Esperance Creative

Reading Services

At Esperance Creative we’re not professional editors—developmental, line, or copy—but what we are is readers. Sometimes you need some help at the beginning of the project, right after you finish the draft to get initial feedback. That’s where beta reading comes in. Sometimes you need some help at the end of the project, after the editors have done their work, when you need fresh eyes to look for typos and spacing issues and inconsistencies with the spelling of character names, etc. etc. etc. That’s where proofreading comes in. Wherever you are on the spectrum, we can help. And if you’re in the middle—if you need help addressing more advanced structural and content issues or more in-depth line editing—while we’re not professionally trained editors, we have trusted editors to whom we can refer you .

Genres Supported

Fiction:

  • Book club

  • Children’s/MG/YA*

  • Commercial

  • Contemporary

  • Family saga

  • Historical

  • Mystery

  • Romance

  • Thriller/suspense

  • Women’s fiction

  • Upmarket

Genres offered (non-fiction):

  • Memoir

I am not the best writer for most non-fiction (besides memoir), fantasy, gothic, horror, literary, poetry, religious, sci-fi, speculative, anything with highly socially conservative themes, or anything involving actual or possible harm or danger to a child where the child is not ultimately okay.

*Please note: though an avid reader of children’s books for many years and open to beta or proofreading for these genres, I do not at this time have any direct experience in these genres. Please contact me to discuss your project before submitting the form below.

Beta Reading

In my experience the best beta readers are people you know. Typically other writers, sometimes your ideal reader. As long as you’re clear about wanting honesty and not admiration, these people can give you the best feedback because they know YOU and they’re invested in your success. If you have someone like this in your life, please ask them, not me. It will be more useful and will use your financial resources for other things.

But what if you don’t know anyone like this, or you’re not ready to share such intimate work with someone you know, or you already have but feel like you need one more opinion? In that case a paid beta reader can be a great first step. They can give you the initial feedback on things like point of view, structure, pacing, characters, overall story arc, and general readability. They can also answer specific questions you may have about your story and whether something is working.

To be clear: this is not a professional edit, though we have trusted editors we can refer you to. This is just a first phase, but a crucial one, and I’d be honored to support you.

Proofreading

This is the final step in the editing process, and it happens after everything else, when your brain leaps over the words when you read them because it just remembers, when you love your work but might also be nearing a point of being very very tired of it. Proofreading is for when you need fresh eyes, when you need someone to catch the last few things you missed, because our brains simply can’t see everything. This type of read is focused on finding typos, and more minor errors in the areas of grammar, punctuation, spelling, and formatting. Proofreading is often the final step before publishing or querying.

Other

Other services include:

  • Read two manuscripts and assess which has more viability.

  • Pitch prep: manuscript review and extraction of key points and best angle for querying, pitching, or publishing.

Please contact us for pricing for these services.

Pricing

Beta Reading

  • Story setup package: query and/or synopsis, and first fifty pages: $150

    • What you’ll get: inline comments on supporting documents; in-line comments plus a summary of high level notes on manuscript pages

  • Full manuscript read: $400 for manuscripts up to 80,000 words, $25 for each additional 5,000 words above 80,000, rounded to the next 5,000 words (e.g. 83,000 words would be priced as 85,000 words, or $425)

    • What you’ll get: a one-to-two page summary of high level issues (a view of the forest), plus inline comments on the full manuscript (a view of opportunities specifically at the tree level).

Proofreading

  • $250 for full manuscripts up to 80,000 words, $25 for each additional 5,000 words above 80,000.

Ready to get started?

Once I receive your information you’ll receive further instructions for things to send via email, and I’ll send over a contract for your signature.

“If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.”
— Émile Zola