Success Story

The Day She Disappeared was assessed By Vicky Grut at TLC. By then I had already attended a writing course and meet-the-author evenings at the TLC and trusted that their insight would be valuable. Vicky Grut was matched as she was successful in the same genre. It was years ago now, but I still have the original assessment report. Vicky gave me priceless advice on developing my voice, characters and plot. Ms Grut’s assessment focused on places I need to move the story along to keep the reader interested. I was also given the key strengths and weaknesses of my manuscript. It’s always nice to hear about your strengths but I had to pause over the weaknesses and decide what I could live with, what I should cut, what I need to do better in future. I found the assessment invaluable. As a debut novelist I crippled myself with a need for perfection in every last detail. Having a big picture in mind, gave me the courage to gut about 25% of my initial manuscript. I have since worked with editors and agents in both the US and Britain and Vicky Grut’s initial advice still resonates today.