Samantha Tidy: Australian Writer and Reader

Storytorch Consulting - Writers' Services

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say,
but what we are unable to say. Anaïs Nin

Fees/Service Overview (more details below)

Quick-Read Chapter Service.................$50
Manuscript Assessment.......................$350 - $500
Second MSS Assessment.....................$300
Publisher Proposal...............................$175 - $250
Full Manuscript Edit..............................$450 - $700
Writer's Block Unblocking.....................$150 - $250

Samantha Tidy is an award-winning writer, with years of experience editing manuscripts for other authors. She's worked with published authors, early career writers, and project managed publications for self-publishers (such as helping a ninety three year old war veteran self-publish her first book - a memoir).

With a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from one of Australia's most respected writing courses at RMIT University, and her own successful writing credentials, Samantha has the industry knowledge and astute talent for editing, refining and crafting a novel to it's full potential.

Most importantly, she has a keen eye for a good story and knows what it is publishers are looking for. She can help you refine the path that a novel needs to take should you be seeking a commercial publisher.

Below are the range of Author Services available Australia-wide from Storytorch Consulting. Please use the contact form to make enquiries or email Sam at storytorch(at)gmail dot com. All services include either a coffee and a chat in person if you are local to Canberra (or in another city that Samantha visits on occasion such as Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) or a phone chat/Skype session to go through the resulting report (you'll have to make your own coffee).

Quick-Read Chapter Assessment Service

Not ready to pay for a full manuscript assessment? Want to know that you are on the right track? Worried about one chapter and whether it's working in the context of your whole novel? Samantha can read one chapter (or up to 15 A4 double spaced pages in size 12) for $50 and write a micro-assessment to help make sure you are spending your valuable writing time on the right path. Two day turn around promise, and you'll get $50 off a full manuscript assessment come time that you are ready for the whole novel to be read.

Manuscript Assessment

A manuscript assessment is a vital tool that an author needs before approaching an agent or publisher. It gives the author the opportunity to have an experienced professional read your manuscript and outline it's strengths and weaknesses.

You'll receive a detailed 4 - 10 page report on your manuscript, outlining the merits of the work, an analysis of what a reader would perceive are the themes and concerns of the novel (you'd be surprised at how valuable that is - it often tells you if you've written the novel you had in your head or something else entirely), an analysis of the structure and any improvements that can be made, character study and any character development that is required (and suggestions), the marketability of your novel, and publisher/agent suggestions.

Should you, after receiving a manuscript assessment and undertaking the editing suggestions therein, wish to have a second assessment done, you can do so at a discounted rate. This second report is often very valuable as an inclusion to a publishing proposal.

Up to 40,000 words, $350
Up to 60,000 words, $400
Up to 80,000 words, $450
Up to 100,000 words, $500
Over 100,000 words: please enquire
Resubmission after initial assessment, $300

Preparation of a Publishing Proposal (fiction or non-fiction)

When you are approaching an agent or publisher, it's important to a) supply exactly what they are asking for and b) know how to write the best possible pitch you can muster. Samantha can write one for you, or edit what you've already got.

Full proposal composition, $250
Editing and guidance on your proposal, $175

Full Editing of a Manuscript

This is a thorough service, going into much more detail that a manuscript assessment, and offering the author a comprehensive clean-up and itemised edit of their novel. Samantha offers suggestions in the side column of improvements to phrases, paragraphs and chapters, and copy-editing where appropriate (though proofreading is not the focus of this edit). A valuable tool if you have finished a first draft, and want to know where to take it next in your own editing, or to get an understanding of how much work is still needed. Includes a free manuscript assessment.

Up to 40,000 words, $450
Up to 60,000 words, $550
Up to 80,000 words, $650
Up to 100,000 words, $700

Writer's Block Release Session

So you've got a bad case of "I don't know what happens next", or "I just can't get this plot line to twist in the direction I need it." Samantha can help with all sorts of writer's block. Using some of her own structural diagrams and methods, she can throw a line to pull you out of that slump that all writers have been through.

$250 per session (90 minutes, includes a basic read through of up to 20,000 words of your manuscript).
$150 per follow up session (90 minutes, includes reading your resulting work)

Tips for Writers

Here are just a few hints that help the writing and publishing process find an easier path:

Enter as many competitions as you can.
If you've not published anything before and you are seeking to pitch your first novel/story, see hint number one. It's the best way to have something on your writing CV, even if it's a poem in a council competition. It shows that someone else thinks you can write, besides yourself.
Never approach a publisher or agent, unless you've had a manuscript assessment (yes, that might sound like self-promotion, but feel free to use any of the manuscript assessors available to you in Australia).
Write every day, even if it's a sentence, an observation, or a chapter. Writers are called writers for a reason.
Never approach more than one publisher at the same time, without telling those publishers in your cover letter. It's an industry ettiquette thing.
Be aware of a few dogdy outfits out there, and Sam can tell you exactly who they are. First clue is if they are asking for money to publish your novel, or say that they will represent you to publishers without reading your novel (ie: people who advertise this service). Worse still, avoid people who charge a reading fee (ie. their business income is not generated by finding the best authors, it's by taxing the foolish ones).
Edit, edit, edit, edit, edit.
If you haven't mastered Engilsh grammar, use spellchecker, a grammatically-astute friend, or a proofreader service, before you even go near an agent, publisher, award or competition.
Don't ever send your manuscript to a gazillion publishers in the hopes that one of them 'discovers' you. This is not how it's done.
Be patient. There's a reason you have to wait three months for an agent or publisher to get back to you. When you do contact them after those three months are up, be polite, and be prepared to wait another three months.