A book advisory service can make or break you. Don't let it become the latter.

A Day in the Life of... 

Louise Wise

March 8th 1999 was the day I BECAME an author.

I'd been writing a long time before that, but that was the defining moment in my head and where I received the most horrendous review on my precious novel. I'd sent it for analyst to a well-known (shall remain nameless because I'm still scared of them) book advisory service.

I paid my money (over £400) and waited for them to fall over themselves in recommending me to agents and publishers (we're dreamers, us authors).

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Four months later, I received my ms back (in those days it was all done via the old fashion postal service) and I opened the brown package with eager fingers. The smell hit me first: cigarettes. But I wasn't deterred. I sat down with my smelly ms to read the advisory's review, digest their suggestions and to feel warmed by their encouragement.

What I got was wriggly red lines underlining sentences, red circles around paragraphs and lots of exclamations or question marks in the margin. There was no explanation to these marks, but there was a one-paged mockery analyst of my work. It was handwritten with very bad handwriting at that.

Of course, I was devastated, and my husband suggested I not contact the advisory until I calmed down. But name me a woman who listens to her husband! Oi, put your hand down, you.

The advisory was blunt, unapologetic: "Welcome to the writing world, dahling, this is what it's like, get used to it." They blamed the smell of the ms on the 'cheap' (their words) ink I'd used, and said the wriggly lines and circles should be self-explanatory. 

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They offered to take the ms back and re examine it 'providing I pay the postage costs'. But I was so shocked and demoralized by their attitude I declined. 

The report could have broken me. It was more than harsh, it was nasty. In hindsight, I think I was sent the note version of the analyst although this was never admitted. But you know what, that day something clicked in my head and my backbone strengthened.

I put the ms aside and began another book. This time though, I used another advisory service: Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. This book wasn't ready either, but the service was encouraging, patient and most of all, a learning experience.

The moral? 

There are some nasty people out there. Be strong.

Louise Wise has written two comedy romances, two science fiction novels, a collection of short stories and a non-fiction novella.