Doing quick manuscript evaluations
I once had a manuscript land on my desk was written in such an abstract way (“glorious silver moon moments brandish sparkles”) (not a direct quote) that I couldn’t figure out how to begin to edit it. This was for a publisher client who would send projects my way without giving me a chance to review them first (this is pretty typical of publishers). The acquisitions editor who’d passed the manuscript on to me gave me some suggestions, but that edit came close to breaking me. I think I earned about six dollars an hour in the end.
This experience is the reason I insist on seeing the manuscript before I book a project with a new indie author client and before I guarantee any project quote for any client. “Let me take a look before I say for sure” has become my mantra.
Because this manuscript evaluation comes before anyone has signed a contract (my evaluation will influence what I charge), I’ve learned not to get bogged down in it. No point in spending five hours reviewing a manuscript for a client who says, “No, thanks” to my project quote.
How to Quickly Do a Manuscript Evaluation
When I’ve been asked for a quote for a developmental edit, the first thing I do is read a couple of pages from the beginning of the manuscript (whether fiction or nonfiction). Can I make sense of what’s being said? Are the sentences so awkward that I know I’ll have to spend time untangling them? DE isn’t about fixing sentence-level errors, but if I can’t understand the argument being made or the story being introduced, I’m going to have to spend some time getting the basics in shape before I can do the bigger-picture work.
I’ll look for things like wonky formatting or file types I don’t edit (sometimes clients want to send a PDF). I make sure the manuscript is complete (sometimes clients send the wrong file). I kick that kind of thing back to the client to fix before I proceed.
For nonfiction, I’ll check out the table of contents and any supporting material, such as a book proposal or sales copy. This will help me see if there are big gaps missing (the proposal promises something that’s entirely missing from the manuscript, for example).
For fiction, I’ll ask the client to send me any collateral they have, such as a pitch letter, synopsis, or the like. This helps me see if the author understands the genre they’re writing in. If they tell me they’ve written a romance but the synopsis shows the hero is killed off at the end, well, that’s an author who doesn’t know what a romance is. If the client doesn’t have any of this collateral, I will ask them what genre they’re positioning the manuscript and see if they mention any red flags (“It’s a mystery but no one solves anything!”) (that might be okay for farce/satire but not for straight-up mystery).
Then I dip into a few random places throughout the manuscript. For nonfiction, I’m looking to see if I can find threads of the overall narrative structure or argument. If Chapter 5 seems totally divorced from Chapter 1, then I know that there are likely to be content problems. If the author isn’t giving examples or case studies, I know I’m probably going to have to chase down material. If the text doesn’t seem to offer any insight that I couldn’t have thought up myself, I suspect a content or expertise problem.
Similarly, for fiction, I’m looking to see how strong the narrative is. If I can’t see how Chapter 5 could possibly connect with Chapter 1, that’s likely a problem in the plotting. If in Chapter 1 the protagonist is trying to keep the aliens from overrunning earth but in Chapter 5 the protagonist is trying to discover who murdered Todd, there’s some kind of disconnect happening. If I’m bored and bogged down by the middle, that’s going to be a plot/tension problem.
Then I’ll look at the end. I’ll see if the ending makes any sense in light of the beginning. For nonfiction, that would be concluding an argument or narrative (“And that’s why I believe the Fed should only adjust interest rates annually”). If I can’t see how the beginning and end relate, I know there’s a structural problem somewhere (Chapter 1: “Here’s how to build a treehouse”; Chapter 20: “And that’s how you solve quadratic equations.”).
For fiction, I take a similar approach. Do I recognize any of the characters who appear in the last chapter? Does the conclusion seem to cohere with the genre (the murderer is unmasked, the hero declares his undying love)? If not, there’s a problem.
I try not to take more than half an hour or so to perform this evaluation, and I use it to quote a realistic fee for my services. I’m still occasionally overly optimistic about a manuscript, but never to the extent of glorious silver moon moments brandish sparkles.
