Reading/Critiquing Services

I’m constantly bombarded with requests to read other people’s short stories and novels.  Until now, I’ve always said no for two reasons. 

First, if I’m exposed to your unpublished work, it may seep into my brain without my being aware of it.  (This happens to writers all the time.)  Weeks or months or years later, it might bubble up to the surface and I’d be convinced it was my own original idea.

Second, reading and providing feedback on other people’s work takes a huge amount of time and effort for me.  That’s because I do a lot of work to figure out what I think YOU are trying to accomplish in your work.  My experience has been that many critique groups don’t work because critics get too focused on talking about what THEY’D do if it were their story instead of helping YOU figure out how to best tell the story that you want to tell.  If I spend time helping others with their work that means I don’t have time to do my own work -- in other words, I will write fewer novels.  Therefore, the only way I’ll consider reading and critiquing other people’s work is to charge for the time and effort it takes.  My rates are listed below.

These rates are non-negotiable and are likely to increase at any time.  If you’re serious about submitting a story or novel for me to read and critique, you must contact me first at ContactResa@aol.com to make arrangements.  DO NOT SEND ANYTHING TO ME WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.  Anything sent to me without my permission will be deleted and/or thrown away immediately.  No exceptions.

RATES

Short story (up to 7500 words)                          $  500.00

Novelette (7500-15,000 words)                         $1,000.00

Novella (15,000-60,000 words)                         $2,000.00

Novel (60,000-100,000 words)                          $5,000.00

For novels longer than 100,000 words, add an extra $2,500 for each additional 25,000 words.  For example:

Novel 125,000 words                      $  7,500.00

Novel 150,000 words                      $10,000.00

Novel 175,000 words                      $12,500.00

And so on…

NOTE:  Word counts are determined using Microsoft Word Count.