I've come across adverts for several firms such as www.writing.co.uk and www.literaryconsultancy.co.uk which offer a manuscript appraisal service and claim to have links to agents whom they will put you in touch with if they feel your work warrants it.

Has anybody had any experience of using this kind of service and how did they find it? Is there any company anyone would particularly recommend or avoid?

Thanks

Simon

I've never used them but I've met the people from the Lit consultancy and they seem to know what they are doing and they use good writers - named writers. so often these things have nameless types attached to them

I tried the Writers' Services one. There's a thread about it ~

http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/48_22182.asp


Sharon

Our very own Terry Edge does this sort of thing. He's very thorough and he's helped me no end.
Sue

I'd second what Sue says about Terry Edge - I found him fantastic.

Andrea

<Added>

I have incidentally had reports from agencies, but Terry's report was far and away the most useful.

The Literary Consultancy are absolutely excellent, and I would personally pay them double the fee for their service. They have been excellent with the 2 novels I sent them and really raised the level of my game each time. From now on I intend to send them every novel I write!

Hope this helps!

LoL

A
xxx

Sharon

Do you have the web address for the Writer's Service?

Thanks

<Added>

It seems The Literary Consultancy would appear to be a little more expensive than the others. Does anyone know what the typical turnaround time for them is?

Thanks Simon

http://www.writersservices.com/

Hi - I'm a reader for the TLC - we turn around in six weeks maximum. There is a more expensive quick-read service - 10 days by e-mail.

F

[Edited by david bruce at 12:07:00 on 27 January 2010
Reason: no promotions please]

Good grief, this goes back to 2004. Might be an idea to start a completely new thread in the private writer's forum.

Hi,

I have used one of these services (won't say which for the moment, but one of the larger ones). It was ok, but I would suggest that you really need to think what kind of feedback would be useful for you before using them i.e. you should have already finished it, polished it, put it away for a few months, -revised it, then read through again etc or you may not get the most from your investment.

You also mention recommendation to agents - some services will do this, but only for the very best they see (their reputation is on the line). The reviewer who read mine loved it, so I asked if the company would recommend to an agent. They said this would depend on the views of a senior reader - so I got another free read and the second reader hated it - so it's pretty subjective too.

Livi

<Added>

oh yeh,

didn't spot that this was an oldie - what's happening with the dates?

Since my name has come up, this might be an appropriate place to say a few words about what I'm doing in this field today, in that it's evolved quite a bit over the past five years. In short, I'm working much more flexibly with writers now, using a lot of the coaching and mentoring principles I've trained in and also sought out in relation to my own writing. I'm a strong believer that our development as writers runs very much in parallel with our development in general. Which can sound a little 'deep', I know; but in practice, there's nothing more exciting and genuinely creative than using breakthroughs in perception to directly enrich and elevate our writing.

I'm not actively looking for any more clients right now, partly because my own writing is pretty time-consuming. But people do seek me out, usually through word of mouth via WriteWords, which is a process I'm very comfortable with, having been a member here for man years. I'm always happy to talk to WWers, with no obligation. If I can directly help, and have the time, I will do so; otherwise, I'll try to point them to others who I think can.

When I talk about flexibility, by the way, what I mean is that unless a client specifically requests it, I don't produce the kind of template reports that the agencies tend to. These have their place, it's true. But I've found that most serious writers benefit much more from a bespoke approach.

Terry

Terry, with all due respect, the Site has been bombarded with advertising in the past few days which is why old threads like this have popped up.
I would just add a general plea here for people not to advertise their services on WW as their posts are liable to be deleted by Admin.


- NaomiM

Fair enough. I hadn't noticed. However, as we've discussed before, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'advertising'. Personally, I don't see any problems with long-time members telling other members about what they do, books they have out, etc. But agree that the site shouldn't be used by companies blanket bombing anything with the word 'writer' in it.

Terry