Low-cost author services
Let me help you make your book better.
Here’s what I offer
Low-cost professional editorial book reviews.
Let me write a professional editorial review for you. I’ll read your book from cover to cover then write an engaging, professional, balanced and substantial review - with a minimum of 400+ words – a great length to really get to the heart of your writing and your novel. Details below.
Ultra-low-cost professional manuscript assessment.
Have me take a deep dive into your book with a detailed and comprehensive critique, analysing your manuscript from the readers’ perspective – and at an ultra-low-cost. Details below.
What you get
Low-cost professional editorial book reviews. For published or soon to be published novels.
I’ll write an interesting, engaging and balanced review, not sugar-coated but an authentic, honest review. I’ll praise what’s good, but I won’t shy away from mentioning something which doesn’t work so well for me. The review will then be yours to do whatever you like with – add it to your Amazon page, Facebook and other social media, your website, Goodreads, use it in marketing drives, anything you like. I’ll post it to my blog too if you like. And you can just use the bits you want to quote if you don’t want the whole thing. It’s yours to use as you see fit. Any criticism I have will be strictly constructive, I am never mean. And if I feel the book has some serious structural issues then I’ll leave these out of my review and instead communicate them to you separately and privately, along with any typos I find along the way.
To get an idea of the reviews I write, check out these, posted on my blog. If you like my style and would like to have your book reviewed too, get in touch with me here. Genres I particularly enjoy reviewing are spy fiction; historical fiction; science fiction; mystery, and cozy murder-mystery. But if your book sits outside of these genres, I’ll still happily review it for you.
What it costs
Independent Book Review currently charges $199 for a 400-word standard book review. They’ll write a nice review for you, I had them write one for my own book, Cold Star, but $199! Reedsy Discovery charge a more reasonable $50 to get your book reviewed by one of their pool of ‘vetted’ reviewers (essentially reader volunteers) but you can’t choose who will actually write the review - and at only 300 words Reedsy reviews tend to come up a bit short. I charge just $35 for a minimum 400+ word review of any length of novel up to 90,000 words, but get in touch for a quote if your book is longer.
Compare this to others
Kirkus $450-$599 (250–300-word review)
Kirkus expanded review $599 -$750 (500-word review)
Blue Ink standard review $445
Indie Reader basic review $299-$399
Independent Book Review $199-$499
Love Reading £120-£170
Reedsy Discovery $50 (300-word member’s review)
Ultra-low-cost professional manuscript assessment. For manuscripts in process or nearing completion.
This is a detailed and comprehensive critique which analyses your manuscript from the readers’ perspective. I will consider the narrative, plot, story arc and characterization to see how well these all perform, and if any areas need enhancing and how. I may suggest structural and other changes if necessary. I’ll look out for discrepancies, plot holes, out-of-character behaviours, dialogue issues, chronological errors, and technical inaccuracies. I’ll assess how well a sense of place and time are portrayed and make suggestions for improvements where appropriate. I will also consider presentation and gauge the general grammatical condition of your manuscript. Finally, I’ll pay special attention to any areas you might have an existing concern over. You will receive a detailed, long-form report on all of the above and following that, the opportunity for a bit of back and forth by email over any issues which require discussion or further input from me. My aim is to offer positive support to you in readying your manuscript towards publication.
What it costs
I charge a comparatively tiny fee for this service. Full manuscript assessments can be extremely expensive. I’m not here to make money but because I genuinely enjoy the process of critiquing new writers’ work, particularly in the genres I most enjoy reading. I love the possibilities of taking a deeper dive into a manuscript before it becomes fully formed. Carefully dissecting a manuscript to see what works and what needs attention is not only rewarding for me, but it helps me as a writer to identify positive attributes as well as failings in my own fiction writing. I make a reasonable charge only to cover the extra time it takes me to go this much deeper into a novel. For manuscripts of up to 90,000 words, I charge a nominal fee of just $90 for a professional, full manuscript assessment.