OLD News

I’m now offering a low-cost fiction critiquing service. Whether you’re an up-and-comer who wants advice, or an experienced pro who just wants a second set of eyeballs, my experience to date makes me your guy.

Please note that I’m just getting this off the ground, and such I cannot yet speak to details such as what percentage of client requests I’ll be able to accept, average turnaround times, and so forth.

What do I mean by "critique"?

Basically, I’m offering a less formal variant of a "content edit." I will offer overall opinions on the work as a whole, perform a basic level of proofreading, and I will look for, and suggest solutions to:

• plot holes
• inconsistencies
• unclear or repetitious description
• general issues of style

Note that "suggest solutions to" does not mean I will rewrite it all myself. I will, of course, provide you the tools and advice to do so.

What sorts of jobs do I accept?

I’ll critique basically anything that falls under the umbrella of "speculative fiction." Fantasy, science-fiction, supernatural horror, steampunk, that sort of thing. Nonfiction, and fiction genres outside the speculative, are outside my wheelhouse.

I’ll accept short-form or long-form fiction, within reasonable parameters. See below.

Rates

I charge based on word count, at a level that varies slightly depending on project length. All prices are in US dollars.

Up to 1,000 words: Flat fee of $15.

Up to 10,000 words: As above, then 2.5 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 1,000.

10,001 to 40,000 words: As above, then 2 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 10,000.

40,001 to 100,000 words: As above, then 1.75 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 40,000.

Longer works may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Payment

I vastly prefer working through Paypal, but we can discuss other options. Unless we’ve made other arrangements, I’ll be asking 25% of the fee up front, with the remainder due upon completion. (Longer works may require 50% up front.)

Rush Jobs

I cannot normally provide a guaranteed turnaround time, but if you absolutely must have your critique by a certain date, we can negotiate that for a slight up-charge.

How to request a critique

Solicitations for a story critique must come to me via the following form. Requests sent to other addresses, or entered into other forms, may well not be seen at all.

Please change the subject line to read "Critique [story name]". (If it doesn’t yet have a name, call it Untitled.) In the body of the e-mail, please provide

• Your name
• The approximate word count of the work you want critiqued
• Genre(s) of the work
• A brief (one-to-three sentence) description of the story

I’ll contact you and, if I’m able to accept the job, discuss with you total fees, means of delivery, and other requirements.

Further Questions?

Contact me via the form below. Please change the subject line to read "Critique Questions." Or you can ask in the comments section, below, if it’s a question you don’t mind discussing publicly.

Important disclaimer! Read before emailing me:

While it’s not common, authors do occasionally have very similar ideas. By clicking this box, or sending me any sort of request for a critique, you are agreeing to hold me blameless if any of my work–past, present, or future–bears any resemblance to the material you sent.

Please Fill In All Fields

[formbuilder:3]

*cough*

And with thanks to Naomi for putting together the graphic for me.

The news these days has had me thinking, and it finally made me realize something.

You see, I despise the [Whatever-American] terminology for ethnicity. Asian-American, African-American, all those. Hate those terms with a passion. And I’ve finally figured out why.

They’re dangerous. The whole non-racist/post-racial society that we want? Those terms are detrimental to the whole thing.

Why? Because they’re hideously racist. And even worse, they’re insidiously racist.

Because they imply, by definition, that white is some sort of default. "Oh, if you’re white, you’re just American. It’s everyone else who needs to be specially identified."

That sort of thinking is what keeps "us vs. them" alive, even in the minds of people who otherwise aren’t prejudiced. It’s the sort of thinking that leads to people assuming that all characters in books have to be white, or casting Sigourney Weaver as an Biblical African queen.

When was the last time you heard someone referred to as a Caucasian-American? You haven’t, or at least not often, because the language itself has trained us to think of "Caucasian" as the unspoken default. We’ve already learned, throughout history, that you cannot have "separate but equal." So how can we possibly reach equality when the language itself works at keeping us separate?

If you’re an American citizen, you should be an American. Period. Ethnicity should have no bearing on it, and the terminology for ethnicity should not draw on citizenship.

There is no "default" except human. Our language needs to reflect that, not cloud it.

I’m now offering a low-cost fiction critiquing service. Whether you’re an up-and-comer who wants advice, or an experienced pro who just wants a second set of eyeballs, my experience of over a dozen years and a dozen novels makes me your guy.

Please note that I’m just getting this off the ground, and so cannot yet speak to details such as what percentage of client requests I’ll be able to accept, average turnaround times, and so forth.

What do I mean by "critique"?

Basically, I’m offering a less formal variant of a "content edit." I will offer overall opinions on the work as a whole, perform a basic level of proofreading, and I will look for, and suggest solutions to:

• plot holes
• inconsistencies
• unclear or repetitious description
• general issues of style

What sorts of jobs do I accept?

I’ll critique basically anything that falls under the umbrella of "speculative fiction." Fantasy, science-fiction, supernatural horror, steampunk, that sort of thing. Nonfiction, and fiction genres outside the speculative, are outside my wheelhouse.

I’ll accept short-form or long-form fiction, within reasonable parameters. See below.

Rates

I charge based on word count, at a level that varies slightly depending on project length. All prices are in US dollars.

Up to 1,000 words: Flat fee of $15.

Up to 10,000 words: Base fee of $15, then 2.5 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 1,000.

10,001 to 40,000 words: Base fee of $200, then 2 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 10,000.

40,001 to 100,000 words: Base fee of $800, then 1.75 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 40,000.

Longer works may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Payment

I vastly prefer working through Paypal, but we can discuss other options. Unless we’ve made other arrangements, I’ll be asking 25% of the fee up front, with the remainder due upon completion. (Longer works may require 50% up front.)

Rush Jobs

I cannot normally provide a guaranteed turnaround time, but if you absolutely must have your critique by a certain date, we can negotiate that for a slight up-charge.

How to request a critique

Solicitations for a story critique must come to me via the following form. Requests sent to other addresses, or entered into other forms, may well not be seen at all.

Please change the subject line to read "Critique [story name]". (If it doesn’t yet have a name, call it Untitled.) In the body of the e-mail, please provide

• Your name
• The approximate word count of the work you want critiqued
• Genre(s) of the work
• A brief (one-to-three sentence) description of the story

I’ll contact you and, if I’m able to accept the job, discuss with you total fees, means of delivery, and other requirements.

Formatting

If and when I request that you send me your manuscript, it must be as either an RTF or a DOC (not DOCX!) file.

Further Questions?

Contact me via the form below. Please change the subject line to read "Critique Questions." Or you can ask in the comments section, below, if it’s a question you don’t mind discussing publicly.

Important disclaimer! Read before emailing me:

While it’s not common, authors do occasionally have very similar ideas. By clicking this box, or sending me any sort of request for a critique, you are agreeing to hold me blameless if any of my work–past, present, or future–bears any resemblance to the material you sent.

Please Fill In All Fields

[formbuilder:3]

I’m now offering a low-cost fiction critiquing service. Whether you’re an up-and-comer who wants advice, or an experienced pro who just wants a second set of eyeballs, my experience to date makes me your guy.

Please note that I’m just getting this off the ground, and such I cannot yet speak to details such as what percentage of client requests I’ll be able to accept, average turnaround times, and so forth.

What do I mean by "critique"?

Basically, I’m offering a less formal variant of a "content edit." I will offer overall opinions on the work as a whole, and I will look for, and suggest solutions to:

• plot holes
• inconsistencies
• unclear or repetitious description
• general issues of style

That said, this is not a proofread or a line edit. I will point out any typos or formatting errors I happen to spot, but I won’t be specifically looking for them. I will not be doing line-by-line commentary, and while I will point out the above problems and offer suggestions, I won’t rewrite them all for you.

In essence, come to me for help on the story, not on the text.

What sorts of jobs do I accept?

I’ll critique basically anything that falls under the umbrella of "speculative fiction." Fantasy, science-fiction, supernatural horror, steampunk, that sort of thing. Nonfiction, and fiction genres outside the speculative, are outside my wheelhouse.

I’ll accept short-form or long-form fiction, within reasonable parameters. See below.

Rates

I charge based on word count, at a level that varies slightly based on project length. All prices are in US dollars.

Up to 1,000 words: Flat fee of $15.

Up to 10,000 words: 2.5 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 1,000.

10,001 to 40,000 words: 2 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 10,000.

40,001 to 100,000 words: 1.75 cents/word for every word beyond the initial 40,000.

Longer works may be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Rush Jobs

I cannot normally provide a guaranteed turnaround time, but if you absolutely must have your critique by a certain date, we can negotiate that for a slight up-charge.

Dragon Moon Press