Mill City Press Editorial Critique: Giving Your Manuscript an In-Depth Review

Mill City Press is excited to offer our authors multiple ways to review manuscripts published with us. While we provide a Manuscript Review—a short yet detailed work of feedback that offers authors a handful of strengths and suggested areas of improvement—there is a way to give your manuscript an even more in-depth review. For authors desiring a deeper look into their manuscript and even more recommendations, we present to you the Editorial Critique.

While the word “critique” can sound rather daunting when you’ve handed us your work, there is no need to be anxious, as the Editorial Critique is far more constructive than you may be imagining. In this service, you will receive a detailed review of your entire manuscript, which includes considerable commenting in the following areas:

• Personalized cover letter from the editor
• Extensive comments on the following focuses:
  • Grammar, Punctuation, and Formatting
  • Narrative, Flow, and Content
  • Sources and Citations (non-fiction)
• Suggested Genres
• Suggested Editorial Service + 1,000-word Sample Edit

Now, let’s dive further into what the Editorial Critique entails!

Grammar, Punctuation, and Formatting

In this first section of the critique, the editor will include grammatical and stylistic recommendations for your book, which could include anything from proper punctuation and capitalization usage to how best to separate paragraphs. All grammatical and stylistic recommendations made in the critique come from the Chicago Manual of Style, the style guide of choice for Mill City Press.

Narrative, Flow, and Content

This next part will include suggestions as well as inspiring comments concerning how well your manuscript reads. The editor’s comments might include anything from how smoothly chapters flow from one to the other, how well your narrative stays on track with your book’s subject matter, the dialogue usage between characters if your book is a fiction piece, how well the plot of the story (fiction) or subject matter (nonfiction) is paced, development of characters, and more.

Sources and Citations

Here, the editor provides insight for authors who have written nonfiction works that reference or quote outside sources. As a helpful note, for any author who quotes or references any books, articles, websites, sermons, or other sources outside of their manuscript, citations are necessary to not only give credit where credit is due, but also to help avoid any potential permission issues that could arise upon publication. In the critique, an editor will help point out any references or quotes that need or may need a citation while also offering help on how best to craft their citations per the Chicago Manual of Style.

Suggested Genres

Now, the fun part—finding where your book fits in the bookstore! This section will help you sort your book by genres so your target audience can better find it both in physical stores and online. In the Editorial Critique, at least three genres are recommended for each manuscript.

Suggested Editorial Service + 1,000-word Sample Edit

Finally, the Editorial Critique will conclude with a recommendation on the level of editing that your editor believes would work best for your manuscript. The editor will then demonstrate the suggested form of editing through a 1,000-word sample edit taken directly from your manuscript. As a helpful note, the 1,000 words chosen by the editor is the only part of the manuscript edited for the Editorial Critique. The entire manuscript will not be edited through this service, as there are separate services for complete edits.

TL;DR

No two Editorial Critiques are alike, as they are personalized for each author’s unique manuscript. Editorial Critiques can be completed for both fiction and nonfiction works (no poetry). A manuscript must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document. Let’s take your book to the next level with the Editorial Critique!

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