We can appraise your book, tell you if it’s ready for publication or submission to a publisher, and tell you how to bring it up to that level if it isn’t.
“I sent The AIA Editors my Intelligent Design: Revelations manuscript which proved to be one the best decisions I ever made. The manuscript evaluation was not only constructive for this book, but it helped me with ideas for its sequel and another manuscript I was working on concurrently.” J.M. Erickson
Going the traditional route? Make sure your book is in good shape before you submit to an agent or publisher.
Self-publishing? Make sure your book is ready to publish before you do so.
Looking for Awesome Indies Approval? Have it assessed while you can still change it easily. If you follow our suggestions, you greatly improve your chances of gaining Awesome Indies Approval and will greatly diminish the likelihood of negative reviews after publication.
Please note: We specialise in fiction, but can also work with memoirs with a narrative structure, books on writing and selected books on personal development.
What is a manuscript appraisal?
A manuscript appraisal is not an edit. It can function in the same way as a structural edit, but instead of the editor making the necessary changes, they identify the improvements that need to be made so that the author can make those changes themselves.
We will tell you what kind of editing the book needs, but that editing is not done as part of the appraisal. Editing is a separate job and charged at a higher rate. The author, once they know what kind of editing a book needs, can then employ an editor to do that work.
What do I get for my money?
If you book an appraisal with AIA Editing, you get:
- A written appraisal that gives an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the book. This can either be a word document, or if it’s short we will put it into the body of an email. The appraisal will focus on the areas that need to be worked on, and where appropriate, we will give references for study you need to do to assist you in your revision.
- Comments on your manuscript at the points where something becomes obvious to the reader. They include:
- Pointing out issues and saying why they are an issue;
- Suggestions for how you can improve the book at that point;
- Indications of something you’ve done particularly well;
- Personal reactions as a reader to the book.
- Possibly highlights on the manuscript that indicate sentences and words that you need to look at in light of issues already pointed out.
- Where early chapters indicate major issues in general approach and the assessor feels that the book needs another draft before they read the full thing, they will only do a partial appraisal and give the author instructions for revision based on what has been read. In this case, the author will pay only for the number of words read (plus the admin and writing fees).
- Where a book is in good enough shape to be ready for a line and/or copy edit, Tahlia will do a brief sample edit on one section so the author can see what the improvements would be should they book an edit
- An indication of what you need to do to bring it up to a standard whereby you could submit it to a publisher or publish it yourself.
- If you are interested in selective author-funded publishing, we may or may not offer to publish your book, or we will let you know what you need to do in order to qualify.
What does my money pay for?
The per-word price pays for the assessor to read the book and make comments on the manuscript. The administration fee pays for responding to emails and general business expenses and the writing fees covers the time it takes to write the appraisal.
If we feel that it would be beneficial for you to do a further revision without us reading the whole book, we will write the appraisal based on what we’ve read and charge you only for the number of words read plus the administration and writing fee. This allows you to do a further revision before us reading the whole thing and so will save you money. When you send the manuscript back after working on it further, you won’t be charged the administraion fee, only the per word reading rate and the writing fee.
We have a special offer for Alliance of Independent Authors members of 30% off the administration fee.
Who does the appraisal?
Mostly Tahlia Newland or Brent Meske if it’s YA or Middle Grade.
Recommendations
“Your manuscript appraisal on my book was worth every cent. You pointed out so many things I’d missed or wasn’t aware of. Thank you for good work.” Yolanda Ramos.
See many more recommendations HERE.
How much does it cost?
USD$0.0015 per word for reading ($0.002 per word for memoirs and non fiction), plus a $60 admin/writing fee ($30 admin fee for members of the Alliance of Independent Authors.) The non-refundable admin fee is charged when we begin the appraisal and the remainder is paid at the completion of the job.
