Manuscript Review Service

Let us guide you on your path to publication and get your book and stories publication-ready and reader-ready.

The Manuscript Review Service is designed to help you understand what your manuscript needs next. Your reviewer will read your work, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and offer guidance on what to do next. This may include developing craft skills, revising key elements, or preparing for editing or publication.

WHAT IS A MANUSCRIPT REVIEW?

The Manuscript Review Service is designed to guide you on next steps for your manuscript and provide advice. 

The goal of the manuscript reviewer is to read your manuscript and let you know its strengths and weaknesses and suggest what you need next. The feedback you receive might include suggestions on going back and learning craft or storytelling techniques to advising on what type of editing you're ready for. 

HOW IT WORKS

This is not recommended for first drafts. A manuscript review should be done when you've reached that point in your story that you don't know what else is needed, you can't see the manuscript clearly anymore, anything more is simply beyond your skill or experience at this time, and you need someone to tell you what to do next. 

1. Review the website and length/price details to determine the fee for your review. If your manuscript is outside the listed word count, please contact us.
2. Review the current manuscript reviewers and decide if there is someone y0u would prefer review your manuscript. If you have no preference, that's fine. We are happy to place you with an appropriate reviewer. If your manuscript does not fit with a current reviewer or that reviewer is unavailable, we will make every effort to find someone else for you.
3. Pay the fee - fill in the required information on registration form to the best of your ability.
4. Send us your manuscript to forward to the reviewer.
5. Most reviews take 4-6 weeks with the exception of short stories or longer works outside of typical word count. You will be given a rough turnaround time.
6. The reviewer ONLY reads your manuscript and provides feedback on next steps. If you are looking for a more substantive edit of your manuscript, please see Editing & Proofreading Services. 

WHAT TO EXPECT AFTER YOU SUBMIT

A manuscript review is not an edit.
On rare occasions, reviewers may provide line edits in order to illustrate a point, but reviewers are not contracted to edit your manuscript. 
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A manuscript review is an overview of your manuscript identifying areas for improvement on craft-based elements. The reviewer will focus on character, structure, pace, theme, conflict, voice, narrative style, showing vs. telling.

A manuscript review is always subjective. We try to match you with the best reviewer for your genre. A manuscript review should allow you to go away with the comments, read and review, process and figure out how you, the writer, will incorporate  the suggestions, because in the end, it is always your story.

Help Us Help You

When you submit a mansucript for review, you will be asked if you are concerned about any specific areas, if you have specific questions you would like answered. The reviewer will look at your questions and should provide feedback on those areas, as well as any overarching areas that they think could be of benefit to your manuscript. Tell us as much as possible about your writing background and your goals for your manuscript. For example, not everyone wants to be published. Some writers are looking to create something for their family, or intend to self-publish. Depending on your goals, the review will reflect that as much as possible.

What You Will Get Back

Depending on the length of your manuscript and availability of reviewers, this process can take up to 4-6 weeks for completion for Long Texts like novels and up to 2 weeks for Short Bursts like short stories.  

You should get back a detailed overview. This overview will typically include strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript, as well advice on next steps. These can range anywhere from 1 page to 10 pages. 

Note: 
Sometimes reviews can sting a little. As writers we work so hard on our manuscripts and it's hard to hear criticism. We recommend that you read the criticism and then sit on it for a few weeks, think about it. Sometimes things that seemed completely off base the first time around, makes way more sense later. ​

2024/25 Manuscript Reviewers

MANUSCRIPT REVIEW FEES

Short Bursts (short story, personal essay)	Long Texts  (​novella, novel, memoir)	Poetry
$50	$50	$50
non-refundable setup fee	non-refundable setup fee	non-refundable setup fee
BOOK A REVIEW	BOOK A REVIEW	BOOK A REVIEW
up to 500 words $10	7501 - 20000 words $150	1-24 pages ​$100
501-1500 words ​$25	20001-50000 words ​$250	25-64 pages ​$150
1501-3000 words ​$50	50001-70000 words $350	65-100 pages $200
3001-5000 words ​$75	70001-80000 words $450	101-129 pages ​$250
5001-7500 words ​$100	80001-100000 words $550	130-150 pages ​$300

The Alexandra Writers Centre Society (AWCS) is an organization that proudly supports creative writers.  We are not currently accepting manuscripts that are generated by AI. If we believe that a manuscript is AI generated we will return all fees with the exception of the non-refundable set up fee.