your manuscript is finally in shape for line editing—often a time-consuming process—there will be that much less of it to do. This will be far more cost-effective for you.
Subsequent to the initial evaluation Mike is available on an hourly basis for one-on-one coaching, consulting, and support as you work to make your book better than good. He will answer your questions, look at rewrites of scenes or chapters, and in general, be there for you.
A full line edit of your manuscript should only be done after all the other problems and concerns have been addressed. It should be the final step before the work is ready to begin submitting to agents. Mike will clean up all the typographical errors, the grammar, sentence structure, passive voice, word repetitions, etc. Make no mistake, this is important. Your story may be gripping, but the agent will never know because—once they read a page full of these kinds of errors—the manuscript will be put into the SASE and returned to you.
At the same time Mike will continue to make sure that all the changes noted in the comprehensive evaluation, or any subsequent evaluations, have been addressed. In addition, Mike is respectful of a writer’s unique “voice.” At no time will he attempt to change that voice.