Is your novel ready to submit to a publisher?

1. Overview

   Title, author, genre, length, language, settings (where and when it takes place), the imprint or list it can aim for and its central subject, in a table at the head of the report.

2. Brief plot summary

   The story told from beginning to end, ending included, and the possibility of a sequel if the book leaves one open.

3. The subplots

   Each secondary plot on its own: what it does, where it enters, where it closes and whether it closes, and at what point it touches the main plot.

4. General impression: the overall appraisal

   The judgement of the whole: what the manuscript does well and what it most needs to improve, stated plainly.

5. Literary appraisal

   Voice, style, structure, characters, narrator, pace, world, dialogue, theme and ending, one by one, with strengths and areas for improvement kept separate and illustrated with passages from the text. For each one the report says what is looked at and how it is checked.

6. The shape of the book: the protagonist's curve

   Within the literary appraisal, the Vonnegut curve plots the fortunes of the book's protagonist: up when things go well, down when they go badly, from the opening to the close.

7. Coherence and plausibility

   States whether the book holds together from within: coherence of the plot, credibility of the characters and consistency of the world, the register and the research. Plausible does not mean like the real world: it means consistent with the rules the book itself has set.

8. Literary score

   Six criteria, each with its weight in the mark. In a novel they are narrative voice and style (20%), structure (20%), characters (15%), narrative tension (15%), originality (20%) and opening and ending (10%).

9. Commercial appraisal

   Fit with the real market: segment, the reader it is aimed at, factors that amplify sales and factors that limit them. It is looked at through two lenses at once: the list the book would join and the readers who would buy it.

10. Market comparables

    A table of the most relevant published titles (usually three to five), with author, imprint and year, what each shares with the manuscript and the specific way each differs from it, and where the book sits within that territory.

11. Commercial score

    The six commercial criteria, each with its weight: fit with the market and the list (25%), target reader (15%), market comparables (15%), community potential (15%), cover and title (5%) and timeliness and positioning (25%).

12. Final score and projection

    The final mark with the formula applied in plain view: for an unpublished manuscript, half the literary mark and half the commercial, because an author who has not yet published has no readers who buy the book for the name on it.

13. The reader already looking for this kind of book and the reader to be won

    Who is going to read this book and for what specific reason. It distinguishes the reader who already exists for the genre from the one who could be won over.

14. What sets it apart

    What this book has that the others do not, put as it would be put by whoever has to defend it at an acquisitions meeting.

15. Key passages

    The scenes an editor should read first, quoted verbatim, with their exact location and the reason they matter.

16. Translation difficulty

    What obstacles an international sale would face: register, wordplay, cultural references, the book's own vocabulary. With a verdict on the difficulty.

17. Imprint and list

    The imprint and list recommended first, and alternatives with their degree of fit, an editorial comment on each and an example of a published title from its list. With actual names, not categories.

18. Title, cover, promotion and tagline

    What the title does for the book, cover directions drawn from the visual elements of the text itself, a promotion strategy ahead of launch and the tagline, the line that presents the book.

19. Editorial recommendation

    A clear position: publishable now, publishable after revision or not recommended in its current state.

20. What the book needs: editing summary

    Strengths to protect in any revision and areas for improvement located chapter by chapter. It is a summary: the detailed work, scene by scene and geared to the rewrite, belongs to the editing report, which is commissioned separately.

21. In short

    The book in a few words, what it has that not every book has and what it needs in order to improve, in three short blocks to take away.

1. First impression

   What the opening and synopsis convey to a professional reader.

2. Strengths and red flags

   What already works and what raises a warning light.

3. Recommendation

   Whether the book is worth developing and where to start.

1. Overview and scope

   Title, author, genre, length in words and in chapters, who tells the story and the version of the manuscript that was read.

2. Overall impression

   First, what the manuscript already achieves and must be protected; then what it needs to improve, located. It closes with the level of intervention the text needs (light, medium or deep) and with what that level means for this book: what is solved by cutting or moving material and what has to be written afresh.

3. Theme and central question

   The theme, which is what the book is about beneath what it tells, in one sentence and with the quotation from the manuscript that says it best. And the question that drives the story: who the protagonist is, what they want and what stands in their way.

4. Plot and subplots

   The story summarised in a few lines, with the chapter for each key moment: what sets it in motion, the conflict, the moment of greatest tension and the resolution.

   • The subplots

     Each secondary plot on its own: where it begins, what it promises and whether it delivers, in which chapter it closes or is lost and where it crosses the main plot.

5. Structure

   The main parts of the book, in a table with their chapters, their word counts, the percentage of the whole each one takes up and what each part does in the story. And a chapter-by-chapter map, with each chapter's word count, what it contributes and its state, marked with a word: Keep (it works and is left alone), Adjust (it works, but calls for changes) or Significant problem (it does not work and is dealt with in the first round of revision).

   • The structural imbalance and how to correct it

     The main structural problem, with the specific proposal: which chapters are shortened, which are merged or moved, which scene is added and how many words each part should have.

6. Inner architecture of chapters

   The average length of a chapter, in words; how chapters usually open and close, and which ones depart from that habit.

   • Chapter titles

     What the chapter titles are for: whether they announce the tone of what follows and whether they all follow the same principle (for example, always naming a place, an object or a date) or the principle changes.

7. Turning points

   The turning points, the moments when the story changes direction, in a chapter-by-chapter table: what happens, what kind of turn it is, what it does in the story and its state, Keep, Adjust or Significant problem.

   • The turning points, one by one

     What sets the story in motion, its turning points and the moment of greatest tension, examined separately, in greater detail for the one that does not work and why it does not.

8. Opening and ending

   What the opening promises and whether the ending delivers it, with the first and last sentences in view.

   • The opening

     The first sentence, what chapter 1 establishes and the scene the book opens with. If that scene has a problem, it is pointed out together with the proposal for solving it.

   • The ending

     How the story is resolved, step by step; the last sentence; the scene or image that gives the ending its meaning; what it does well and what it needs.

9. Characters

   A section for each main character and another for the secondary ones: what role each plays, how they change, what problem they have and how to solve it.

10. Narrator and point of view

    The narrator is the voice that tells the story; the point of view, the place from which it sees it. The section says who tells the story, from where, and in which scenes the text strays from that decision: for example, when it tells us the thoughts of a character the narrator can only see from outside.

    • The narrator

      Type of narrator, in which person and tense the story is told (I or he, present or past); whether the narrator can be believed; the features that make the voice recognisable, such as irony, the way the narrator looks at himself or herself, vocabulary or the rhythm of the sentence; and its problems, counted: how many times each occurs and in which chapters.

    • Point of view

      Where each scene is seen from and how much the viewer knows; how near or far the narrator stands from what the character is living through; what is shown and what is withheld; and how much text is given to each moment of the story.

11. Time, setting and pace

    Whether the dates, ages and time spans agree with one another; anything that could not have existed in the period of the book; the places and their role in the story; and the slow chapters.

12. Genre, style, voice and dialogue

    What the reader of the genre expects, be it a romance, a crime novel or a historical novel: the conventions of the genre and the moments its books usually contain. The report says whether the book provides them, and each absence comes with its solution.

    • Literary devices

      The devices the text already uses, such as irony, enumeration, metaphor or parallelism (two scenes or two sentences that answer each other), sorted and counted, with a table showing how much each is used and what is recommended.

13. Rewriting samples

    A few passages from the manuscript, copied exactly as they stand and with their chapter, each with a proposed rewrite and the reason for the change.

14. Commercial focus

    Which changes bring the book closer to its reader and to a publisher's list it could fit.

15. Three questions

    Whether the book hooks the reader and from where, whether it has sensitive content and whether there is any legal risk.

16. Revision plan

    The proposed changes, ordered so that whatever determines the rest is done first, in three rounds: the first, essential (structure and plot); the second, recommended (characters, scenes, point of view and pace); the third, optional (style and language).

17. Conclusion

    A summary in a table, area by area, from structure to style, with the main thing to be done in each. It ends by stating what state the manuscript is in, whether it can be sent to a publisher now or needs the revision first, and what the next step is.

18. Style sheet

    The list of names and words that must always be written the same way throughout the book.

19. Language issues

    Errors of language (grammar, agreement, punctuation), kept apart from the rest: the recurring ones, each with an example and its chapter, without correcting the text line by line.

Includes the full manuscript assessment and, in addition, these in-depth analysis modules:

1. Analysis of the narrator, time and the construction of the book

   Who tells the story and from where, in what order events are told and how the book is built.

2. Character map

   Relationships, functions and evolution, seen as a whole.

3. Themes, symbols and motifs

   The book's themes and the symbols and motifs that sustain them from beginning to end.

4. Style study

   The author's language, devices and signature.

5. Extended context and comparables

   Where the book sits within its tradition and its market.

6. Annotated passages

   Specific quotations from the text with detailed analysis.

1. Target markets

   Which languages and countries the book has scope in.

2. Comparables by language

   Kindred titles in each destination market.

3. Candidate imprints and lists

   Publishers the book fits, and why.

4. How to present the book

   What to prepare to reach beyond your original language.