Service · Manuscript Diagnostic

THE STUDIO · 1:1 BOOK COACHING

A sharp, strategic read on your book.

The truth about your draft, and a precise plan to get it where it’s going. Not months of back-and-forth.

Sometimes you don’t need someone to write the book for you. You need someone to read what you’ve got, tell you the truth, and hand you a map. That’s the Diagnostic. We read your whole manuscript twice, once for the story and once for the craft, then write you a proper editorial letter, mark up the pages, and build you a revision plan in the order that actually matters. Then we spend ninety minutes together on Zoom talking it through. Honest, specific, and kind, which is the only sort of feedback worth paying for.

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IDEAL FOR

Founders, experts, and businesses who need words with something behind them. White paper, article, feature, or full-length eBook, it comes out sounding like something only you could have written. The scholarship holds the argument up, and the storytelling makes people actually want to read it.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

Editorial letter. Six to eight pages: structure, theme, and a revision roadmap from draft to submission-ready.
In-line notes. Detailed direction marked right on the page, for your next draft.
90-minute consult. Your goals, your positioning, and the questions keeping you up. Recorded, so you can revisit it.
Revision roadmap. Prioritised: must-do, should-do, nice-to-have, in the order that actually moves the book.

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THE PROCESS

Step 1 – Intake Form

On booking you receive the Diagnostic Intake form: word count, genre, manuscript stage, the questions you want answered, and the upload link for your manuscript.

Step 2 – Reading & Analysis

We read your manuscript in full, twice. Once for story, once for craft: structure, pacing, voice, arc, prose, and the questions you flagged.

Step 3 – Editorial Letter

A six to eight page letter addressing the big-picture issues, your manuscript’s clearest strengths, and the revision priorities, in order.

Step 4 – In-Doc Comments & Roadmap

Detailed comments inside your manuscript on line-level issues, followed by a prioritised revision roadmap.

Step 5 – 90-Minute Consultation (Zoom)

We walk through the letter and the roadmap together. You ask everything you want to ask. We record the call so you can revisit it.

Step 6 – Delivery

Word doc with comments, the editorial letter, the revision roadmap, and the call recording. Two-week turnaround from manuscript receipt.

INVESTMENT

£1,250

Two-week turnaround. Paid in full on booking, which secures your reading slot.
Creditable in full toward any larger Scholar & Story service booked within 60 days.

▸ Book a diagnostic

ADD-ONS

Extended Consultation. An additional 90-minute session, £600.
Follow-Up Review. A second-pass review after revision, £900.

WILL MY VOICE COME THROUGH?

Yes. The briefing call is built around voice capture, and we’ll ask for two or three pieces of your existing writing. The first draft will read as you, only sharper. Full IP transfers to you on final payment, and you can credit Scholar & Story or not, your call.

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From Our Clients

“Working through this with Shelly really helps my brain process things. The way she works with me, it suddenly becomes, ‘this is it, this is it’, and you get a clarity you didn’t have, maybe for two decades. And it doesn’t just help the book; it helps my day-to-day life, because now I have the words for the things I carry. It’s given me confidence that even though my brain doesn’t work in a conventional way, there’s an order in the chaos. I want to keep going!”