Manuscript assessment services

the proposition

I will read your MS with complete attention and then annotate it forensically, adding to this a summary report dealing with the more general issues of character, style, structure. I will fully engage with the spirit and intent of your work. I am equally concerned with the general narrative flow of the work and its expression at sentence level.

the mechanics

Simply email me at peterdkenneally@gmail.com with an overview of your book and a 3000 word sample of your writing. If I think I'll be able to help you, we can work out a fee and time-frame for your particular project

The basic schedule is $1600 for a 'standard size' ms of 80,000 words. For works over 80,000 words it's $150 for each extra 10,000 words. For smaller works, I am happy to discuss fees for individual projects.

about me

In July 2020 I was shortlisted in the narrative non-fiction section of the Melbourne Lord Mayor's Creative writing Awards

In September 2020 I was in the top 60 out of 700 entries in the BBC Radio 4 National Short Story award

I came to Melbourne from London in 1985. I started writing in earnest in the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT in 1992 and had poetry and short stories published widely from then on.

From 2008 I began reviewing for The Age, and then extensively for ABR, The Australian, Cordite, The Big Issue and others, as well as establishing a freelance writing and editing business with my wife Kate Cole-Adams.

My manuscript assessment work developed out of reviewing and also from attending two of Antoni Jach's legendary masterclasses and realising how much I enjoyed, and was suited to, helping writers make the best of their manuscripts