Spoiler alert
This post contains spoilers for my novel, The Archivist. If you have no intention of ever reading The Archivist, then read on. However, if a dark fantasy about a face-stealing demigod does sound like your type of book, then why not read the book first, then come back to this post later.
What is an editorial critique?
An editorial critique is the best money you will ever spend on editing. For a reasonably small sum (in editing terms) someone will read your manuscript and write a report that highlights all the areas that need fixing, along with some supportive words on the parts of the novel that you actually managed to get right.
In this post, I have shared the editorial critique I received from the Faber Academy for my second novel, The Archivist. I was so impressed with the report, that I used them for my most recent book, The Girl Who Sold Time.
Why share?
I decided to share this report because I have read a few books recently that were desperately in need of an editorial critique due to fundamental issues in the plot and characters. By sharing what an editorial critique can provide an author, I hope to encourage them to seek this service out in order to improve their work.
The report
What next?
As you will see from the above, what you receive from an editorial critique is a separate report as opposed to a marked-up version of your manuscript (which you get in a line edit or a proofread). This means that the work is on you as an author to go through the report, make a list of the recommendations and then work through them. That is what I did with The Archivist, which is why the finished version of the book includes many of the report’s recommendations.
