We respect your
unique and creative vision
It is your book. Our job is to make it the best version of what you intended, not what we would have written.
An Editorial Assessment Tells You What the Book Needs Before You Pay to Fix It
A named editor reads your complete manuscript and writes you a report: what the book is doing, what it is not, where a reader stops, and what would have to change. No tracked changes, no rewriting — a diagnosis, priced as a diagnosis, so you can decide what to commission next with your eyes open.
- The complete manuscript read by a named editor
- A written report on the whole book, not a checklist
- A call to talk the findings through, included
- No in-line editing, and the price reflects that
How we work with you
How an Editorial Assessment Is Carried Out
Five stages, completed in order. An assessment is a reading exercise before it is a writing one, and nothing goes into the report that the complete manuscript did not put there.
The complete manuscript, in order, at reading pace
The editor reads the book the way a reader would, start to finish, before writing anything down. A problem noticed in chapter four is very often caused by something in chapter one, and that connection is invisible to anyone assessing an extract or skimming for faults.
Structure, pacing, voice and where a reader stops
The report addresses what the book is trying to do and whether it does it: structure and chapter order, pacing, point of view and voice, character motivation or the strength of the argument, the opening, the ending, and the specific places a reader is most likely to put it down. Every judgement comes with the evidence in the text that produced it.
No tracked changes, and no rewriting
An assessment does not mark up your sentences. That is not an omission, it is the point: the revision is yours to make, and marking up prose that a structural change will delete would waste your money and your editor's time. If you want in-line notes on the manuscript, you want a developmental edit, and we will tell you so.
A report you can argue with, on a call
Written feedback is easy to misread when it concerns work you have lived inside for years. A call is included so you can ask what a note actually means, push back where you disagree, and leave with an order of work rather than a list of problems.
The recommendation names the level, not the package
The report closes by naming what the book needs next: another draft of your own, a developmental edit, a line edit, or nothing at all because it is ready. Where you go on to commission that stage from us, the assessment fee is credited against it, and the editor who read it briefs the one who edits it.
Our commitments
What we promise every author.
Six commitments that appear in the scope document rather than the brochure. They matter most in an assessment, where you are paying for an opinion and the only thing that makes it worth having is that it is an honest one.
We respect your
We communicate clearly, including when it is awkward
A named coordinator, timely milestone updates and bad news delivered early rather than discovered late.
We hold to professional production standards
Real typesetting, original design and files built to the specification your printer and retailers actually require.
We support you across the whole journey
From the first honest assessment to long after launch including the parts that are not billable.
You own your work, permanently and completely
Copyright, royalties and every production file. We produce and distribute; we never acquire.
We give you a scope
you can hold us to
Deliverables, allowances, revision rounds and exclusions written down before you commit a penny.
Ready when you are
Your publishing journey starts here.
Take your draft to the next chapter with Winfrey Publishing. Whether you have finished a first manuscript and cannot tell whether it works, been turned down without being told why, or simply lost your view of a book you have read forty times, an editorial director is ready to read it. You will get a written verdict before you commit to any editing, and support you can actually reach on the telephone.
Get Free Consultation
or call +1 877 275 5624
How the work begins
A Clear Path From Finished Draft to an Honest Verdict
Four straightforward steps take you from a first conversation to a written report you can act on.
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Book a discovery call
A straightforward conversation about the book, how many drafts it has been through and what you are hoping the assessment will settle. We explain what the report will cover, what it will not, and how it differs from a developmental edit.
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The assessment scope
You receive a written scope naming the wordcount included, the expected length of the report, what the report addresses, the schedule and the fee. If an assessment is not the right thing for your manuscript, we say so here rather than after taking payment.
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We read and report
A named editor reads the complete manuscript and writes the report, referencing the text throughout so you can see what produced each judgement. It arrives as a document you can keep, share with a writing group, or take to another editor entirely.
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We talk it through
A call follows the report so you can question the findings and leave with an order of work. What you do next is your decision, and the recommendation names a level of editing rather than a package.
The Independent Author's Guide to Editorial Assessment
The guide explains editing costs, ISBNs, royalties, distribution limits, cover briefs and typical publishing timelines so you can place the assessment in the wider publishing process.
It also explains where an editorial assessment sits before developmental editing, line editing and copy editing. That makes it easier to compare a book manuscript feedback service with a full edit and understand what you are paying each stage to solve.
The guide is useful whether you continue with us or not. Some sections may save you from buying editing too early, which is exactly the point of starting with a diagnosis.
Our commitment
Why authors trust us with their editorial assessment
You are buying a judgement, which makes the identity of the person making it the whole of the value. The written agreement names who reads the book, what the report will cover and what happens if its answer is one you did not want.
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01
A named editor reads it
One editor, named before the work starts, reads the complete manuscript and writes the report. You know whose opinion you have bought and can ask them about it directly.
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02
Evidence, not verdicts alone
Every judgement in the report points at the passage that produced it, so you can check the reasoning rather than take the conclusion on trust, and disagree where you think it is wrong.
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03
The unwelcome answer still gets written
If the manuscript needs another draft of your own before any paid editing is worth it, the report says so. That is what an assessment is for, and the fee does not buy encouragement.
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04
The fee is credited forward
Where you go on to commission the editing stage the report recommends, the assessment fee comes off it, so taking the cautious first step does not cost you extra.
The editing family
The Other Levels of Editing
An assessment exists to tell you which of these you need next. Each is quoted separately, and your assessment fee is credited against whichever level the report recommends.
Questions
Questions About Editorial Assessments
A complete read of your manuscript by a named editor, followed by a written report on the book as a whole: structure, pacing, voice, argument, characterisation and reader experience. It diagnoses what the book needs. It does not carry out the work.
An assessment diagnoses; a developmental edit treats. The assessment is one report on the whole book. A developmental edit adds chapter-level notes and in-line queries in the manuscript itself, takes longer and costs more. Many authors buy the assessment first and decide afterwards.
No, and deliberately not. The report is a separate document and your manuscript comes back unmarked. If you want in-line queries and chapter-by-chapter notes, that is a developmental edit, and we would rather you bought the right thing than the cheaper one.
Typically twelve to twenty pages for a full-length manuscript, depending on the book and how much there is to say. Your scope gives the expected range before you commit, and a short report on a book with few problems is good news rather than short measure.
Yes. The editor needs to see how the complete book behaves, because a problem in chapter four is often caused by something in chapter one. Partial manuscripts can have a chapter critique or an early structural consultation instead, quoted separately.
Yes, where you go on to commission the level of editing the report recommends. The credit and its conditions are named in your written scope rather than promised verbally.
You will be told, with the reasons and with what to do about it. That answer is worth exactly as much as the encouraging one, and it is a great deal cheaper to receive now than after a full developmental edit of the wrong draft.
Both, with different editors and different criteria. Fiction is read against plot, character motivation, point of view, scene order, pacing and genre expectation. Nonfiction is read against the argument, the chapter sequence, the evidence and whether the book delivers what the title promises.
It is priced against wordcount and genre rather than a flat per-word rate, and it costs substantially less than a developmental edit of the same manuscript. We quote in writing before anything is due.
Yes. It is shared only with the people working on your project, under the terms of your written agreement, and you retain full copyright and every version of the file. We do not acquire your book or take a share of what it earns.
Talk to a publishing consultant
Your manuscript is ready for its next chapter
Thirty minutes, no obligation, and an honest answer about whether an assessment is what your manuscript needs. If a full developmental edit would serve you better, we will say so rather than sell you the smaller thing.