Appraisals
Olvar Wood offers professional manuscript appraisals of books and short works in all genres, including childrens books, biography, non-fiction, crime, speculative fiction, poetry and even academic theses, essays or articles. Our assessors are experienced writers and readers, with post-graduate qualifications, whose goal is to help you make your book the best it can be.
Our appraisals average (for a book-length work) at around 10-15 pages of detailed, personal, and constructive feedback – what’s working well and what could be better. The appraisal includes a synopsis, structural report (comments on plot and structure, character, setting etc) as well as more minor suggestions on style, grammar, dialogue and so on. We also mark up the first 50 pages of your manuscript with comments, suggestions and corrections - similar to a copy or line edit. Your marked-up pages will be returned to you with your report.
Our assessors are not anonymous; we stand behind the assessment we make, and are more than happy to meet with you to discuss the report after it’s complete.
How much will it cost?
The cost of your appraisal will depend on the length of your manuscript:
| Short Works: per 5000 words |
$150.00 |
| Book-length works: up to 50 000 words |
$600.00 |
| up to 70 000 words | $695.00 |
| every 10 000 words over 65 000 | $25.00 |
All amounts are quoted in Australian dollars. Olvar Wood is not registered for and does not charge GST.
What does an appraisal include?
Each appraisal includes:
- a synopsis
- a detailed evaluation of the work’s strengths and areas for improvement;
- suggestions for ways in which to address those areas that could be further improved;
- suggestions for further research or reading;
- a clear statement of whether we believe your work is ready for submission to a professional publisher or agent;
- An opportunity to follow up your report by meeting with your assessor (in person or email/phone).
How long will it take?
It will take us two to three weeks to assess a short work, such as an essay or short story up to 5000 words.
It will take us between six and eight weeks to read and assess a book-length manuscript of up to 70,000 words.
If your manuscript is longer than 80,000 words, please contact us for an estimated time frame.
Can you get my work published?
We cannot guarantee that you will get published just by getting your work appraised. So much depends on you: not just how well developed your project is to begin with, but how you apply the feedback to develop your work even further. However, we do enjoy working relationships with a number of literary agencies and publishers, and can offer you advice regarding appropriate markets and opportunities if the work is ready and suitable. What we can guarantee is that your appraisal will be an honest and professional evaluation of your work, with detailed suggestions as to how to further develop the project.
Manuscript format
While we’re not all that fussed about the way you format your manuscript, as long as it’s clear and legible, you might find the following guidelines useful. These are fairly standard guidelines used throughout the international publishing world for both short and long fiction.
- One and a half spaced and single sided printing.
- 12 point Times New Roman font.
- A header on each page that includes your surname, the title of your work, and the page number. These should appear in the following format: Tolstoy/Anna Karenina/2.
- Paragraphs should be indented, except for the first paragraph of a chapter or new section, which should be left aligned.
- Each new chapter should appear on a new page.
- The title page should include:
- Your name, postal and email addresses, and any other contact details, in the top left corner.
- The approximate word count in the top right corner.
- The title of the manuscript, centred, about halfway down the page.
- Your pen name (whether it’s the same as or different to your real name) centred beneath the title.
