Manuscript Assessment
What is a Manuscript Assessment?
The Literary Consultancy’s industry-leading manuscript assessment service provides writers of all levels with an honest, detailed and professional market-aware manuscript appraisal from a highly skilled editor.
✅Written feedback report
✅Your writing is hand-matched to the most suitable TLC Editor
✅Honest, non-misleading, constructive assessment
✅All TLC Editors are trained using our in-house Editing Guidelines
✅Receive our ‘What to Expect’ and ‘Next Steps’ guides
✅Ready in 4-5 weeks
Your manuscript assessment will help you understand where your work currently sits in relation to the commercial literary market place, and offer practical developmental advice for next steps. We hand-match every incoming manuscript to an editor we feel is suited to the story, genre, and creative vision of the author. Our highly skilled in-house team is also on hand for any of your more general enquiries throughout the process. All writers, at any level, are welcome to submit, and every manuscript is considered with equal attention. You may be writing for pleasure, or writing with a commercial aim. We welcome all approaches and respect that all writing is hard-won, and commit to giving you a respectful, constructive, critical response at a high level of engagement.
PLEASE NOTE: It is unlikely that submissions uploaded after 18th November 2024 will be returned to you before Christmas. We will try our best to deliver the service before the TLC office closes for Christmas, but be aware these may be returned in January.
What do I get?
If you are writing a novel, a short story, a children’s book, non-fiction, a script or screenplay, short stories or poetry and would like guidance and support, an assessment will provide practical guidelines for self-editing, and give developmental and structural advice about basic narrative elements, showing you what you’re doing well, what’s working less well and why, and how to get your manuscript in the best possible shape. Writers who use our services can feel confident that their work will be matched to an appropriate reader from our list of 90 editors with unsurpassed professional experience. For more information on our editorial team including biographies and specialisms, please visit our Editors page.
“TLC was founded with a generous, inclusive and ethically-driven view of how our publishing industries might better support, represent and serve writers and readers alike. It has pursued that vision unwaveringly over its 25 year history and has created real change and positive impact in its wake.”
Chris Gribble, CEO, National Centre for Writing
How much does it cost?
Manuscript Assessments are costed by word count, so please see our Fees page for more information on this. Our fees start at £300 (inc. VAT). We have a separate fee structure for Short Stories, Poetry and Scripts & Treatments, which can also be found on the Fees page. For a higher fee, we also offer a ‘Quick Turnaround’ service, where you will receive feedback within 7-10 working days for a. You can use our online manuscript assessment submission portal to calculate the fee for you.
- Click here for full submission guidelines (you can also submit by email or post if preferred).
- Fees can be found here
- Terms and conditions are here
- Want to read our Privacy Policy? That’s here
Do I need a Manuscript Assessment?
Come for a TLC manuscript assessment if you:
- want a professional, independent editorial overview of your work at whatever stage of development, from a reader hand-selected for you by our in-house team;
- want help with direction at any stage of your writing;
- want to ascertain if you are likely to get commercially published or not
- want to know if an editor thinks it worthwhile you self-publishing, and if so best steps forwards;
- have decided to self-publish and want an editorial overview with suggestions for editorial improvements to make sure your work is as good as it can be.
You will be sent a What to Expect PDF, which you can also access here, and with the report you will be sent a Next Steps PDF, which you can also access here.
If you are interested in copy-editing or proofreading, please click here.
“My first novel ‘Pao’ was a TLC read. And honestly I don’t know how I would have managed to knock it into shape without the comments from the Reader. That was my turning point to actually selling the book. So what TLC offers writers, the thing that is so incredibly special is an opportunity to make their dream come true. More than that. A chance to work towards that dream in an environment of care and attention, and commitment to excellence because TLC loves literature. The process is rigorous and rightly so, which is what makes it valuable not only to the writers but to the Readers who are continually learning and improving our craft and skills.”
Kerry Young, Costa First Novel Award and Commonwealth Book Prize shortlisted novelist and tutor
What Writing Do You Accept?
At TLC we offer manuscript assessment for writing at all levels by writers writing in English. We offer assessment for:
- Fiction
- Non-fiction
- Illustrated children’s fiction
- Poetry
- Short stories
- Scripts, Screenplays, and Radio plays
Agents and Publishers
TLC has established working connections with many of the UK’s leading publishers and agents and over the years has helped hundreds of writers get into print. For more information please see our Success Stories. However it is important to remember that getting commercially published is difficult. No editing consultancy or editor should be making any writer promises about getting published, nor insisting that a manuscript assessment is an essential step in this process. We believe in the value of what we offer, as part of a process by which a writer might wish to develop their craft, and understanding of the market, regardless of ‘outcome’. We commit to taking all writers and all writing seriously and pride ourselves in giving the same professional attention to each manuscript that comes to us. We also consider all routes to readership, and all writing processes, equally valid, and are happy to advise on alternatives to traditional publishing to help you consider your aims and options.
All developing writers should be aware that the traditional publishing industry is driven by commercial imperatives. Publishers and agents can only take on books that they feel confident will result in sales. Marketing and PR campaigns are important in generating book sales, so publishers and agents also ideally need to feel a book (and its author) will be easy to promote. We try where possible to demystify this process, and will never make false promises about what an editorial intervention can achieve.
If you have completed a book, have already had a manuscript assessment or other editorial intervention, and feel ready to submit to literary agents or publishers, you may wish to consider our Submission Package service.
TLC runs events to help people writing understand more about the publishing industry (see TLC Events) and we work across all our services to help writers gain a greater sense of self-awareness around the quality of their work, and where it might fit into the market.
TLC is aware of the demands of the industry and will not make irresponsible suggestions to clients wishing to approach agents and publishers. However, where work is deemed not only well-written, but also potentially commercial, we will have a discussion with the author about the best procedure for finding an agent/publisher and TLC’s role in the process.There is no further fee to the client for this service.
Bursaries (TLC Free Reads Scheme)
We are partially funded by the Arts Council England to provide a limited number of bursaried reads to promising writers from low-income households across the UK. You will need to contact your local regional writing development body in order to find out if they operate the scheme and if you are eligible. For details including finding your regional writing partner and how to apply please see Arts Council England Free Reads Scheme.
We are committed to match-funding a portion of our Arts Council grant – as we are not a charity we rely on new partnerships, in-kind support, donations, and sponsorship to uphold this commitment. If you feel you are in a position to offer a donation or sponsorship to support our provision of free manuscript assessment, please get in touch.
Ready to submit your work for a manuscript assessment with one of our professional Readers?
See also:
