Review & Appraisal Service

If you you would like a piece of your writing reviewed by one of our experienced, professional tutors, we can do this for you. We will review:

• short stories
• articles
• radio and TV scripts
• stage plays
• all fiction and non-fiction books, including outlines and synopses
• poetry

How To Send Your Manuscript

Fees

Meet The Tutors

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How To Send Your Manuscript

With each manuscript state clearly the market this is intended for. If it has been written without a specific market in mind, please say so.  Make sure you give a word count. We aim to return work within 14-21 days, but it might take longer for novel-length material, if our tutors are to go through it and comment in the detail we require.

If you send your manuscript by post it must be typed, using double spacing (except in the case of poems) with sufficient margins for the tutor to write in if required.  We cannot accept hand-written manuscripts.  Please use one side of the paper only and we prefer a 12pt type size. Please print off the form we have provided below and attach it to your manuscript with a cheque, cash or postal orders for the appropriate amount.  Alternatively you can fill in details of your credit card. The form and your work should be sent to:

Review and Appraisal Service, The Writers Bureau, Sevendale House, 7 Dale Street, Manchester, M1 1JB.

We will do our best to take care of your manuscript but we cannot be held responsible for material lost in transit – so please keep a copy of everything you send to us.

If you would like to send you manuscript by email please contact us first for a quote and to arrange payment at randa@writersbureau.com. You must still use double line spacing. Save the work in a single attachment, using Rich Text Format.  Then attach it to a brief email providing the details outlined above.  Make sure you include your name and put 'Review and Appraisal' in the subject line.  Send it to: randa@writersbureau.com

Note:   We can only accept manuscripts up to 10,000 words by email.  All longer manuscripts must be sent by post with a cheque or credit card details.  This is because our tutors do not feel that they can give longer pieces of work their full attention on screen.

Fees

• Stories, articles, book outlines/synopses and scripts up to 2000 words:  £30
• Poems - any number up to 120 lines:  £30
• Manuscripts up to 10,000 words (long short stories, novellas or synopsis and first chapters of a book):  £65
• Manuscripts up to 70,000 words:  £250
• Manuscripts over 70,000 words but under 100,000 words:  £320
• For manuscripts over 100,000 words, please contact us for a quote.

Important:  If you require any further information or advice please contact us on randa@writersbureau.com or phone us on 0161 228 2362 or write to the address shown above.

Meet The Tutors

Heather Cooke holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, and is a member of the Society of Authors, the Writers'Guild, the Romantic Novelists' Association and the Institute of Public Relations. Heather became a full time writer in 1989 and since then has regularly contributed both features and fiction to a wide variety of magazines.  She is the author of four published romantic novels, a children's novel and three writing manuals.

Sue Wilkes has a Physics degree from Oxford and a Diploma in Technical Science in Solid State Electronics from UMIST.  She now specialises in non-fiction writing and has been published in magazines in the UK and USA.  Her main interests are literary and historical topics: titles such as The Lady, The Countryman, My Weekly, Woman's Weekly and Best of British are just a few of the wide variety of magazines which have published her work. She is a regular contributor to BBC History magazine and has also broadcast on local radio.

Margot Raneri originally trained as a teacher and taught for three years before becoming a full-time freelance writer in the 1970s. Her interests are wide, including articles, teenage fiction and stories for children.  She also writes feature articles and a weekly column for her local newspaper.  With over 15 years experience as a correspondence tturo in creative writing she firmly believes that self-confidence and dedication are essential qualities in a would-be writer.

Alison Chisholm has had hundreds of poems published in various magazines, anthologies and collections.  She is poetry consultant to BBC Radio Merseyside and has led courses at The Writers' Summer School in Derbyshire and The Writers' Holiday, Caerleon. In addition to being a regular competition adjudicator she has received major competition awards herself.  She is a regular contributor to the poetry columns in Writers News and Springboard magazines.  Three of her books on  writing poetry are included in the Allison and Busby Writers' Guides series.  She has also co-written the books  How to Write About Yourself and Writing Competitions – The Way to Win.

Lesley Cryer is the author of fifteen contemporary novels, two period novels and a humorous book.  Lesley has also written for children's TV and BBC.  She has been a regular contributor of short stories and features to national publications and worked for a time as an editor and writer on several company magazines. Her other experience includes producing scripts on a wide variety of subjects for independent film and video production companies.

Clare O'Brien has worked as a freelance writer and journalist since 1991.  She writes on a wide range of general interest and women's topics and specialises in arts, lifetyle. food & drink, consumer health and business. Her non-fiction book, Living and Working in London, appeared in 1999 and she has published many short stories and poems.  She is currently working on her first novel, The Waiting Room. Clare also teaches adults via distance learning and runs writing workshops in her local area.

Stephanie Baudet is a freelance writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and has had work published in the following fields: articles and short stories for both adults and children, storybooks, historical novels, books for reluctant readers, assembly books and educational books. She visits schools, runs adult workshops, works as a reader assessing mss and teaches creative writing by correspondence and online.  She also reviews books for Armadillo magazine, regularly does proof-reading work and occasionally copy-editing.

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