The Manuscript Review

A “reader’s report” or manuscript review from a professional reviewer can help you decide whether your book project is worthy of general publication and to which market. A review can also suggest if the work would be of interest to a traditional publisher or whether your topic, background, and objectives make it more suitable for self-publication. Never rely solely on the opinion of friends and family for an assessment. As well meaning as they may be, they are inevitably biased.

A well-prepared review can become the basis for promotional material that follows. You should supply an outline of the manuscript to the reviewer as well as a one-line, one-paragraph, and one-page synopsis of the project. The manuscript review is not an editorial review (which suggests how editorial problems should be fixed), though it will contain overall editorial comments.

A solid review should be 3 to 4 pages and contain:

• synopsis, facts (pages, sections, visuals, maps, etc.)
• summary of strengths and weaknesses
• timeliness of the manuscript
• analysis of the audience and the market; what is the competition?
• recommendation for or against publication and in what form

The reviewer will look at the theme or purpose of the manuscript and determine whether the information supports the theme.

Is the manuscript organized and clearly and logically structured?

Is the scope too broad or too narrow?

Have any pertinent topics been left out? What will the reader want to know? What is the author not saying?

Is there anything that should not be there?

Is there anything that is potentially libelous? (Do you require a lawyer’s opinion?) Is there racism or sexism?

What is the writing style: wordy, terse, abstract, appealing, dry?

Would some text be better suited to another form, such as a chart or graph?

Are any elements missing? Introduction, glossary, index?

You may not agree with everything the reviewer says but be determined to learn what you can from the review.

©Kingsley Publishing Services 2008

Mary Kingsley travelled to Africa alone, with no knowledge or experience of the languages and cultures she would encounter. She marched, climbed, and hacked her way through the Congo in the early 1890s, "a Victorian Lady in Africa." And she wrote about it in an absorbing, witty, and intelligent manner.

I was introduced to Mary Kingsley as a student, by Professor Laurence Kitzan, who taught history at the University of Saskatchewan. Her spirit has moved me ever since. Thus, the name of my company, Kingsley Publishing Services. If I could travel back in time, it is Mary Kingsley I would choose to meet.

Kingsley was born into a distinguished literary family and yearned for a proper education. Instead she was required to play the role of a Victorian lady and perform domestic duties and care for a bed-ridden mother and, later, an alcoholic brother. When she was orphaned at age thirty she ventured into the heart of Africa in her black dresses, crinolines, and white blouses. It was such a wildly unusual thing to do and she did it with engaging eccentricity. Some scholars have suggested that she had a "death wish," but I do not believe for a second that this woman who set out to collect "fish and fetish" did not embrace life, despite heading to the "White Man's Grave."

Books by Mary Kingsley

Travels in West Africa (1897)

West African Studies (1899)

Book about Mary Kingsley

A Voyageur Out: The Life of Mary Kingsley by Katherine Frank

A Victorian Lady in Africa: The Story of Mary Kingsley by Valerie Grosvenor Myer

Now that I have stepped out of the world of "traditional publishing," in which I was employed for 25+ years, and work with individuals and businesses to bring their content to the public in a "grantless" universe, I have given considerable thought to the idea of the publisher as "gatekeeper."

Does the gatekeeper role validate the role of the publisher? Perhaps ... at one time, but there are publishers who, to survive, publish to meet the criteria of grants. Selection is skewed to satisfy the criteria of an organization outside of the press. Is this a gatekeeper role? Or books are published because they will add to the bottom line. Is this a gatekeeper role? Or books are published to satisfy a passion of the publisher? Or not published to satisfy the politics of a publisher.

I recently attended a book conference and was accused by a prominent publisher of being a patsy of the oil companies because Kingsley Publishing Services (not a "traditional" publisher) recently released a book that takes a politically incorrect approach to discussing a controversial topic in The Oil Sands: Canada's Path to Clean Energy? by Calgarian Gordon Kelly. I assume this means that this publisher would dismiss this manuscript out of hand because it does not fit with his political views. Or, gasp, that I published this because someone paid me to. My heart is no longer pure. I thought books were all about making people think, respond, argue, react, TALK.

My point is that there are many reasons publishers choose manuscripts, and not all of them have to do with the quality of the manuscript itself. Intelligent people can make their own decisions about what to publish; they do not have to be a "publisher" to make that call. There are some amazing publishing houses in this country, but the current model does not work for everyone. So let the final quality of the product speak for itself, not who produced it.