House Rules

1. We may exchange a few emails after I send you my feedback.

Notice I said a 'few' email exchanges. This is normal and I won't charge you for my time. BUT, if you get carried away and keep sending emails about the same submission, I may call a halt. After all, my time is valuable.

2. You may resubmit a section of your novel for feedback after you revise it, but it will count as a new submission with a new fee.

This is especially true for the highly important opening scene. And when you are done with the whole story, you may wish to resubmit the opening scene for that final polish to get an agent's or editor's attention.

3. You must improve your writing and it must show in future submissions.

When you agree with my suggestions, I would expect you to change your next submissions before you send them to reflect that you've learned a valuable lesson or lessons.

You are in the driver's seat on this. If you don't agree with my feedback, that's your choice and I won't complain. But let me know what you are firm on.

Please, don't be one of those writers who are too lazy to revise future submissions. And if you try to "slam dunk" all your chapters through me and then sit down and edit them, you will find yourself without the benefit of my services.

I enjoy most working with writers who are serious about improving their writing.

I suggest you keep a list of words or phrases to avoid, punctuation to correct, and improvements to make, such as cutting words, adding more description, fixing speech tags, adding more emotion, etc. Then before you send a new submission, use your list to see if you have overlooked the same mistakes you made earlier.

4. After your first submission, I will accept submissions of more than 10,000 words.

And if you want to send in a much larger submission (such as 30,000 or more words at one time), contact me and we'll discuss it.

5. I will keep your story ideas confidential.

I realize you value your creativity and may be concerned that someone will steal your ideas. As a writer myself, I understand fully. I pledge confidentiality to you as my client and will not share information about your story without your permission.

6. Naturally, you own the copyright to your material, no matter how many changes I suggest.