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This was one of my favorite consultations I’ve done with Manuscript Academy. It is such a unique experience meeting with editors versus agents and being able to see how they view pages differently. Emma was very easy to talk to, she understood the vision I had for my opening pages, and offered great insight into how to tighten things up. The changes I’ve made since our meeting have helped a great deal in picking up the momentum of my first 10 pages. Overall, it was a very positive experience and I plan on booking another consultation with her in December for another book.
Liz C.
April 20, 2025
I had the opportunity to complete a 75 page review with Stephanie Stein. Meeting with a reputable editor in the industry was an amazing opportunity. I am very thankful for her feedback on improving pace, clarifying certain aspects of stakes and world-building, and refocusing the lens/direction of my opening pages. Ms. Stein also provided other recommendations of things I wouldn’t have even considered for character development and scene transitions that I will keep in mind for writing in general.
Liz C
April 20, 2025
Ivan was full of encouragement and thoughtful advice! He gave me the positive feedback and strategic pointers I needed to polish my story for submission. Grazie Ivan and Manuscript Academy!
Adrienne Baumann
April 20, 2025
Linda was curteous, professional, kind, and thoughtful, and as helpful as she could be while recognizing this is a subjective industry. It was clear she’d put time and thought into analyzing my piece (sadly, I’ve had agent chats before where that hasn’t been the case). Thank you!
Adam Jarvis
April 20, 2025
Thanks to Jessica and Julie for the wonderful community and resources that they’ve built at The Manuscript Academy!
After experiencing my first live Query and Pages Panel, I met with agent Alice Speilburg of Speilburg Literary Agency for a ten-minute in-person consultation. Alice was kind, approachable, and very generous with her time, providing me with thoughtful insights and actionable advice on my query. Taking this next step has motivated me to rework my query and get back to the trenches with more confidence. Thank you, Alice!
If you’re looking for first-class, accessible continuing education, community, and support as a writer, you’ve come to the right place!
Sue Dobson
April 20, 2025
Kelly was very helpful and kind! She gave me a lot of good advice for editing my query letter with a lot of practical tips that I can follow. Her advice was both specific to my letter and general for edits that I can make when fixing it. I’m feeling a lot more confident for my query letter and am very grateful for her help!
rebecca ierullo
April 20, 2025
Jessica was HUGELY helpful in working through my query and first ten pages. She was able to share clear insights into what was working and what could be strengthened in my query from an agent’s perspective. I so deeply appreciate her actionable advice and kind communication. I took notes on everything she said — and the day after our call, I submitted my revamped query package to a new round of agents. I received a submission request for my full manuscript within two hours! Great experience and, fingers crossed, great results already. Thanks, Jessica!
Sarah Goehrke
April 20, 2025
Anjennette was helpful in two things: 1) She did not have either negative comments nor corrections to my query letter, so that was a confidence booster. 2) She confirmed that my “auto-fiction” work reads like a novel and not autobiography, which is what I was looking for.
However, she did say two things that bothered me. 1) she seemed concerned that the first few pages of my first chapter were “too slow.” It is the first time I have heard that comment (I have had several readers), but coming from an agent it make me wonder if agents are thinking that readers do not have the patience to build a story but want to get right to the sound bites. Is there no longer a market for literature? (2) As to my title: JOHN CHRISTIAN: Warrior-Shaman, she seemed to say that the word “shaman” was too provocative and would not be received well by the reading public and, therefore, by publishers.
Basically, she seemed to indicate that both my query letter and the quality of my writing are good, but that my style and the subject matter that I have chosen to write about is problematic for the agents’ perceptions of the general reading publics collective tastes and cultural and scholastic literacy. I have read some pretty dumbed down stuff in both fiction and nonfiction, and if that is what agents are really looking for, I am not encouraged about the possibility of finding an agent for my book. Nonetheless, your own list of 72 agents possibly interested in my hybrid genre of auto-fiction/magical realism gives me a starting point to continue with queries in seeking publication.
I do not know Anjanette, so I can only take her as representative of the agenting profession in general. I did not receive much encouragement for the uniqueness of my work and, in fact, was left with the impression that agents are not really looking for unique and original works, even when they say that they are (that, of course, goes back on the mainstream publishers). Reading between the lines, my interview with Ms Barr gave me a lot of information about literary agents and the profession of representing writers. I guess the fact that it is not what I wanted to hear is probably irrelevant, unless I want to change my style and subject matter to something more generic and dumbed-down.
Robert Mitchell
April 20, 2025
Jessica was thorough, thoughtful and efficient with my 10 page, 15min consultation. I would definitely recommend her!
Felix Barber
April 20, 2025
I enjoyed my meeting with Vanessa and found her feedback on my query and first ten pages to be really insightful and encouraging. I’ve been workshopping my query and first chapters for quite some time and it was wonderful to hear that aside from a few tweaks (adding a few sentences with details for the reader) she thought the idea was fresh, the query well done, and the writing strong. This confirmed to me that this story is ready, unique, and marketable, and now I can wait with more confidence for the agent who will feel that special spark.
Michelle Sanchez
April 20, 2025
I’ve paid for services like this in the past, but always felt disappointed in the end. This time, we were able to discuss what the main issue was, and at least in the opinion of one agent, it wasn’t my writing. It was my query letter and perhaps my approach to agenting. So at least I can walk away and hone in on this point. So in this sense, I would recommend people check the services from Manuscript Academy out. Definitely helped me feel less crazy and deflated.
Colin Culbreth
April 20, 2025
My meeting with Alice went well. She is kind, encouraging, gives positive feedback on both my errors and what I’m doing well. I was also able to discuss a revision of chapters. Afterwards, I felt motivated to rewrite my query and revise my manuscript. Alice Speilburg is a 10 out of 10 in my book.
Carol Dean
April 20, 2025