Manuscript Critiques
Fiction • Nonfiction • Poetry
Revision should be a joy, but sometimes it can seem a steep mountain up ahead with no clear path to a published book. What is the book missing? Where are the weak points? How can I emphasize its strengths? Sometimes you just need another set of eyes on your manuscript to make sure it’s as strong as it can be before you send to publishers, agents, or contests.
A professional critique of your book is invaluable in shaping it and making sure it’s agent-, publisher-, or contest-ready. You spent hours upon hours deep in the pages of your work, and from your place of intimacy with it, it’s easy to lose sight of how prospective publishers—and readers—will receive it. If you want to give your book the greatest shot at publication, a thorough review and critique is the best thing you can do for a manuscript.
And as an award-winning author with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a spot in the Best American Poetry 2020 anthology, and my own book published, you can trust your manuscript will be in good hands. See the testimonials at the bottom of the page for the thoughts of those whose work I’ve critiqued and edited.
I’ve worked with authors across genres to improve their already-drafted manuscript and make it the best it can be. No matter the trouble spots you’re concerned with or the things you want to make sure come across in your work, I can make a detailed and holistic review of your work and offer many specific, actionable suggestions for improvement.
Areas we can focus on in your manuscript:
Line-level edits on grammar, tone, and clarity
Plot diagnosis and character evaluations
Ordering sections or, for collections, individual poems/essays
Book-level thematic evaluation and assessment on how these themes will be received by readers
Any specific trouble points for which you want feedback and/or suggestions
Overall proofing and correction of typos, mistakes, verb errors, and more
Contact me to today and tell me about your book! I look forward to reading it and getting it into publishable shape with you.
““Writers: in addition to all the house-cleaning and bread-making you’re doing in social isolation, add “get my manuscript critiqued by Brandon Amico” to your to-do list. He is amazing. He provided intense feedback on my poetry manuscript, and thanks to his help that collection went on to win the Barnard Women Poets Prize and was published by W. W. Norton. His understanding of the work both by the line and as part of the larger collection is incredibly hard to find and makes a world of difference. He’ll be critiquing my next book, for sure.””
““I’ve had a novel that I wrote several years ago that’s been sitting in my drawer and taunting me. I hired Brandon to help me wrangle it into shape, and he gave me such helpful and thorough revision notes! I’m really excited to dig into edits now—and I’m never excited to edit.””