A stand-alone course without additional editorial services. Fifty+ lessons over four phases at your own pace to revise your manuscript from top to bottom with brilliant logical insights to shake down the story. We'll consider your ambition, your genre, theme, your intentions for the story and you'll be guided how to prepare a brilliant pitch, or one-liner. You'll prepare a new chapter outline, and be guided on characterisation, motivation and narrative structure with our own Killer Plot Methodology. We'll drill down into the work sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word using our Lucid Compression ® Method. We'll show you how to prepare for submission to agents and publishers. The course includes guidance on choosing the right title, formatting your manuscript and a succinct but brilliant lesson on preparing the infamous synopsis. You'll have a manuscript in fine shape ready to share with the best beta-readers at our members-only workshop in our community. 

As a member, you'll enjoy the company of our worldwide novelists' group with weekly writing classes and guest author and literary agent sessions. You'll make valuable contacts and connections within the publishing industry and become a savvy writer ready to become a published author. Your career starts here.

With guidance and feedback from our Editorial Team. Includes submission to literary agents when your manuscript is ready.

After you complete the first phase of the editing course you'll enjoy a 45-minute session with an editor to ensure your story plan is hitting the beats and meets the requirements of prospective readers and publishers. Don't waste time revising your novel in the wrong direction! Get this wise industry professional intervention at the outset. Our entire team of editors and authors will be keeping an eye on you and your story and steering you towards success. You'll be able to join genre-specific groups and join monthly workshops where you'll have the opportunity to read from your work live and online if you'd like. Then, when you have edited your book using the course and feedback from our member writers, our Editorial Team will review and report in-depth on your first three chapters or first 50 pages, your synopsis and proposed pitch. They will work forensically, with a canny eye on the publishing market to shape your submission for success. If there are problems, we'll show you how to fix them. If you're in good shape, we'll make a plan with you for submission to the literary agents you've had your eye on and we'll recommend agents eager to see your work. When we submit, we hear back from literary agents within two weeks. But it doesn't end there. We're here to give our members good career advice as published authors and publishing professionals. Don't leave your novel's success to chance.

Best suited to our novel course graduates. If you have not completed a first draft of your novel or are at all uncertain about it, sign up for our Novel Development plan here. (Most of those taking the Novel Course come to that course with a first draft in uncertain shape, ready to raise their writing game.)

A professional editor from our team will read your opening chapters (up to 5,000 words) and optionally if you wish, your chapter outlines or synopsis (up to 5,000 words) to provide a thorough and insightful report with detailed guidance to take you into your next revision. 

You’ve been working on your second draft for several weeks or months, improving your character arcs and the overall structure, adding important details and trimming irrelevant information, and polishing your prose. And you think that your manuscript is starting to really take shape. So where do you go from here? How do you work out where your writing weaknesses are, particularly those difficult ones that exist in blind spots? And, equally important, how do you identify the areas where you’re excelling? If you’re brilliant at creating an immediate and engaging setting, it would be good to know, so that you can do more of this. If dialogue is a real strength, you’d like to make the most of that skill.

One of our editors will work on your first chapters, marking up the manuscript with notes on excellent language, brilliant images, fantastic introductions to characters – as well as areas that could be improved. The feedback will be detailed and insightful, and – more importantly – will be applicable not only to these chapters but to the entire manuscript. We’ll also go through your chapter outlines in detail, looking at the overall narrative arc – to include character development and the key plot points – and make sure it feels satisfying and engaging throughout. You’ll receive a beautifully presented and detailed report with a clear action plan for completing the next draft of your novel and a 30-minute video debrief with your editor so that you ask those niggling questions.

Your opportunity to get expert editorial feedback on your writing that spotlights the things that are working well and those that could be improved before you tackle the really detailed work of the next edit.

A complete assessment of your novel or memoir to shine a light on what's working and what can be improved for submission to publishers and agents. A chance for you to understand the opportunity your book has ahead of it and to work to improve your chances of commercial success and literary acclaim. Our Editorial Team will work on your story taking a helicopter view of the publishing market and your book's potential within it to propose the perfect pitch. You'll brief us on your ambition in the cover letter of the online upload form. The Editorial Team will work on your manuscript to check the text delivers its promise, highlighting areas for development and amplification. You'll enjoy a video debrief with your editor and a full detailed report with an action plan for next steps. If it's ready to roll, we'll make a plan for submission to literary agents. You'll receive a 'Director's Cut' of your first chapter to show you a fresh approach to your writing, which may enable you to find your voice and your signature style. Our radical and energising approach to your novel is not only guided by publishing experience, but it's creative too with practical help from our bestselling and award-winning authors. That's what makes this the ultimate manuscript assessment. Read more about it here.

A series of lessons to kick-start your editing journey, with guides to formatting, genre and becoming your own reader.

These lessons will encourage you to interrogate your first draft, thinking about the hook, the theme and the midpoint in the first instance and then about the function of each chapter, character and plot beat.

This is your opportunity to dive back into your manuscript, reworking your first sentences and chapters so they stand out, and creating enough tension and momentum to keep your reader engaged for hundreds of pages.

This section will prepare you to submit your manuscript to literary agents, with lessons on pitch, story and the wider market.

A video call with a professional editor to discuss your story structure, including the pitch, midpoint and overall narrative arc.

A video call with a professional editor to discuss your pitch letter, synopsis and first three chapters, as well as an editorial report and feedback marked on your manuscript.

You can schedule your editorial sessions at your convenience. We work across all time zones. All 45-minute editorial calls are recorded and yours to keep.

We anticipate the course will take between three and nine months to complete, but you will have access to all four phases and can book your editor calls across a one-year period. There are also affordable options to extend your access to the course and rollover any unused calls, so you can get on with writing without the worry.

Join our friendly community of fellow writers at our private writing group, with weekly Story Clinics and team chats, plus enjoy access to all our live events including Zoom Q&As with bestselling guest authors and literary agents.

This is a flexible writing course you can take at your own pace around your other commitments. But we fully understand that sometimes, life can get in the way – so if you need more time, you can extend your course and roll over your tutor calls with our affordable extension plans. So you can get on with the writing without worry.  You have as much time as you need. 

A notebook, a pen and a computer with a decent internet connection for the online lessons. That’s it. Our bespoke online learning platform is easy to use, even for the less tech-savvy among us! The best gift you can give yourself is time, so relax and enjoy your writing. 

No! If and when we submit your work on your behalf to literary agents, it will be with your prior agreement and approval. Unlike most other literary consultancies who take a 10% commission on your publishing contract, we would not dream of it. Please check the small print at other companies.

_{Our courses are suitable for people with visual or auditory impairment, dyslexia and for those with English as a second language.} 

_{Our content can be translated into many languages at the click of a button. Find out more here.}

_{We operate a 'people before profit' policy as a way of maintaining a happy and supportive community for all of our writers. You'll find The Novelry a safe place. See our terms and conditions here.} 

_{Happy Writing Guarantee. We offer a 7-day refund policy on all courses.}