Reader's report story
About us
Nick, 34, a banker in the City of London, always ‘thought he had a thriller in him’. An avid reader of John le Carre and Len Deighton in his youth, he had long been tempted to try his hand at writing.
Since he and his wife Susan had moved to Oxfordshire, the daily commute had provided the time and opportunity, and he had embarked on a novel, using his laptop to write on the train. He found the task totally engrossing.
Somehow the journey vanished and he was always surprised to find he was at Paddington Station or back home in the evenings, just in time to say goodnight to his six-year-old twins Eleanor and Matthew.
Using his banking knowledge, Nick had produced a complicated story of the Russian mafia and money-laundering through an old-established City bank. He’d even written in a minor Royal in a correspondingly minor part and a cameo appearance by a well-known discredited politician. The main character was a bit like Nick, but just an ordinary banker, caught up in a spiral of violence.
Susan thought it was terrific. Nick's father, a retired naval officer living in Hampshire, liked it very much. But Nick had his doubts.
- Was the plot too hackneyed?
- Had he created believable characters?
- Was there a bit in the middle which wasn't quite right?
- He’d heard that it was incredibly difficult to get published. Was it worth even trying?
- Above all, how could he find out if he could really write or not?
A WritersServices Reader’s Report would provide Nick with the professional input he needs. It would help him to get a sense of the quality of his writing and its commercial potential from a professional publisher’s reader.
The Reader’s Report would comment on style, content, plot and characters, and would give an indication of how likely it was that Nick would find a publisher. He would benefit from a professional appraisal but also from the reader’s inside knowledge of publishing. Nick would then be able to decide whether to do some more work on the manuscript (perhaps with WritersServices' help) or to start submitting it.
