Manuscript Critique

My manuscript critique services involve looking at your story from the reader’s perspective. While there is some basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation checking, the main focus revolves around character development, believability, pacing, and plot holes. I look at what you excelled at, what could be improved, and what would make readers quirk their eyebrows, and say, “I don’t think John would really do that,” or “Even if they were mates and had some sort of preternatural bond pulling them together, a guy who has been very homophobic throughout the story wouldn’t be so quick to accept that he is now mated to a man, even one as effeminate as Todrick.”

Authenticity Read

Authenticity read icon featuring a navy blue book with a pair of fold glasses on the book's open pages

An authenticity read (also known as a sensitivity read or a targeted critique) is a great tool for authors writing outside their areas of knowledge and experience, who want to make sure that the representation in their book is both authentic and avoids harming the reader.

If you’re an author who is writing cross-culturally and have some hesitation on whether you’re writing in your blind spot, then an authenticity read is a good way to check in with someone of that culture to point out any inaccuracies or aspects you may not have considered.

I am particularly equipped to read for the experiences of:

  • Fat, Black cis-gendered women
  • Black people in majority White spaces
  • Southern African nationals raised in the USA (e.g. impact of matriarchial and non-traditional/Western family structures)
  • People who travel extensively
  • People with family members with alcohol abuse/dependency and mental illness—narcissism, borderline personality disorder, depression—and the impact within the family
  • Individuals with trauma-based social anxiety
  • Chronic illness (asthma, chronic sinusitis, ligamentous laxity)
  • And any intersectionalities that occur therein

At the end of the targeted critique, you’ll receive an editorial letter outlining major representation issues, as well as in-manuscript comments directing your attention to finer concerns.