Time to Hang Out My Shingle: Manuscript Consultation Begins!

So for a while now people have been hunting me down and hitting me up for paid manuscript consultation, and I’ve reluctantly complied, and gotten gratifyingly grateful feedback, but I’ve never committed to it …until now. No, I don’t just apply the checklist (you can do that yourself), I just do an organic evaluation.

I’ve been doing it all: screenplays, teleplays, and lots and lots of novels (my book agent has been having his clients hire me for consultation) which has gone surprisingly well, so try me out and I’ll probably handle what you want read. Here’s how it’ll work:

• You email me your manuscript. In script format if it’s a script (pdf or Final Draft), or double-spaced 12 pt text (Microsoft word or rtf) if it’s prose.
• You include an email telling me what you want to do with it and what sort of notes you’re looking for.
• I read it and mark it up, usually about one annotation per page.
• I then write you an in-depth editorial letter, about 4-8 single-spaced pages, with notes for pushing the manuscript in the direction you want it to go.

So what’s the price? $2 per page of your manuscript. So a 60 page TV pilot would be $120, a 120 page screenplay is $240, a 240 page novel manuscript is $480, etc. It’s not cheap, but it’s pretty comprehensive and my customers have always let me know that they’ve been eminently satisfied.

So here we are. We’ll see how many hits I get from this: maybe just a few, maybe just enough, or maybe too many, in which case I’ll let you know if what the turnaround time will be. So far I’ve been turning them around in about 2-3 weeks. (UPDATE: The turnaround time is now unfortunately at least 8 weeks for the foreseeable future.  Sorry!)

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Let me know in the comments or email me! My email is MattMBird@yahoo.com. Please put “manuscript consultation” in the subject line.

So Exhausted

Sorry, guys. I'm beat. Thanks again for all your help. I'll be back soon to figure out where we go from here.