Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin Nemo
I think you need to get the opinions of a wide section of people that you know and trust to see if your work is any good or not. Obviously your not looking for sycophants, but friends who will give you an honest opinion. There's not much point spending money out on assessors if you know before hand that your work is not good enough. After all it’s not in an assessors interest to tell you your writing is rubbish.
|
I agree. However, a writing group might be your best initial bet, unless you have very honest friends!
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
One of the curiosities in the annotations was how harshly the typos were commented - comments to the effect that it looked like the work had never been reviewed/edited/checked. (It certainly had been checked, many times by me, but also in detail by a few other people.) I haven't counted them out exactly yet, but I think the reviewer noted less than 20 typos in this 165000 word manuscript (a mix of missing words, extra words and missing or extra apostrophes). Is 1 error per 8000 words really so bad in a manuscript that has never seen a copy editor?
|
IME, most
proofreaders would consider that a very good rate for something that's actually been edited; it certainly wouldn't be something that is likely to sway a publisher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I'm not really sure yet how I feel about the appraisal in terms of money spent. I may have to spend more time letting it sink in. I was expecting criticism, and some of it will be useful, but I wasn't really expecting to be told that the story wasn't worth working on further. I've read widely enough that I don't see this as either true or fair.
|
Remember, it is only one person's opinion, and many of our best writers got heaps of rejections initially. If, after looking at it objectively in a few days, that the book still has promise, then take what you believe is correct from the review and try again. Personally, I wouldn't pay for an assessor - try a literary/publishing agent, and see what they say.